Two Asia gaming veterans join HOT100 panel

• Michael Charlton and David Carruthers join the Friday 10:45 “Ask Me Anything” panel at HOT100 Vietnam 2026.
• The retreat runs 25–28 November at an undisclosed five-star resort, hosting 100 invited executives split evenly buy-side and sell-side.
• A third panel seat remains unannounced, with Winna Media set to name the guest closer to the event.

Winna Media has confirmed Michael Charlton and David Carruthers as panellists for the Friday “Ask Me Anything” session at HOT100 Vietnam 2026, running 25–28 November at an undisclosed five-star resort.

The invitation-only retreat brings together 100 senior gaming executives, split evenly between buy-side and sell-side attendees, for four days of networking, golf and business sessions.

Two Asia veterans confirmed

Charlton spent more than three decades building betting, gaming and lottery businesses across the Asia-Pacific region. He founded Ladbrokes’ first Asia office before leading Entain’s Asia-Pacific growth strategy for over a decade, a role that put him at the table with ministers across some of the region’s toughest regulatory markets.

He is now based in Cambodia, working as an independent strategic advisor. Winna Media positions his outlook as shaped as much by boardroom negotiations as by the day-to-day realities of running gaming businesses on the ground in the region.

Carruthers, Principal and CEO of David Carruthers Consulting, joins him on the panel. His career spans executive leadership, entrepreneurship and strategic advisory work, and Winna Media has pitched the session around his reputation for direct, transformation-focused commentary on complex global business challenges.

A seat still up for grabs

A third seat on the panel remains open. Winna Media says the identity of that guest will be revealed closer to the event.

HOT100 Vietnam 2026 marks the fourth edition of Winna Media’s executive retreat series, following prior gatherings in Vietnam and Thailand in 2024 and 2025. The format skips the conventional conference trappings entirely: there are no exhibition halls or keynote stages, and the four days themselves function as the networking programme, built around golf, dinners and roundtables.

Vietnam hosted the first HOT100 in 2024 at the Hoiana Golf & Resort, and Winna Media has pointed to the country’s shifting gaming regulation and growing investor interest as the reason for returning there for the 2026 edition.

Tickets cover transfers, three nights’ accommodation and all meals, drinks and activities, though flights are excluded. Sponsorship slots on the Friday business-day agenda are still available, with Winna Media inviting enquiries as the schedule fills out.

Betting on the room, not the badge

The panel names give a first real signal of who Winna Media wants driving the conversation this year, and both picks lean toward operators who have actually built businesses in the region rather than commentators watching from outside it.

For anyone weighing HOT100 against the wider Southeast Asian events calendar, the AMA lineup brings together experienced veterans with deep understanding of the regional market.