Golden Whale appoints Marcel Wasserer as Chief Scientific Officer

The reinforcement learning specialist who has advised Golden Whale since January 2025 is moving from consultant to a seat in its C-suite.

Golden Whale, which builds machine learning tools that steer iGaming operators’ bonus and player engagement decisions, has appointed Marcel Wasserer as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), the company said on 10 November.

From AI consultant to CSO

Wasserer has worked with Golden Whale in an AI consultancy role since January 2025. The company describes him as a reinforcement learning expert who has taken AI from research into production across several sectors, with more than a decade of game development experience.

Reinforcement learning trains a model through trial and reward rather than on labelled examples, which suits repeated choices such as which incentive to offer a player, and when.

Golden Whale’s current platform is built around FOUNDATION, a real-time data and machine learning layer that connects to an operator’s existing systems, and BONUS PILOT, which runs on it to make incentive and bonus decisions.

enliteAI, Detekt and Greentube

In 2017, Wasserer co-founded enliteAI, a Vienna-based venture studio that builds AI products in reinforcement learning and computer vision. Its road analytics spin-off Detekt was acquired by geospatial data company Cyclomedia in August 2025. Founded by enliteAI in 2023, Detekt uses AI to identify and classify road defects, markings and other infrastructure assets from mobile mapping data.

Earlier in his career, he was a Senior Software Engineer and Technical Lead at Greentube, Novomatic’s online gaming arm. Golden Whale itself signed a data-driven partnership with Greentube in 2023.

What Golden Whale says about the hire

Eberhard Dürrschmid, CEO of Golden Whale, said the appointment signals the increasing depth of the company’s work and its commitment to theoretical excellence.

‘Having worked closely with Marcel in different capacities, we have experienced first-hand the kind of valuable insights he brings. His deep expertise across both AI and game development makes him the perfect fit.’

Dürrschmid added that the hire comes as Golden Whale works to strengthen its position as a decision intelligence provider across the iGaming industry.

Wasserer said he was delighted to take on the role after working closely with the team for 21 months.

‘The company continues to build momentum in the iGaming space, and I look forward to becoming a deeper part of that journey and helping shape its next stages.’

AI expertise moves in-house

In June, Golden Whale’s Thomas Kolbabek told EG that its AI models ‘must play to win’ when they make engagement decisions for operators.

Demand for AI specialists in iGaming is not limited to suppliers. In September, consultancy CreateFuture appointed Bennett and Wright to expand its iGaming AI practice.

About Golden Whale

Golden Whale Productions provides data-driven services and machine learning technology to the gaming industry. Its tools integrate with existing gaming systems or act as new building blocks, helping gaming companies with complex decisions and continuous optimisation by turning CRM, personalisation, gamification and game components into learning systems.

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