We present below the selected judges and guests of the European Betta Contest

Michiel van Bemmel started breeding bettas when he was 12. He has started with guppies from his grandfather at 10, then moved to bettas two years later. Located by Den Haag in the Netherlands, Michiel raises and shows bettas with his family under the name Fishful Thinking. He is one of the organisers of the Holland Betta Show and has been involved in the show running since 2010. Michiel became a certified Bettas4All Judge in 2019.

Michiel will be part of the judging team at the Italian Betta Show 2023

In March 2003, Joep van Esch (PhD) bred his first pair of Betta splendens (longfin, superdelta). What started with a few small aquariums in his small studentroom quickly expanded to a custom build shed especially for Bettas. Although he initially started with longfinned fish, his breeding program has been fully dedicated to halfmoon plakat (HMPK) since 2005. His experience with breeding show budgerigars and his background in biology & research has been proven to be very useful here.
His website (www.bettaterritory.nl) was created to share the knowledge and experiences. Besides general information on the various color and finnage varieties and breeding these beautiful fish you can also find several articles on genetics, how to create your own line and >300 detailed spawn-logs of all spawns performed in my “Betta Territory” since 2003.
Joep is one of the founders of the Bettas4all Community (2004), the Bettas4all Standard© (2010) and together with the Bettas4all Team he annually organizes the Holland Betta Show (2010-2023). 
Joep is proud to be part of the judging team at the Italian Betta Show 2023.

I first started breeding bettas in 2008 in Australia (my home country), before moving to Europe (Prague, Czech Republic) in 2009. I attended my first show in Europe in Bratislava in October 2009, before attending an EHBBC show in January 2010 in Hanover, Germany. I started showing fish shortly after that, showing at the first Holland Betta Show in 2010, and not long after started judging with the Bettas4all team, before becoming an official judge. I became an IBC judge in 2015 and have represented both organisations as a judge at many shows all over Europe. I am thrilled to be coming back to Italy to judge at another B4A show.