Category: Industry News

Evolution Q3 Revenue Returns to Growth at €526.1m
Evolution AB has returned to year-on-year revenue growth, reporting net revenues of €526.1 million for the third quarter of 2026, up 3.7% on the prior year, even as the live casino supplier closed its Brazilian studio following the country’s abrupt gambling ban. The result marks the group’s first growth in five quarters, though chief executive Martin Carlesund described the period as deliberately uneventful.
The headline figures show a business holding its margins steady while absorbing a significant regulatory shock in one of its growth markets, a combination that will interest both suppliers and operators tracking Latin America’s shifting rules.
What happened
Evolution
reported net revenues rising 3.7% year-on-year to EUR 526.1 million, as the B2B live casino and RNG supplier recorded growth across all of its operating regions for the first time since 2024
.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased 2.7% to EUR 345.9 million, representing a margin of 65.8%, down slightly from 66.4% a year earlier
.
Profit told a slightly different story.
Evolution’s Q3 profits experienced a slight decrease, falling to EUR 243.3 million versus EUR 252.3 million in the prior-year period, though earnings per share improved to EUR 1.31 versus EUR 1.25
. The gap was driven by one-off items:
adjustments included the UK Gambling Commission settlement of EUR 5.6 million and the Galaxy Gaming termination fee of EUR 6.5 million
.
Regional performance diverged sharply.
The strongest momentum came from North America and Latin America, both of which posted record revenues, with North America rising 13.6% from a year earlier and Latin America climbing 23.1%, while Africa delivered 23.7% growth. Europe, by contrast, declined 4.7% year on year
. By product line,
Evolution’s live casino revenue rose by 2.6%, while RNG revenue climbed by 10.1%
.
The quarter’s most consequential development came after the reporting period closed.
Brazil’s ban on fixed-odds betting and online casino games was signed on 25 September, licensed sites went offline from 6 October, and Evolution closed its Brazilian studio on 5 October, citing uncertain regulatory conditions
.
Carlesund said Brazil accounts for “well below half” of LatAm revenues, adding that momentum in the rest of the region would offset part of the impact, with LatAm generating €49.0 million by player IP in the third quarter
.
Why it matters
For suppliers with distributed content operations, the episode is a reminder of how quickly a regulated market can be switched off. Carlesund did not hide his frustration on the earnings call, saying
“everyone is flabbergasted about the situation in Brazil, that it is a total negative for anyone in this business that it happens in this way”
. He added that the company
remains ready to reopen quickly if the market changes
.
Management was careful to frame the Brazilian closure as reversible rather than terminal.
For now, we have closed the studio, but we are ready to reopen on short notice… If Brazil reopens its market, we are ready to accelerate
, Carlesund told investors. Analysts pressed for more detail on the knock-on effects, and
management said the country is not ring-fenced, so some revenue may still flow through operators even after the studio closure, though the scale is unclear
.
For operators and affiliates with Brazilian exposure, Evolution’s results add to a growing body of evidence that the market’s regulatory reversal is already reshaping supplier investment decisions. Content providers retreating from a market inevitably affects the game catalogues operators can offer local players, which in turn narrows what affiliates can promote to Brazilian audiences until clarity returns.
The bigger picture
The quarter also closed out a weaker stretch for Evolution’s historically dominant European business. Carlesund suggested the region’s underperformance is tied to ongoing policy instability, noting in the earnings call that
Europe would likely improve if it gets a few stable quarters without constant regulatory and tax changes
– a comment that echoes concerns raised by operators across the UK and Nordic markets over tax hikes this year.
Despite the Brazilian disruption, Evolution struck an upbeat tone about its product pipeline. Carlesund described the company’s upcoming slate as
“spectacular” and including some of the biggest and most complex games the company has ever made
, while also confirming the group is
exploring AI dealers as a complement to live games, not a replacement for them
. The results arrive in the same week as Brazil’s ban featured prominently in other operators’ and suppliers’ updates, as detailed in Tenstar Media’s recent coverage of Stake’s legal challenge to the court reversal.
Sources
October 24, 2026
Evoke Q3 Revenue Falls 7% as 270 UK Shops Close
Evoke, the owner of William Hill, 888 and Mr Green, has reported a 7% year-on-year fall in third-quarter revenue to £406 million, after closing around 270 UK betting shops over the past year. The London-listed operator has used the update to press the UK government not to raise gambling duties further in next week’s Autumn Budget, as its proposed takeover by Bally’s Intralot continues to move towards completion.
What happened
Group revenue for the three months to 30 September 2026 was £406 million, and excluding the roughly 270 betting shops closed over the past year, and at constant exchange rates, revenue fell 2%.
The company said football results that favoured punters early in the season cut one to two percentage points from growth, leaving revenue broadly flat on an underlying basis.
The closures stem from last November’s budget, when remote gaming duty, which applies to games of chance played online, rose from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026, with a new 25% rate for remote betting due to take effect on 1 April 2027.
Evoke has said it is closing shops partly to offset the higher online tax bill.
Alongside its 2025 results, the company confirmed around 270 closures and said pre-tax losses had more than doubled to £549.1 million, from £220.9 million in 2024.
Chief executive Per Widerström said the underlying business continues to show resilience, pointing to the group’s focus on profitability and cash generation following the duty increases.
He urged the government to “consider” any further tax increases, amid reports that Machine Games Duty will rise to 25 per cent.
On the corporate side,
Bally’s Intralot agreed terms on an all-share deal worth £243.1m for the owner of William Hill and 888 in June, and according to evoke the acquisition remains on track, with both sets of shareholders having passed the required resolutions and the majority of required regulatory approvals also received. Subject to the remaining conditions, completion is expected to be late in Q4 2026 or early Q1 2027.
Why it matters
The 270 shop closures are a concrete illustration of how the UK’s tax regime is reshaping the shape of a major operator’s business, not just its margins. Evoke has effectively shrunk its retail footprint to manage the hit from higher online duty, a trade-off other UK-licensed operators are watching closely as they weigh their own retail and digital balance.
For affiliates and performance marketers, a smaller retail estate for one of the UK’s best-known high-street brands reinforces a longer-term shift of player acquisition towards digital and search channels. As fewer physical William Hill shops remain on the high street, the competition for visibility in organic and paid search results for UK betting brands becomes more consequential, particularly in regions losing local outlets.
The timing also matters commercially.
The first thing to watch is the UK Autumn Budget, in which any change to remote or retail gambling duties would feed straight into Evoke’s cost base and shop estate.
A further tax rise could accelerate retail contraction across the sector, while clarity or restraint from the Treasury would ease pressure on operators still adjusting to this year’s increases.
The bigger picture
Evoke’s update lands in the middle of a UK gambling tax debate that has dominated operator commentary throughout 2026.
Notably, the taxes on betting shops themselves were not raised in last year’s budget, which increased duties on online gaming and betting but left machine games duty and the duty on bets placed in shops unchanged.
That asymmetry has pushed several operators to lean more heavily on retail cost-cutting as a lever to offset online tax pressure, a dynamic now playing out visibly at evoke.
The company’s pending sale to Bally’s Intralot adds a further layer of context.
The acquisition values the entire and to be issued ordinary share capital of evoke at approximately £243.1m at an £2.2bn enterprise value, as Bally’s Intralot seeks to create a global gaming and lottery champion with scaled pan-European B2C.
With shareholder approvals secured and most regulatory sign-offs in hand, the deal is entering its final stages just as evoke navigates a tax environment that could still shift again at the Budget.
The episode fits a wider pattern of UK operators restructuring in response to tax policy, a theme also visible in Flutter Entertainment’s recent round of UK and Ireland job cuts. Together, these moves suggest the UK’s higher-duty regime is now feeding directly into operator headcount and retail footprint decisions, not just reported margins.
Sources
October 24, 2026
IG Group Targets UK Prediction Markets Launch in Q4
IG Group has applied for a UK Gambling Commission licence as it prepares to launch a prediction markets product, confirming plans to go live with financial event contracts in the fourth quarter of 2026. The FTSE 100 trading firm will extend the offering to sports, politics and entertainment markets in early 2027, marking its return to UK sports betting for the first time in 16 years.
What happened
IG Group set out its prediction markets strategy at a Capital Markets Event held in London on 22 October.
Healy revealed IG Group’s plans at a Capital Markets Event held that day.
IG Group Holdings plc will launch financial prediction markets for UK professional clients in the fourth quarter of 2026, with a UK gambling licence application and plans to broaden its markets into politics, entertainment and sports in early 2027.
The Gambling Commission’s public register shows a pending application under the name IG View Limited, with a head office at 88 Wood Street, London, covering a remote General Betting Standard – Real Event licence marked as in progress.
The rollout will run through IG Consumer, the group’s retail investing arm.
IG Consumer Chief Executive Officer Michael Healy said the firm will combine predictions, crypto and traditional trading into one unified, in-house platform.
The move follows IG’s acquisition of US daily fantasy sports and prediction markets operator Underdog, agreed for up to
approximately $1.3 billion
, announced on 30 July 2026. That deal is
on track to complete in late 2026 or early 2027
. IG last operated in sports betting through its Extrabet unit, which
shut down in 2011, when it sold the majority of its customer list to betting exchange Spreadex
.
IG cited internal research to justify the move, pointing to consumer demand already flowing to offshore platforms.
The survey found that 84 per cent of active UK investors find prediction markets appealing, and the company added that UK prediction markets demand is going offshore, citing data showing around two million UK visits to offshore prediction market platforms in April, up 377 per cent in two years.
Why it matters
IG’s entry brings a well-capitalised, publicly listed financial services brand into direct competition with established sportsbooks and the growing cohort of US-style prediction market operators. The firm is not launching from scratch: it already holds a large base of active traders and plans to cross-sell prediction contracts across
an IG Consumer arm that has spent 18 months building its core digital infrastructure onto a single international platform combining CFDs, spread betting, share dealing, crypto and predictions.
For operators, this signals that prediction markets are maturing from a US regulatory curiosity into a product category that financial trading firms view as adjacent to their existing customer base. IG’s own research put the matter starkly, with
the prediction markets revenue pool estimated at roughly four times US online sports betting, though based on projections at maturity rather than current revenue
. That scale of ambition is likely to prompt established gambling operators to reassess how they compete for the same attention and marketing spend.
IG also flagged the regulatory complexity it will need to navigate. Executives acknowledged that
financial events fall under the FCA while other categories require Gambling Commission licensing, for which IG has applied, alongside the retail ban on binary options and the established gambling tax regime.
That dual-regulator structure is a novel compliance challenge that few incumbents in UK gambling have had to manage.
For affiliates, a new entrant backed by Sky Sports advertising spend represents a fresh source of player-acquisition competition and potential partnership opportunity.
The firm will run a targeted marketing campaign about consumers being able to “trade better” on the platform, with the ad set to hit UK screens on channels including Sky Sports next month.
Affiliates operating in the sports and finance crossover space may find IG’s brand recognition and existing customer data give it an unusual acquisition advantage over typical sportsbook challengers.
The bigger picture
IG’s UK plans sit within a broader global push by trading platforms to capture prediction markets volume, following the pattern set in the US where exchanges and brokerages have raced to add event contracts.
IG Group has spent nearly two decades trying to predict the prediction market business, including buying HedgeStreet in 2007, rebranding it as Nadex, and later selling Nadex to Crypto.com.
The Underdog acquisition represents its most committed attempt yet to establish a durable position in the category.
The UK launch also comes as IG undergoes a wider strategic reset.
The group’s outcomes of its strategic review include a proposed redomicile to Jersey, expected to become effective in late 2026 or early 2027, subject to court approval.
Management has framed the prediction markets push as part of a cultural shift at the company, moving from caution around complex regulation toward actively pursuing demonstrated customer demand within regulatory limits.
Whether IG can translate its trading-platform credibility into sustained engagement with sports and political betting products remains to be seen, particularly given the dual oversight of the FCA and Gambling Commission. The outcome will be closely watched by both financial services firms eyeing gambling-adjacent products and gambling operators assessing a new category of competitor.
For more on how operators and product strategies are shifting across regulated markets, see our coverage of SkyCity’s online licence push.
Sources
October 23, 2026
SkyCity Opens Door to Takeover Amid NZ Licence Push
SkyCity Entertainment Group has invited potential buyers to submit proposals for the acquisition of its entire business through a formal structured process, even as it continues preparing applications for two New Zealand online casino licences. The New Zealand-listed operator confirmed the move at its annual general meeting in Auckland on 21 October, having rejected two earlier takeover approaches this year as undervalued. The decision puts SkyCity at the centre of one of the more significant corporate stories in Asia-Pacific gambling, combining a potential ownership change with a first move into regulated online gaming.
What happened
Speaking at the AGM, SkyCity chairman Julian Cook told shareholders the board had decided to seek proposals through a structured process aimed at testing genuine buyer interest in the whole group. The company has appointed UBS as investment banking adviser and Chapman Tripp as legal adviser to run the process.
The structure will allow interested parties to get access to relevant due diligence information to assist them with preparing their offers.
The move follows two unsolicited approaches SkyCity received earlier in 2026, including one from Oaktree Capital Management, which the board concluded were opportunistic and undervalued the business.
Cook said SkyCity has not received any further improved proposals since then, nor non-binding whole-of-business proposals from anyone new, but the board remains aware of continued interest in the whole business.
He stressed there is no guarantee the process will produce a new offer or a completed sale.
The sale review runs alongside SkyCity’s push into New Zealand’s newly regulated online casino market.
SkyCity Entertainment Group announced its successful bid in the auction for rights to apply for online casino gambling licences under New Zealand’s Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, obtaining the right to apply for two licences at NZ$15 million each.
CEO Jason Walbridge told the AGM the company had deliberately scaled back its ambitions.
He described it as a deliberate capital allocation decision to reduce from the maximum three allowable licenses to two, to remain within risk-adjusted return on capital targets.
The regulated New Zealand online market is due to launch in mid-2027, with up to 15 brands permitted industry-wide.
The corporate review also sits within a wider restructuring programme. SkyCity has already completed a roughly NZ$74.5 million sale of Auckland properties to pay down debt, and is running a separate formal sale process for its Adelaide casino business after receiving inbound interest from credible parties.
Why it matters
For an operator the size of SkyCity, opening a structured process for the entire group is a stronger signal than fielding unsolicited approaches. It invites rival bidders to compete on price while the company retains control over the timetable and information flow, rather than negotiating with a single opportunistic suitor. The approach suggests the board believes underlying asset sales and the pending online licence will eventually justify a higher valuation than the two bids rejected earlier this year.
The parallel pursuit of online casino licences changes the calculus for any buyer. A prospective acquirer is not just bidding for SkyCity’s land-based estate across New Zealand and Adelaide, but for a foothold in a brand-new regulated iGaming market with a capped number of operators. That scarcity value, alongside SkyCity’s established local brand recognition, is likely to be a central selling point during the structured process.
The bigger picture
New Zealand’s regulated online casino regime, created under the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, replaces an offshore grey market with a licensed domestic system capped at 15 operators.
SkyCity owns two of the 11 entities that were approved by New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs to officially apply for licenses,
putting it among a small group of incumbents, alongside international names such as Entain and Stake, positioned to shape the market from launch.
For affiliates and marketing partners, a capped licence regime of this kind tends to concentrate acquisition spend among fewer brands competing hard for visibility and search share in the run-up to launch. A SkyCity ownership change during that window could also reshape its marketing budgets and partner strategy once a new owner is in place, adding a layer of uncertainty that affiliates working in or targeting the New Zealand market will want to track closely.
The story also fits a broader pattern of established land-based operators using new online licensing regimes as leverage in corporate restructuring, a dynamic already visible in other markets covered in our industry news section.
Sources
October 23, 2026
L&L Europe Pays £900k Over UK Withdrawal Failures
The UK Gambling Commission has secured a £900,000 settlement from online casino operator L&L Europe after an investigation found it unnecessarily delayed customer withdrawals, ran weak anti-money laundering controls and failed to protect vulnerable players. The case stands out because it is one of the few recent UKGC enforcement actions built partly around a breach of consumer rights law rather than purely AML or social responsibility failings.
What happened
L&L Europe agreed to pay £900,000 ($1.2 million) to settle a UK Gambling Commission investigation into problems with withdrawal practices and protections for vulnerable customers
.
The regulator’s compliance assessment covered L&L Europe’s remote operating licence, number 038758, which covers seven gambling sites including allbritishcasino.com, casinocasino.com and hypercasino.com
.
The regulator determined that the company, which partnered with sportsbook supplier Altenar in 2022, made it unnecessarily difficult for customers to access their money
.
The Commission criticised a clause in L&L Europe’s terms and conditions allowing only one withdrawal at any time, which required customers to await authorisation of a previous withdrawal before submitting another request, ruling this unfair within the meaning of the Consumer Rights Act 2015
.
The business also manually reviewed every fifth or tenth withdrawal for certain customers under a “Fraud & Collusion Policy,” again resulting in delayed payouts
.
The Commission found that the failings put consumers at heightened risk and cited the example of one customer who had 84 failed deposit attempts due to insufficient funds but was not identified as exhibiting signs of gambling harm
.
In another instance, a customer under the age of 25 was allowed to lose £6,500 within three days of opening an account, while an 18-year-old was allowed to lose £4,000 in eight minutes, both without triggering any intervention
. The breaches are said to have occurred between October 2024 and October 2025.
The Commission noted that L&L Europe did promptly put an action plan in place to remedy the failings, provided updates, fully co-operated with the investigation and accepted failings at an appropriate early stage
. The £900,000 payment was accepted in lieu of a formal financial penalty, with part of it directed to the consolidated fund alongside a contribution to the Commission’s investigation costs.
Why it matters
The settlement signals that withdrawal fairness is now treated as a standalone licensing risk, not simply a customer-service irritant.
The Commission has been handing out various settlements to firms for anti-money laundering breaches in recent months, though this L&L Europe settlement is a rare case of a breach of the Consumer Rights Act
. That shift matters for operators across the market: terms that ration how often or how quickly players can cash out are now squarely within the regulator’s sights, even where they were designed as fraud controls rather than deliberate friction.
Sue Young, the Commission’s executive director of operations, used the case to issue a broader warning to the sector.
She said that although much of the Commission’s enforcement activity frequently relates to anti-money laundering and social responsibility failings, it will not hesitate to act when it sees incidents of gambling not being fair and open
.
For affiliates and marketing partners, withdrawal experience is increasingly a brand-trust signal that shapes player retention and review scores, not just a back-office compliance matter. Operators that attract traffic through paid search or comparison sites but then impose friction at cash-out risk reputational damage that filters back into affiliate rankings and player complaints, making due diligence on payout practices a more pressing part of partner vetting.
The bigger picture
The case adds L&L Europe to a growing list of UK-licensed operators facing financial settlements as the Gambling Commission steps up compliance reviews across the sector.
In guidance on its expectations concerning account withdrawals, the regulator has noted that its contact centre continues to receive approximately 2,000 complaints per year relating to delayed payouts
, underlining why withdrawal handling has become a recurring enforcement theme. The £900,000 figure sits within the range the Commission typically applies for serious but cooperative breaches, reflecting both the seriousness of the findings and L&L Europe’s early acceptance of fault and remediation.
The action follows a broader pattern of UK regulatory tightening this year, with the Commission continuing to combine AML, social responsibility and now consumer-rights findings in a single settlement. For operators and suppliers watching the UK market, it reinforces that enforcement priorities are broadening beyond traditional AML checks toward the practical player experience around deposits and cash-outs.
For more coverage of UK regulatory enforcement and operator compliance, visit our industry news section.
Sources
October 23, 2026
Brazil Betting Ban: Stake to Challenge Court Reversal
Stake’s lawyers are preparing a new legal challenge after a Brazilian appeals court reversed the injunction that had briefly allowed the operator to keep taking bets despite the country’s nationwide betting ban. The move keeps alive one of the most closely watched legal fights to emerge from President Lula’s provisional measure banning licensed betting, with implications for every operator and supplier still invested in the market.
What happened
Stake’s lawyers will pursue further legal action after a Brazilian court overturned an injunction temporarily protecting the operator from a betting ban, after it appeared Stake had a reprieve following a preliminary injunction granted the right to continue operations until 25 October.
The next day, Judge Luis Antonio Johonsom di Salvo, president of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region, suspended the injunction, with Stake once again banned.
Stake’s case is being handled by Brazilian law firm Bichara e Motta Advogados, and partner Udo Seckelmann confirmed to iGB that Stake will challenge the decision overturning its injunction.
He said Stake is going to challenge the decision, with two possible strategies under analysis as the firm decides which to file.
Seckelmann acknowledged the importance of the case for the wider Brazil sector as it attempts to wrestle back its legal status.
The legal wrangling sits alongside a parallel track at Brazil’s Supreme Court. Two trade bodies, ANJL and IBJR, have petitioned Justice Luiz Fux to suspend the ban until a new public hearing can be held, with a fallback request to keep licensed operators online until the end of 2026. The ANJL has said more than 3,500 betting-sector workers have lost their jobs since the ban took hold, and Seckelmann has indicated the Supreme Court is unlikely to rule before Brazil’s presidential runoff on 25 October, the same date Stake’s original injunction window was due to expire.
Why it matters
The Brazil betting ban has already forced licensed operators offline and reshaped FY26 forecasts across the sector. A ruling in Stake’s favour, or a broader Supreme Court intervention, would determine whether any licensed brand can resume trading before the ban’s 120-day congressional review period runs its course. A ruling against it would further entrench the shutdown and strengthen the unlicensed market that has grown in its place.
The case also has a supplier dimension. In a separate interview with SBC News, FIRST.bet chief executive Tom Light
described the ban as a hammerblow for operators that had invested in local entities and compliance, but said it could have been an even bigger threat for the suppliers who depend on the market.
That underlines how the fallout extends well beyond the handful of operators with consumer-facing brands in Brazil, hitting platform providers, payment firms and marketing partners that built out local infrastructure since regulation began in January 2025.
The bigger picture
Brazil’s licensed betting sector was worth close to $5.7 billion in net revenue terms before the ban, and its abrupt suspension has already triggered protests from clubs and trade bodies, alongside warnings that the illegal market is filling the vacuum. Stake’s fight to restore its own licence is, in effect, a test case for the rest of the industry: if its challenge succeeds, rivals are likely to pursue similar routes back to market, while a further defeat would push the sector’s hopes firmly onto the pending Supreme Court review.
For affiliates and performance marketers with Brazil-facing portfolios, the uncertainty complicates planning around SEO investment and player acquisition in a market that had been one of the fastest-growing in Latin America. Traffic strategies built around licensed Brazilian brands remain on hold until the legal picture clears, with the Supreme Court’s post-runoff timeline now the key date to watch.
For more on how regulatory shifts are reshaping operator strategy, visit our industry news section.
Sources
October 22, 2026
Betsson Q3 Revenue Hits Record €326.5m Despite Tax Hit
Betsson AB has reported record quarterly revenue of €326.5m for the third quarter of 2026, up 10% year-on-year, as active customers climbed 40% to a record 1.9 million. The Betsson Q3 revenue figures mask a sharp profit decline, with EBITDA down 23% and net income falling 44% as gaming taxes and regulatory costs bit into margins.
What happened
Betsson AB reported record revenue in Q3 2026, as the figure grew 10% year-on-year to €326.5m, with total revenue for the first nine months of the year reaching €922.1m, representing 3.2% growth year-on-year.
EBITDA for the quarter dipped 23% to €63.4m from €82.5m as pressures including higher betting duties and gaming taxes, payment provider expenses, a drop in high-margin B2B licence revenue and increased marketing costs hit the business, with the EBITDA margin contracting from 27.9% to 19.4%.
EBITDA was €63.4m, down 23%; EBIT fell 31% to €46.1m and net income fell 44% to €28.2m, with EPS at €0.19 versus €0.34 a year earlier.
Revenue was higher across both casino and sportsbook operations, while active customers hiked 40% to a record 1.9 million, which Betsson put down to continued growth in established and locally regulated markets.
Casino remained not only the primary source of revenue for the group, but also the reason for year-on-year growth, with casino revenue hitting €253.5m, up 14% from Q3 last year.
Sportsbook revenue edged up just 1% year-on-year to €71.8m, despite an 8% rise in gross turnover to €1.37bn, helped by the World Cup, while the sportsbook margin after free bets fell from 8.8% to 8.1%.
Latin America again generated the most revenue of any region at €116.1m, up 52% and a new quarterly record, with Betsson reporting strong growth across Argentina, Peru and Colombia.
The group also flagged the recent shutdown of the Brazil market, saying it remains uncertain over the long-term impact.
Why it matters
The Betsson Q3 revenue split illustrates a structural shift reshaping operator economics across Europe and Latin America.
Revenue from locally regulated markets now represents 78% of total revenue, up dramatically from 45% in Q3 2023, while point-of-sale regulated markets declined to 22% from 55% over the same period.
That shift has been the primary driver of the margin pressure visible in this quarter’s numbers.
For suppliers and affiliates, the figures confirm that volume growth no longer automatically converts into proportional profit. Operators are absorbing higher duty and compliance costs as more revenue moves into regulated channels, which puts pressure on marketing budgets and affiliate commercial terms even as customer acquisition accelerates. Betsson’s casino segment, now the dominant growth driver, suggests partners focused on slots and live casino content are better placed to benefit than pure sportsbook affiliates in the current cycle.
The bigger picture
Betsson described Q3 as its strongest revenue quarter ever, supported by major sporting events, especially the FIFA World Cup and the start of European football leagues, with its casino business also hitting an all-time high.
The quarter showed a clear split between growth and profitability, as revenue and customer numbers reached record levels while margins weakened from more business being generated in locally regulated markets, where taxes are higher.
The Brazil disruption adds another layer of uncertainty for Betsson and its peers operating across Latin America, a region the group has relied on heavily for growth. The result lands amid a broader pattern this earnings season of operators reporting strong top-line growth alongside shrinking margins, a trend already visible in Catena Media’s decision to scrap its 2026 growth target after a weak third quarter. Rising duties in regulated markets across Europe are increasingly the common thread behind these results.
Sources
October 22, 2026
Premier League Shirt Ban Cuts Gambling Ads by Just 10.5%
A University of Bristol study has found that the Premier League’s voluntary ban on front-of-shirt betting sponsorship reduced gambling advertising exposure during live matches by only 10.5%, with operators simply redirecting spend to sleeves, training kits and pitchside boards. The findings, presented to parliamentarians on 21 October, have reignited calls for statutory intervention in UK sports betting marketing.
What the Premier League shirt ban study found
For the fourth year running, researchers from the University of Bristol found football fans were bombarded with gambling ads, recording 15,571 messages during the Premier League opening weekend.
At least one gambling message was visible for five hours and 16 minutes during live coverage, meaning almost one-fifth of broadcast time featured betting marketing.
The findings also uncovered that although the new front-of-shirt restriction virtually eliminated gambling logos from the front of matchday shirts, the analysis estimates this contributed to a reduction of just 10.5% during live matches.
Gambling branding on shirt sleeves and training kits jumped more than threefold – a 362% increase from previous years, while pitchside advertising continued to dominate, accounting for 72% of all messages during live matches.
The researchers analysed every Premier League match broadcast live in the UK during the opening weekend (on August 21 – August 24) alongside 15 hours of Sky Sports News TV and 15 hours of TalkSport radio broadcasts.
They also reviewed organic and paid social media output from 10 major betting site brands with the largest followings.
Project lead Dr Raffaello Rossi
said: “This cannot be presented as a success for self-regulation.”
Why it matters
The study puts fresh pressure on the Premier League’s self-regulatory approach at a sensitive moment for UK operators, who are already contending with duty increases and tighter marketing codes elsewhere in the market.
Rossi presented the findings to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Reform on October 21, and Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the group’s co-chair, said the results show the voluntary approach is failing and that the shirt-front restriction has made little dent in the wider issue.
Rossi said the fall from 2024 cannot be credited to the shirt rule, because much of it came from a sharp drop in sponsorship lead-ins, and that the season’s most anticipated reform delivered little meaningful change in overall exposure to gambling advertising.
For operators and their marketing partners, that is a signal that reputational and regulatory risk around football sponsorship has not meaningfully reduced, even where headline shirt-front deals have ended.
For affiliates, the research underlines how quickly sponsorship budgets migrate within the same ecosystem rather than leaving it. Sleeve branding, pitchside boards and social output now carry a larger share of exposure, which keeps brand-search volume and direct traffic flowing to operator sites even as the most visible shirt deals disappear. Partners monitoring player-acquisition trends in UK football should expect continued scrutiny of these secondary channels rather than any near-term fall in overall betting marketing activity.
The bigger picture
The report lands as UK politicians weigh further restrictions on gambling marketing and taxation, with the Treasury’s Autumn Budget and Machine Games Duty proposals already under debate.
Gambling reform proponents like Ian Duncan Smith and the Coalition to End Gambling Ads have made the most noise this week.
The Premier League’s voluntary ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship has done little to quell calls for mandatory intervention, with gambling reform advocates renewing their calls for restrictions just three months into the new season.
The data also extends a longer pattern identified by the same research team in previous years, when gambling messaging volumes rose sharply despite earlier voluntary measures such as the whistle-to-whistle television ad ban. With regulators in other markets, including Australia, moving towards tighter statutory controls on gambling marketing, the Bristol findings add weight to arguments that self-regulation in UK football has reached its limits. Readers can find related coverage of international ad restrictions in our piece on the ACMA’s new marketing regime for Australian operators.
Sources
October 22, 2026
New Zealand Online Casino Licences Spark Ad Ban Calls
SkillOnNet has become one of the operators cleared to offer online casino services in New Zealand, securing its licence for the PlayOJO brand as the country’s regulated market takes shape. The milestone lands days after the Problem Gambling Foundation (PGF) called for a blanket ban on gambling advertising before the market opens to consumers. Together, the two developments show how New Zealand online casino regulation is moving quickly on licensing while the rules governing player acquisition remain unsettled.
What happened
SkillOnNet became the 11th operator to secure a licence under the Online Casino Gambling Act, which came into force in May 2026, paying an $8.51 million licensing fee and overcoming a field of 32 bidders.
The licence allows the company to launch online casino services locally, and it plans to build its presence in the market through its PlayOJO brand.
SkillOnNet’s progress follows an earlier stage of the process in which a wider group of companies won the right to apply for licences.
A total of 11 companies won the right to apply for New Zealand’s new online casino licences, including Baytree Interactive, owned by Super Group, which secured three rights to apply, while Entain’s subsidiary Playvia Gaming, Rock Swift Group and SkyCity each secured two.
Operators that failed to secure application rights, or did not take part in the auction, must cease all online casino operations in the country by 1 December 2026.
Separately, the PGF has stepped up pressure on regulators over how licensed operators, and the offshore sites still active in the market, will be allowed to advertise.
The foundation has called for a ban on gambling advertising ahead of the country’s regulated online casino launch, warning that offshore operators continue to breach existing restrictions and reach people experiencing gambling-related harm.
Advocacy director Andree Froude told RNZ’s Morning Report that overseas gambling companies had used social media, influencers and other promotional tactics to attract New Zealand customers despite restrictions on advertising their services.
Under current rules, overseas gambling operators are prohibited from advertising directly to New Zealand consumers, with fines of up to NZ$10,000 upon conviction.
Froude argued that such a fine offers a limited deterrent without strong enforcement.
New advertising requirements for authorised operators are scheduled to take effect in June 2027.
Why it matters
The New Zealand online casino market is one of the last sizeable English-language jurisdictions to move from an unregulated offshore model to a licensed domestic one. For operators such as SkillOnNet, winning a licence secures a first-mover position in a market that has previously been served almost entirely by offshore brands.
The advertising dispute matters just as much commercially.
The Problem Gambling Foundation says operators’ past breaches should influence their eligibility for domestic online casino licences.
That raises the prospect that marketing conduct before launch could affect which brands are allowed to operate after it. For affiliates and performance marketers building New Zealand-facing campaigns, the gap between now and the June 2027 advertising rules creates uncertainty over what channels, from social media to influencer partnerships, will remain usable once the full regime is in force.
The bigger picture
New Zealand’s experience mirrors a pattern seen in other markets that have recently formalised online casino regulation: licensing moves ahead of a settled advertising framework, leaving a transitional period in which enforcement is inconsistent.
Froude told RNZ’s Morning Report that offshore gambling operators have routinely disregarded New Zealand’s advertising restrictions, using social media, influencer partnerships, promotional cash offers and even physical tagging on buildings to reach local audiences.
Regulators in other recently opened markets have faced similar criticism that enforcement lags behind commercial activity.
For SkillOnNet, the New Zealand licence adds to a network that already spans multiple regulated jurisdictions through its PlayOJO brand and sister sites, extending the group’s international footprint at a time when several European affiliates and operators are also pursuing new market entries to offset pressure at home. Readers can find more coverage of licensing and market entry developments in our industry news section.
Sources
October 21, 2026
Maine iGaming Launch Pushed Back to Q1 2027
Maine’s online casino market is now more likely to launch in the first quarter of 2027 than before the end of this year, according to Gambling Control Unit (GCU) Executive Director Milt Champion. The delay pushes back a market that would make Maine the eighth US state to legalise online casino gambling, and gives operators and affiliates a longer runway before tribal-exclusive licensing begins.
Champion’s comments confirm what industry observers had already suspected: the first quarter of 2027 is more practical than a 2026 launch, given the legal review still required before rules can be finalised.
What happened
The GCU published its third set of proposed iGaming rules on 30 September,
a 15-chapter document covering licensing, player accounts, gaming systems, advertising and responsible gambling, with public comments due by 11.59pm on 30 October
. If the regulator accepts no further substantive changes, the rules move to the Office of the Attorney General, which
has up to 120 days after comments close to adopt the rules, while the Attorney General’s office has up to 150 days to approve them for legality
.
Any major revisions would trigger a fourth publication and a fresh comment period, a scenario regulators acknowledge
could push the launch beyond the first quarter of 2027 if regulators make major changes to the state’s third set of proposed rules
. The GCU also still needs to complete practical groundwork:
recruiting six employees, training staff and establishing an online licensing portal with a supporting database, though operators can prepare application documents in advance
.
Maine’s framework reserves online casino rights exclusively for its four federally recognised Wabanaki Nations, who must partner with commercial operators to go live.
Three of Maine’s four tribes have committed to Caesars Entertainment, which announced in late June an expansion of its existing Wabanaki partnership to include iGaming, covering Caesars Palace Online Casino, Horseshoe and Caesars Sportsbook
. The fourth tribe, the Passamaquoddy,
currently partners with DraftKings for sports betting and is widely expected to fill the last piece of Maine’s upcoming market once regulations are finalised
, though no formal iGaming partner has been confirmed.
A separate complication hangs over the timeline:
an ongoing federal lawsuit over tribal-exclusive gaming rights casts a shadow over the schedule
, brought by commercial casino interests shut out of the vertical.
Why it matters
Maine would join
Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia
as a regulated US online casino state once it launches. For platform providers and operators, the tribal-exclusive structure means market access runs through a small number of gatekeepers rather than open licensing, concentrating early-mover advantage among whichever partners the Wabanaki Nations ultimately select.
The delay also matters for compliance planning. The proposed rules allow
the agency director to issue temporary licenses for up to one year, with applicants required to pay fees, provide a recent system audit and demonstrate a comparable valid gaming license in another US state
. Operators preparing for Maine will need to align documentation with that requirement well before any formal application window opens.
For affiliates and performance marketers, a confirmed Q1 2027 target gives a narrower but clearer window to build Maine-focused content and partnerships ahead of launch, rather than guessing at an open-ended timeline. Markets with a small number of licensed brands, as Maine’s tribal structure implies, tend to concentrate early search visibility among whoever secures positioning first.
The bigger picture
Maine’s rulemaking pace echoes the state’s own sports betting rollout, which Champion has compared directly to the current process. The pattern also fits a broader trend across recently legalised US states, where launch dates set in enabling legislation slip repeatedly once agencies confront staffing, technology and legal-review bottlenecks. Churchill Downs’ litigation adds a further variable that regulators cannot control through rulemaking alone, meaning operators banking on a Q1 2027 debut should treat the date as a target rather than a guarantee.
For more regulatory and market-entry coverage, visit our industry news section.
Sources
October 21, 2026