Author: Charles Shephardson

Dutch trade association VNLOK says Facebook and Instagram users in the Netherlands continue to face illegal gambling advertisements at an alarming and unacceptable scale. In a notice published on 27 August 2026, VNLOK reported that between 94% and 97% of gambling advertisements reaching Dutch users came from unlicensed operators during May and June. The findings were based on periodic reviews of Meta’s advertising library, examining pages that appeared through casino-related search terms across the platform. VNLOK announced a lawsuit against Meta in June and has now also filed a formal complaint with the European Commission over the ongoing issue. The…

GGBET has wrapped up its title sponsorship of the Ukrainian 3×3 Basketball Championship, with the tournament’s final stage held in Kyiv this week. The Kyiv-based gaming firm serves as title sponsor of the competition, forming part of a broader ongoing partnership with the Ukrainian Basketball Federation. The championship ran across three months and spanned five Ukrainian regions, giving GGBET considerable national exposure throughout the competition’s duration. A total of 12 teams participated in the tournament, competing across the various regional stages before the final showdown in the capital. One of the more notable aspects of the tournament was the charitable…

The SBC Hall of Fame class of 2026 has been revealed, with five influential industry figures set to be honoured at a ceremony in Lisbon next month. The induction ceremony will take place on Monday, 28 September 2026, at 15:30 at Palácio Estoril Hotel, as part of the exclusive SBC Leaders Summit. The Leaders Summit is an invite-only event for senior industry executives and takes place the day before SBC Summit 2026 officially opens its doors. Now in its tenth year, the SBC Hall of Fame was originally launched in 2016 under the name the Sports Betting Hall of Fame,…

Brazil’s regulated betting market has generated remarkable tax revenues in 2026, collecting BRL 5.89 billion in just the first five months of the year. That figure, equivalent to approximately US$1.18 billion, represents a staggering 86% year-on-year increase compared to the same period in 2025, which yielded BRL 3.17 billion. The speed of collection has been equally striking, with the market already reaching around 60% of its entire 2025 full-year total by the end of May. Brazil’s total betting tax receipts for all of 2025 came in at BRL 9.95 billion, a figure that now looks likely to be surpassed well…

Brazilian congresswoman Caroline De Toni has introduced Bill No. 5,153/2026, proposing a nationwide ban on online fixed-odds betting across the country. The bill would cancel all existing federal betting licenses within 180 days of the legislation passing through Brazil’s Congress. Operators would be granted an additional 90 days beyond that window to pay out prizes and return outstanding player balances. Fines for violations could reach R$2 billion per infraction, with criminal penalties of between two and five years in prison. De Toni’s proposal argues that since Brazil’s regulated betting market launched, online wagering has generated serious economic, social, and health…

ICONIC21 has officially launched its dedicated Client Area, a centralised platform designed to give operator partners streamlined access to its expanding content portfolio. The platform was built in partnership with Orange Synapse and reflects the rapid growth ICONIC21 has achieved across live casino, slots, RNG, and additional verticals. Previously, accessing game data, compliance documents, and media assets required individual requests and lengthy back-and-forth communication between operators and the provider. The Client Area consolidates all of that into a single login, giving operators everything they need within a few clicks rather than multiple separate exchanges. Advanced filtering systems allow operator teams…

The SOFTSWISS-organised Tech Race Summit 2026 has launched its final media accreditation round for journalists, with the event scheduled for 10 September in Warsaw. Applications for media accreditation remain open until 1 September, offering journalists free access to the full conference programme and networking areas. Accredited media representatives will also have the opportunity to request interviews with speakers at the event, subject to availability. Tech Race Summit brings together engineers, CTOs, product leaders, and business professionals from iGaming and the broader technology industry. More than 40 speakers are confirmed to participate from companies including AWS, Google, Oracle, Cloudflare, Gcore, SOFTSWISS,…

GamCare has confirmed that hundreds of people experienced disruption to gambling harm support services during Britain’s transition to the new statutory levy funding system. The charity described the overhaul as the most significant period of change in its history, saying it exposed serious weaknesses in the coordination of treatment and support services. Responsibility for commissioning gambling harm services moved to five separate bodies across England, Scotland and Wales, all operating at different stages without a clear overarching structure in place. GamCare’s annual report for the year ending 31 March 2026 detailed how some important funding decisions were communicated at very…

Fresh Fruit Deluxe Money Bloxx is the latest release from software provider Swintt, adding a big-money twist to its well-established retro fruit slot series. The new title is a five-reel, five-payline game that blends classic fruit-themed visuals with the addition of Swintt’s popular Money Bloxx re-spin mechanic. Regular base game wins can pay out up to 500x the selected bet, but the headline attraction is undoubtedly the bonus feature waiting beneath the surface. Whenever five or more Money Bloxx symbols appear anywhere on the reels, players are transported to a dedicated set of reels featuring five columns of ascending sizes.…

Betr Entertainment posted a statutory loss of A$40.2m for FY26, following heavy investment in a brand relaunch and platform integration across the year. The ASX-listed Australian sports betting operator recorded A$1.59bn in customer turnover for the year to 30 June, representing a 12.3% increase above FY25 figures. Net win rose 7% to A$158.1m for the period, while gross win increased 10.1% to reach A$215.7m across the full financial year. Despite the turnover growth, the company reported a normalised EBITDA loss of A$7.1m, compared with a profit of A$7.2m recorded in the prior year. CEO Andrew Menz said: “FY26 was a…