Author: Charles Shephardson

New Zealand has formally opened its online casino licensing process, marking a significant shift away from a market long dominated by offshore operators. The Department of Internal Affairs is now accepting expressions of interest until 14 August, with operators required to file through the Government Electronic Tender Service. Each applicant must pay a non-refundable NZ$19,000 fee just to enter the process, underlining the government’s intent to attract serious, well-resourced operators only. Accepted candidates will progress to an auction scheduled for September, with successful bidders able to lodge full licence applications from October and a planned market launch at the start…

Brazil’s regulated betting market is heading toward one of two radically different futures over the next five years, and the gap between them runs into billions of dollars. That is the central conclusion of NEXT iGaming Market in Focus: Brazil, a major new report published by NEXT.io in partnership with Pragmatic Solutions. The dividing line between those two futures comes down largely to politics, specifically the outcome of Brazil’s general elections on 4 October 2026. Gambling has emerged as a charged campaign issue, with a fast-growing evangelical voting bloc and moral opposition on one side, and a government that now…

Sportsbooks worldwide just experienced one of the biggest betting surges in history, driven by the 2026 World Cup pulling casual bettors in by the millions. Forecasts reported by Reuters put total wagers for the 2026 World Cup above $50 billion, up significantly from $35 billion recorded during Qatar 2022. Major US sportsbooks reported record-breaking handle during the tournament, with some reporting several times the volume they processed during the 2022 group stage. The surge feels like a win on paper, but the real test for operators begins now that the final whistle has blown and the fixtures have dried up.…

RedCore CEO and founder Marina Ilina is making the case that regulatory technology is not a burden on the iGaming industry but rather a shared opportunity for all parties involved. Ilina argues that the iGaming sector has always presented operators with two distinct paths: a transparent licensed model or an unregulated grey market with no legal protections. She contends that the sheer scale of grey markets globally is largely a consequence of governments not knowing how to build functioning regulatory systems in their own jurisdictions. RedCore grew out of an iGaming holding company, giving the business a rare dual perspective…

Gibraltar is overhauling its B2B licensing regime, replacing a long-standing one-size-fits-all approach with a tiered framework designed to reflect the scale of individual suppliers. The reforms, introduced under Gibraltar’s new Gambling Act, will allow suppliers to apply for licences based on the size of their operations rather than defaulting to a single standard. Previously, businesses were effectively required to obtain a full B2B licence regardless of how large or small their operations were, creating disproportionate barriers for smaller suppliers. The changes also bring an end to Gibraltar’s “sheltering” system, which allowed suppliers to operate under licensed B2C operators before securing…

Pennsylvania lawmakers have received a sweeping 126-page proposal calling for significant tightening of the state’s sports betting regulations. The report, titled Sports Betting and Related Interactive Gambling in Pennsylvania, was produced by the Joint State Government Commission under House Resolution 60 of 2025. Its central approach is more measured than an outright crackdown, favouring data-driven analysis before implementing broader restrictions. Licensed operators would be required to submit anonymised player data for independent research examining deposits, wager sizes, frequency, speed, session length and parlay usage. Those findings would then guide more precisely targeted restrictions at a later stage, rather than applying…

A bipartisan House bill would require online sportsbooks to perform facial recognition age verification before customers are permitted to place any wagers. Rep. Josh Gottheimer introduced the Facial Recognition to Protect Children Act on July 15, with eight lawmakers from both parties signing on as original co-sponsors. The proposal mandates a facial check either at login or immediately before a bet is placed, using physical structure and pattern analysis to estimate whether a user meets legal age requirements. According to Gottheimer’s office, the technology would not retain any user identity or personal biometric information after the check is completed. The…

Entain has welcomed the UK government’s consultation on banning unlicensed gambling sponsorships and is pushing sports bodies to act before legislation forces their hand. The operator is calling for an immediate ban on all sponsorship deals with unlicensed gambling operators, urging the Premier League and other governing bodies to move ahead of the 2026/27 season. Entain said the ban should cover all advertising and promotional rights, including perimeter boards, shirt sponsorships, and digital assets, without waiting for formal legislation to take effect. The push comes as new figures from research consultancy H2GC show the illegal gambling market’s turnover grew from…

The 2026 World Cup is underway, and the global appetite for sports betting has reached unprecedented levels across multiple continents and markets. The expanded tournament format, North America hosting, and the recent opening of key regulated markets in North and Latin America have created a landscape of enormous opportunity for the iGaming industry. For Playradar, the tournament represents more than record-breaking volume; it is a platform to showcase a new iGaming vertical called sports casino entertainment. This emerging content category combines the best of online sports with casino, making use of archived footage and data to deliver new betting and…

Brazil’s largest casino-led betting operator has made a decisive move into sports, launching a full sportsbook powered by FIRST.bet technology across three major brands. 7Games, Betão and R7 are all operated by OIG Gaming Brazil Ltda. and are widely regarded as among Brazil’s biggest casino-focused betting brands. OIG selected FIRST.bet to power its sportsbook expansion across all three brands simultaneously, demonstrating the technology’s capacity to serve multi-brand operators at national scale. The 7Games sportsbook was built on SportOS, the FIRST.bet operating system, with the FIRST.bet engine running underneath and powering all trading, pricing and live markets. Players using the 7Games…