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🤔 Full stops and mixed messages: Did Andy Burnham mean to call high street betting shops ‘dodgy’? UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has called out “betting shops” as being among the high street staples that the government wishes to discourage. Many stakeholders are extremely angry that licensed betting shops were lumped in the same boat as what Burnham has called “dodgy businesses.” Sponsored message Multiply your reach. Tap into NEXT.io Media.

📱 Consumers taking part in illegal lotteries and raffles promoted across social media are often more concerned about whether a draw appears genuine than whether it is legally operated, according to the UK Gambling Commission. The regulator said its intelligence team had seen an increase in reports of suspected illegal lotteries and raffles on TikTok during 2025 compared with the previous year. With this, it commissioned Yonder Consulting to examine why consumers take part in the draws, how they encounter them, and how operators run them. Key findings included that lower ticket prices, informal presentation and familiar payment methods could reduce consumers’ perception of risk. The research also flagged how some hosts appeared not to understand the rules, or deliberately use language and payment practices to obscure the nature of their activities. Sponsored message Mexico is shaping up to be Latin America's biggest iGaming market. See where the opportunity sits in our free Market in Focus: Mexico report.

💰 Grandstand, formerly known as Gambling.com Group, has reiterated its guidance for the full year 2026 despite reporting a drop in revenue and adjusted EBITDA during the second quarter. For the three months to the end of June, revenue at Grandstand hit $37.8m, down 5% from last year. Adjusted EBITDA also fell 44% year-on-year to $7.7m, though the company cut its net loss by 55%. Despite this softer performance, the company stood firm on the full-year guidance it issued earlier in the year. Revenue should amount to between $165m and $170m, while adjusted EBITDA is expected to range from $45m to $50m. Sponsored message Fully regulated since 2024, ~3M players, and primed for M&A — Peru is LatAm's most accessible entry point. Get our free Market in Focus: Peru report.

😲 Billionaire investor and heir to the Solo Cup fortune Kenneth Dart has tabled his mandatory bid to take Evolution private. Dart’s Candle Lake vehicle today (13 August) issued a statement making a cash offer for the live casino giant at a SEK695 (€63.95) per share, which is below the supplier’s SEK733.30 current trading levels. However, in a statement to shareholders, Candle Lake said it wasn’t interested in buying the company outright and was simply tabling the bid to fulfil its legal obligations. Sponsored message Looking at Kenya? ~8M players, mobile-first payments, and brand-new 2025 regulation — the full picture's in our free Market in Focus: Kenya report.

🔎 The Gambling Commission has issued a warning to remote operators after it found some licensees are still failing to meet existing identity-verification requirements. According to the regulator, more than a quarter of complaints received by its Contact Centre relate to identity verification. It also said that disputes over the process are among the most common complaints referred to alternative dispute resolution providers. The Commission identified a “number of instances” where licensees were not obtaining sufficient information from customers at registration to meet the requirements of Licence Condition 17, which covers identity verification. As a result, some customers are being asked to provide additional information when they later attempt to withdraw funds, despite them having already completed the operator’s registration process. Sponsored message Connect now with the #1 Casino Game Aggregator

🇬🇧 Rank Group has spent the last few months trying to mitigate an increasingly challenging taxation environment in the UK, leading to venue closures and a slight repositioning of the company’s long-term goals. CEO Richard Harris took over from John O’Reilly on an interim basis in January, before being appointed permanent CEO in July. Since his appointment at the beginning of the year, eight Mecca Bingo venues have closed. Harris commented: “These clubs were either loss-making or not commercially viable, so we took the difficult decision to close.” He also remarked on his gladness at having seen some “positive transfer” of customers from affected premises to other Mecca venues nearby, “where that has been geographically possible.” Sponsored message Multiply your reach. Tap into NEXT.io Media.

👀 Entain could make further changes to its portfolio after completing the first stage of its planned exit from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), with CFO Michael Snape saying the group is “not beholden to the shape and size” of its current business. Speaking today during the company’s post-H1 earnings call, Snape said that the group could be open to further changes to its business. However, he stopped short of saying which parts of the portfolio could be affected. Entain CEO Stella David added the group had “really good value businesses” that it continued to invest in and grow. However, she played down any suggestion the company could proceed with mass sales of its assets, saying there is “no fire sale taking place here”. Sponsored message Mexico is shaping up to be Latin America's biggest iGaming market. See where the opportunity sits in our free Market in Focus: Mexico report.

🤔 Andy Burnham’s latest policy announcement has alarmed the retail gambling industry with its vow to revoke the ‘aim to permit’ rule enshrined in the 2005 Gambling Act. But Gibraltar’s Gambling Commissioner Andrew Lyman feels that such an amendment may only be achievable via a more extensive overhaul of the UK’s entire gambling regulatory framework. Lyman said: “If you’re visiting the section around local authorities and them being governed by their aim to permit, then surely you’re having to look at the whole aim to permit cornerstone from the point of view of the Gambling Commission as well. So it could actually result in a very substantial change to the nature of gambling regulation in the UK.” Sponsored message Fully regulated since 2024, ~3M players, and primed for M&A — Peru is LatAm's most accessible entry point. Get our free Market in Focus: Peru report.

📈 Entain reported a 13% year-on-year increase in online net gaming revenue (NGR) across the UK and Ireland during the first half of its 2026 financial year, despite facing higher gambling tax rates in the region. For the six months to the end of June, reported group NGR for the whole Entain business hit £2.55bn, up 7% year-on-year. Underlying EBITDA slipped by 2% to £479.3m, though net loss was cut from £85.8m to £11.4m. “I am pleased with Entain’s start to 2026 with strong momentum and volume growth continuing as well as strong player engagement across the group throughout the World Cup tournament,” said CEO Stella David. “This performance reflects our strengthening operations and focused execution which reinforces the resilience of our globally scaled business and its ability to consistently deliver high-quality growth.” Sponsored message South Africa's GGR grew 25.7% in a year, to €3.1bn — Africa's most mature betting market. Get the detail in our free Market in Focus: South Africa report.

🇬🇧 British amusement and gaming trade body Bacta told NEXT.io it would consider a judicial review if the UK began revoking Adult Gaming Centre (AGC) licences. Prominent reform campaigner James Noyes yesterday called on the government to include options for local authorities to be given powers to review and revoke existing gaming licences, as part of the consultation on changes to ‘aim to permit’ rules. Noyes wrote on X: “Making it harder for new premises to open by scrapping the statutory ‘aim to permit’ is a major step forward. However, people are sick of the number of premises that are already on their high streets. The total number of existing vaping and gaming venues needs to go down, otherwise the problem identified by the Prime Minister will never be resolved.” Sponsored message Looking at Kenya? ~8M players, mobile-first payments, and brand-new 2025 regulation — the full picture's in our free Market in Focus: Kenya report.

🤔 Catena CEO Manuel Stan has explained to investors why Q2’s disappointing results have prompted management to accelerate away from traditional affiliation. The firm’s revenue figure of €9.5m was roughly flat year-on-year, representing a fall of just 1%, but adjusted EBITDA painted a starker picture of decline, having fallen by 11% to €1.2m. The uniformly negative results are symptomatic of a wider evolution of the affiliate ecosystem. CEO Manuel Stan told investors: “The financial volatility that arises from the unpredictability of a search-dependent business model led Catena Media’s board and management earlier this year to begin exploring how to reshape the business towards a model that reduces exposure to any single external factor.” Sponsored message Connect now with the #1 Casino Game Aggregator

🗣️ Evoke chief financial officer Sean Wilkins has revealed the group is prioritising higher-value players over customer volume, after the operator reported a 6% year-on-year fall in active user numbers during the first half of 2026. Wilkins pictured) made the revelation during the company’s H1 earnings call. He was responding to a question over whether the decline in active customers reflected a deliberate decision to trade volume for higher-value players. Wilkins said the strategy was focused on “getting significant value from our players”, with evoke seeking to drive both average revenue per user (ARPU) and margin. He added that the approach, which has been in place for three years, was “definitely paying dividend”. Sponsored message Multiply your reach. Tap into NEXT.io Media.

🤝 Vicky Foxcroft MP will become Britain’s latest gambling minister as the retail sector faces its greatest threat in years. The Member of Parliament for Lewisham North will become the latest in a long line of politicians to hold the gambling brief and therefore oversee one of Britain’s most controversial sectors. It confirms a NEXT.io scoop from last month that the former trade union official was a frontrunner for the post, after UK trade body the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) shared intelligence with their members that she would likely get the job. Sponsored message Fully regulated since 2024, ~3M players, and primed for M&A — Peru is LatAm's most accessible entry point. Get our free Market in Focus: Peru report.

👀 Evoke has identified two “material uncertainties” around its ability to continue as a going concern as its proposed £243m acquisition by Bally’s Intralot progresses, with the deal still on track to complete in Q4 this year or Q1 of 2027. The first uncertainty is the company’s ability to achieve the improved level of profitability and cash generation required to refinance its £1.8bn worth of debt facilities, should the deal not go through. The group also flagged that even if the transaction were to complete, its current directors have limited visibility over Bally’s Intralot’s “ability and intentions to operate the group under its ownership”. Sponsored message South Africa's GGR grew 25.7% in a year, to €3.1bn — Africa's most mature betting market. Get the detail in our free Market in Focus: South Africa report.

🏛️ The Court of First Instance of Curaçao invalidated two Aviator-branded trademark registrations held by Aviator LLC, handing Spribe a win in a dispute that has swung between the two companies across the world. Spribe, the developer behind the Aviator crash game, won a default judgment against Aviator LLC, a Tbilisi-based company it has been fighting across multiple jurisdictions over rights to the Aviator name. It comes as Spribe and Aviator LLC – set up by former owner of the now Flutter-owned Adjarabet business, Temur Ugulava – lock horns globally over the IP behind what has become one of the world’s most successful games. Sponsored message Looking at Kenya? ~8M players, mobile-first payments, and brand-new 2025 regulation — the full picture's in our free Market in Focus: Kenya report.

💳 Grandstand, formerly known as Gambling.com Group, has launched a Visa debit card specifically targeted at high-spending gamblers. The ‘Rollcard’ is being issued by the Cross River Bank and allows high-rollers to keep their gambling funds separate from their everyday finances. Sports bettors, casino players and prediction market traders are all mentioned as potential users of the fintech solution. Grandstand CEO and co-founder Kevin McCrystle commented: “Serious players deserve a dedicated financial product built for how they play.” Sponsored message Connect now with the #1 Casino Game Aggregator

🇧🇷 Brazil’s ban on land-based gambling remains in place pending further review, following a hearing held on Thursday (6 August) in the country's Supreme Federal Court (STF) in Brasília. While reviewing Extraordinary Appeal 966,177, the reporting justice Luiz Fux recognised that Article 50 of Brazil’s Criminal Misdemeanours Act of 1941 was incorporated into and remains compatible with the 1988 Federal Constitution. Article 50 classifies the operation of games of chance in public venues or places accessible to the public as a criminal misdemeanour. Justice Flávio Dino agreed with Fux. However, he requested additional review of the case, arguing that the discussion should also include online fixed-odds betting. Sponsored message Multiply your reach. Tap into NEXT.io Media.

✍️ Capitol Hill politicians have launched a sharp broadside against MLB and FanDuel, demanding an immediate overhaul of marketing practices that use professional athletes to keep high-stakes bettors engaged. The intervention follows revelations that Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper unwittingly filmed a personalised video greeting via the app Cameo for FanDuel. “Mr. Harper has stated he was unaware of the true purpose of the video and would not have participated had he known,” the letter read. “This incident, however, raises broader concerns that players are not prohibited from such endorsements and highlights a systemic failure rooted in the deep enmeshment between leagues, teams, and sportsbooks.” Sponsored message Mexico is shaping up to be Latin America's biggest iGaming market. See where the opportunity sits in our free Market in Focus: Mexico report.

⚽ Entain launched Seven in the UK today (11 August), a free-to-play app that asks players to pick a squad of seven footballers each game week and rewards them when their picks score the first or last goal in their matches. Players choose three forwards and four players from other positions, and three or more successful picks unlock prizes, including a £100,000 jackpot every week. The app sits alongside Ladbrokes, Entain's flagship UK brand, and will add leagues and social features from October. The launch is Entain's clearest push yet into free-to-play as a route to younger, digitally native fans aged 25 to 35, a group it believes existing games have failed to serve. Seven was built inside Angstrom, Entain's sports modelling and analytics arm, designed to feed new customers toward Ladbrokes. Sponsored message Fully regulated since 2024, ~3M players, and primed for M&A — Peru is LatAm's most accessible entry point. Get our free Market in Focus: Peru report.

🇦🇺 Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Labor Party caucus that he was “confident” of passing gambling reforms with bipartisan support. Albanese expects the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026, which he has called the “strongest anti-gambling regulation that Australia has ever seen,” to be presented to the House of Representatives next week. While Labor holds a clear majority in the House of Representatives, that is not the case in the Senate. To pass the new laws, Albanese needs the support of either the Greens or the Liberal-National Coalition, and he told the Caucus that he had recently met with leader of the opposition Angus Taylor to hash out the disagreements. Sponsored message Looking at Kenya? ~8M players, mobile-first payments, and brand-new 2025 regulation — the full picture's in our free Market in Focus: Kenya report.