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⚽ Prediction markets represented an estimated 27% of US legal sports betting activity during the World Cup, up from roughly 9% at the start of 2026. The H2 Gambling Capital estimate, cited by Bloomberg ahead of Spain’s victory yesterday, used public data from the tournament’s first month. Kalshi repeatedly broke its trading records during the tournament. Activity sometimes approached 10 times the levels seen earlier this year. According to public data, Kalshi, Polymarket and Robinhood’s Rothera helped prediction markets top $50bn in monthly volume in June. 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.

🇳🇱 The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has penalised Casino Zoetermeer after two self-excluded customers entered its gaming hall and gambled. The regulator initially imposed a €25,000 fine following an investigation opened in 2022. A court later reduced it to €21,500 because the enforcement process exceeded a reasonable period. Publication of the fine had been delayed after the casino sought urgent judicial protection. The KSA rejected its objections and the court dismissed the substantive appeal arguments. The case arose from reports by two people who questioned the venue's identity controls. Investigators found both were registered with Cruks when Casino Zoetermeer admitted them. 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.

🇬🇧 Gordon Moody has secured NHS England funding to expand its gambling harm treatment and recovery services under the UK’s new statutory levy system. Under the agreement, the charity will use the funding to support its residential, online and community-based treatment programmes. The new structure forms part of the government’s new statutory levy framework, with third-sector providers now commissioned directly to deliver specialist support. 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.

🇺🇸 DraftKings has sued Philadelphia, seeking to stop a city investigation into its sportsbook and online casino operations. The federal complaint, filed Thursday 16 July, challenges Philadelphia’s Consumer Protection Ordinance, adopted in 2024. City lawyers issued a subpoena on 24 April. It seeks records covering wagering revenue, customer targeting, promotions, VIP programmes and responsible gambling practices. Sponsored message Multiply your reach. Tap into NEXT.io Media.

🇳🇿 New Zealand opened its online casino licensing process today, beginning a controlled shift away from an offshore-dominated market. The Department of Internal Affairs is now accepting expressions of interest until 14 August. Operators must file through the Government Electronic Tender Service and pay a non-refundable NZ$19,000 fee. Accepted candidates will move to an auction scheduled for September. Successful bidders can lodge full licence applications from October, with a planned market launch at the beginning of December. The process follows the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, which took effect on 1 May. The law created New Zealand's first domestic licensing system for online casino operators. 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.

📉 Evolution posted a 1.2% year-on-year fall in second-quarter revenue as continued weakness in Asia offset growth elsewhere, although the supplier said improving momentum in Europe and disciplined cost control left it encouraged by the quarter’s performance. For the three months to 30 June, net revenue amounted to €517.8m, down from €524.3m in Q2 2025. This drop was driven primarily by weaker performance in Europe, where revenue declined year-on-year by 10.3%. “To conclude: the road is almost never straight, but what matters is that we are moving forward,” said CEO Martin Carlesund. “Some curves are harder than others, but they can also be fun. And the same goes for Evolution. It is great, fun work, and we are always moving forward.” 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.

💰 Betsson Group generated record quarterly revenue in Q2 2026 driven by strong growth in Latin America and increased activity around the FIFA World Cup. However, higher gaming taxes, increased payment costs and weaker B2B revenue all weighed on profitability, as operating income fell almost 40% year-on-year. CEO Pontus Lindwall said the period was characterised by “continued healthy growth” in Betsson’s B2C business, although lower revenue from one major B2B customer proved a drag on wider group performance. Sponsored message Connect now with the #1 Casino Game Aggregator

🇧🇷 NEXT iGaming Market in Focus: Brazil sets out what it takes to win in one of the world’s most talked-about regulated markets. Brazil’s regulated betting market is heading for one of two very different futures over the next five years, and the gap between them is worth billions. That is the central finding of NEXT iGaming Market in Focus: Brazil, a major new report published by NEXT.io in partnership with Pragmatic Solutions. The gap between those two futures comes down largely to politics. Brazil holds general elections on 4 October 2026, and gambling has become a charged campaign issue, with a fast-growing evangelical voting bloc and moral opposition on one side, and a government that now leans on billions of reais in betting-tax revenue on the other. Sponsored message Multiply your reach. Tap into NEXT.io Media.

🚨 Entain has confirmed it will cut around 500 jobs as part of an efficiency initiative spearheaded by new chief financial officer Michael Snape. The company told NEXT.io the programme is focused on improving “operational efficiency and agility”. However, it insisted the cuts are not a response to recent increases in UK gambling taxes. “As part of our ongoing focus on enhancing Entain’s operational efficiency and agility, we’ve begun implementing organisational changes which will regrettably impact a number of roles across the group over the months ahead,” an Entain spokesperson told NEXT.io. 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.

🏛️ A bipartisan House bill would require online sportsbooks to conduct facial recognition age checks before customers can place wagers. Rep. Josh Gottheimer introduced the Facial Recognition to Protect Children Act on 15 July. Eight lawmakers from both parties joined as original co-sponsors. The proposal would require a check when a user logs in or immediately before placing a bet. Facial analysis would examine physical structure and patterns to estimate whether the customer meets the legal age requirement. 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.

🇬🇮 Gibraltar’s new Gambling Act will replace the territory’s long-standing one-size-fits-all B2B licensing regime with a tiered framework designed to lower barriers for smaller suppliers while formalising existing regulatory practices. Under the reforms, suppliers will be able to apply for tiered B2B licences based on the scale of their operations. This will mark a switch from the existing model that effectively required businesses to obtain the equivalent of a full B2B licence regardless of size. The changes also signal the end of Gibraltar’s long-standing “sheltering” system, which saw suppliers operate under the systems of licensed B2C operators before securing their own licences. The arrangement allowed the regulator to oversee suppliers before they entered the market. 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.

✍️ Entain has welcomed the government's consultation on banning unlicensed gambling sponsorships and urged sports bodies to introduce a voluntary ban ahead of the 2026/27 season. The operator called for an immediate ban on sponsorship deals with unlicensed gambling operators, urging the Premier League and other sports bodies to act now rather than wait for legislation to force change. Entain has written to Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief exec, urging an immediate voluntary ban on sponsorship and advertising by unlicensed operators, starting with LED perimeter boards. It has also written to David Kogan OBE, chair of the Independent Football Regulator, setting out governance and licensing reforms. 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 problem gambling rate dipped slightly year-on-year in the third edition of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), released today (16 July) by the Gambling Commission. Covering the entirety of 2025, many of the survey’s headline figures have stayed relatively stable. But there is a notable change in the percentage of participants with a Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) score of eight and over – it was 2.7% in last year’s survey, but now sits at 2.4%. The commission has described this as stable over the past three years, and considering the first survey published in 2024 had the figure at 2.5%, this is broadly true. Tim Miller, the soon-to-depart executive director for research and policy at the UKGC, said: “Three years of GSGB provides a richer, more timely picture of the trend in gambling in Great Britain than has previously been available.” Sponsored message Connect now with the #1 Casino Game Aggregator

🇬🇧 The Gambling Commission has told NEXT.io that it does “not recognise” claims that it is about to knowingly publish inaccurate results in tomorrow’s Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). Claims of sampling bias have been levelled at the GSGB in the past over its methodological approach. The first edition was published in July 2024 and the release on 16 July will be the third. With that in mind, the commission has stood by the evolution of the research, its findings and how they stack up against alternative studies. The regulator said: “We publish comprehensive technical reports alongside the statistics and continue to review and improve the methodology as new evidence emerges. It is therefore wrong to suggest that concerns have been ignored or that the data are known to be unreliable. The methodology has been independently scrutinised and provides an important source of evidence for understanding gambling behaviour in Great Britain.” Sponsored message Multiply your reach. Tap into NEXT.io Media.

✍️ A new report, published by Niamh O Regan of the Social Market Foundation (SMF), critiques the UK’s hampered public health response to gambling harms. Unusually, there has been fairly broad acceptance of the recommendations proffered within, though old disputes have reared their heads once more regarding the evidence base and overall public health approach to gambling. It is towards NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) that O Regan directs a portion of her recommendations. She believes that frontline services across the nation need to be better supported by these bodies to identify gambling harms with improved planning, information sharing and local health strategies. 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.

🤝 DubClub has appointed former DraftKings VP Ed Silva as CEO, while the sports betting creator platform has also completed another funding round to support its next phase of growth. Silva joins the company after just over a year as fractional chief product officer at Prediction News. Prior to this, he spent six months as head of NBA sportsbook at DraftKings and also worked as vice president of product at Nerdy. His first spell at DraftKings lasted over nine-and-a-half years and saw him hold a number of roles. These included vice president of product, senior director for analytics and director of product operations. 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.

👀 The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) of the UK government is consulting on a potential ban on unlicensed gambling operators entering into sponsorships across all sectors. The government has been considering a ban of this sort since February, as part of a wider crackdown on the gambling black market. The practice is particularly prevalent in sports and across football. Current legislation allows businesses to enter this type of partnership as long as the product is not available to UK consumers. The consultation will close on 9 September 2026. 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.

🇬🇧 Evolution’s UK licence review will conclude with a £4.75m settlement paid to the Gambling Commission for supplying unlicensed UK-facing operators. The live dealer giant today said the matter resulted from the finding that Evolution games – in breach of its terms of supply – were available via two operators on six websites offering content to consumers without a UK licence. The news marks a lifting of one of the most significant pieces of regulatory risk hanging over the Martin Carlesund-led company, which has seen allegations of activity in prohibited markets become a running sore for the business and its share price. 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.

🇸🇪 Svenska Spel reported its strongest second quarter since Sweden’s gambling market re-regulation in 2019, with higher customer engagement during the 2026 FIFA World Cup helping lift revenue and profit. For the three months to 30 June, net gaming revenue at Svenska Spel reached SEK1.96bn (€177.7m). This was 7% higher than the same quarter in 2025 and 4% more than Q1 this year, the operator’s quarterly report revealed. Operating profit also increased 13% year-on-year to SEK617m, while the operator improved its operating margin from 30% to 31%. Svenska Spel attributed the performance to strong growth across Eurojackpot, Lotto, Oddset and casino. It also said the World Cup boosted revenue and customer activity within its sports betting business. The operator noted Sweden’s participation and its partnership with the Swedish Football Association increased visibility throughout the tournament. Sponsored message Connect now with the #1 Casino Game Aggregator

🤝 German slot giant Merkur Gaming has agreed to acquire White Hat Studios to boost its US offering. The news confirms a NEXT.io scoop from last year that White Hat Gaming was exploring a sale of its studios division following recent success in the US market. It follows White Hat – founded by Max Wright in 2012 – setting up its studio division to target the US after acquiring a remote gaming server, brand and game catalogue from Blueprint Gaming. Merkur CEO Lars Felderhoff said: “White Hat Studios has delivered impressive growth since its launch. We look forward to working with the team to continue the US success story and, in turn, Merkur’s expansion in regulated iGaming.” Sponsored message Multiply your reach. Tap into NEXT.io Media.