Author: Maisie Morrison

TLDR Betano has been announced as an Official Tournament Supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2026 for Europe and South America through a deal between FIFA and Kaizen Gaming. This is the third partnership between Betano and FIFA, following the 2022 World Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup 2025. The 2026 World Cup will be held across Canada, Mexico and the United States from June 11 to July 19, featuring 48 teams for the first time. Betano plans to offer responsible gaming features during the tournament, including financial limits and playing time management tools. Kaizen Gaming, Betano’s parent company,…

TLDR Unregulated online gambling reached $5.9 trillion in global wagering value in 2025, behind only the US and China in economic scale 78% of gross gaming revenue now flows to unregulated operators, making it the largest form of cybercrime worldwide A new “unacknowledged gambling” category has emerged, covering social casinos, sweepstakes, skins trading, and TikTok contests Unregulated gambling ads appeared on more than 80% of illegal sports streams in the US and UK during 2024 and 2025 Countries including Australia and Ukraine are rolling out new measures to combat the growing black market The global unregulated gambling market has grown…

TLDR Former Abilene Christian basketball player Airion Simmons received a permanent NCAA ban for conspiring with outside bettors to fix a March 2024 game against Tarleton State Simmons admitted to accepting $3,500 to deliberately underperform, collecting cash from a contact in Dallas The scheme was exposed in 2025 when a former teammate disclosed the plan after transferring to a Division II school Federal prosecutors indicted Simmons and two bettors in January 2026 on charges including bribery, wire fraud, and conspiracy Simmons joins a growing list of NCAA athletes permanently banned for betting violations, with Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby currently…

TLDR South Africa’s online betting market recorded 380 million visits in Q1 2026, averaging 126 million visits per month Betway led with 94 million visits, followed by YesPlay at 53 million and Hollywoodbets at 46 million The top three operators accounted for roughly 50% of all online betting traffic in the country Betway’s monthly visits more than doubled from 21.9 million in January 2024 to 46 million by December 2025 Regulators have introduced new compliance checks and verification systems in response to the rapid growth South Africa’s online betting industry recorded 380 million visits during the first quarter of 2026.…

TLDR DraftKings is closing its unprofitable sportsbook attached to Wrigley Field in Chicago, which opened in March 2024 The location generated just $17 million in handle, ranking 13th out of 15 retail venues in Illinois Illinois’ high tax structure, with effective rates near 50%, made the standalone retail sportsbook unsustainable In-venue sportsbooks at major sports stadiums across the U.S. have been closing over the past two years, including locations near the Phoenix Suns, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Guardians Most bettors at live events prefer using mobile apps, leaving physical sportsbook locations underused DraftKings announced Monday that it will close its…

TLDR MGM China shareholders approved a final dividend of HKD0.353 per share, to be paid on June 3 The total 2025 dividend payout reaches just over HKD1.34 billion, representing about 26.4% of full-year profit Full-year 2025 net revenue came in at US$4.46 billion, up 10.9% from the prior year Fourth-quarter net revenue rose 21.4% year-on-year to nearly US$1.24 billion Jefferies warned that a higher royalty fee to parent MGM Resorts International could reduce dividends in 2026 and 2027 MGM China Holdings has confirmed that shareholders voted to approve a final dividend of HKD0.353 per share for the financial year ending…

TLDR Entertainment City casinos in Metro Manila generated PHP37.47 billion ($574.6 million) in Q1 2026 gross gaming revenue, down 11.1% year-on-year The broader Philippine gaming market fell 15.9% to PHP87.60 billion, driven largely by a 22.4% drop in electronic gaming revenue Bloomberry Resorts reported a 12.6% GGR decline while Okada Manila saw a 17.2% drop in the same period City of Dreams Manila showed mixed results with improved EBITDA but weaker mass-market revenue Clark-area casinos also declined, though smaller Greenfield Zone licensees posted a slight increase The large-scale casinos in Entertainment City, Metro Manila, reported a weaker first quarter in…

TLDR A new report estimates 17 million Americans will use prediction markets in 2026, with 43% less likely than average to identify as gamblers There is roughly a 40-50% overlap between sports bettors and prediction market users, far less than many assumed Prediction market users engage with cryptocurrency three times more than the national average and lean heavily toward DeFi The user base is 90% male, the most gender-skewed audience the research firm has ever studied Top user concentrations are in tech hubs like Nashville, Austin, and Fort Collins rather than traditional financial centers New Data Challenges Assumptions About Prediction…

TLDR Ontario launched BetGuard, a centralized self-exclusion portal letting residents aged 19+ block all regulated online gambling platforms at once Users can choose exclusion periods from six months to five years and stop all marketing messages from operators The system covers all regulated platforms including OLG and requires no visits to individual operator sites Bill 107 has been introduced separately to ban all online gambling advertising in Ontario Ontario’s regulated iGaming sector generated C$262 million in revenue during 2024-25 Ontario has rolled out a new centralized self-exclusion tool called BetGuard, giving residents a single portal to step away from all…

TLDR Nearly 1 in 11 UK adults (around 1.6 million people) experienced harm from someone else’s gambling in 2024 73.7% of those affected reported at least one health consequence, with stress and anxiety being the most common Young women were disproportionately affected, making up 55% of the “affected others” group Only 14.5% of affected individuals sought help in the past year despite widespread harm The UK government has allocated £25.4 million to gambling-harm prevention services The Gambling Commission has published new data showing that nearly one in 11 adults in Great Britain were harmed by someone else’s gambling during 2024.…