Hungary’s gambling reforms moving at pace
Country setting up gambling reg' reform, Banijay, US: OSB vs. iCasino, Ballys-Evoke &Co
Hello, on Gaming&Co today:
Hungary wasting no time: Finance minister handed gambling brief
Banijay talks up World Cup with strong Q1 results
US sports vs. iCasino, Polymarket in the cross-hairs (again)
Extension work: Bally’s and Evoke extend deadline over M&A talk
NIBS: Ukraine, EveryMatrix
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Hungary getting on with gambling reform
New PM appoints Finance Minister András Kármán to oversee gambling brief
Wasting no time: Only a week after he was sworn in, new Prime Minister Péter Magyar has already begun a sweeping review of Hungary’s state-owned businesses, including the de facto sports betting monopoly-holder Szerencsejáték.
Magyar campaigned on a pledge to sweep away the cronyism of long-time PM Viktor Orbán and, as reported by Gaming&Co, insiders predicted this would include overhauls of lottery, betting and casino interests - all of which are seen as having close ties to the former regime.
Szerencsejáték operates Hungary’s national lottery and also holds the country’s only online betting licence. Other companies are, in theory, able to apply for licences, after the company changed its laws following pressure from the European Court of Justice.
Yeah right: But the nearly impossible bar set by the application criteria and fears that protectionism was still rampant in the Hungarian market have meant that years into the new regulatory regime, not a single international operator has even attempted to apply.
The A-team
Magyar has appointed a “TISZA transition” team of senior ministers to review all state-owned companies. A potential overhaul of Szerencsejáték will primarily be the purview of Finance Minister András Kármán, who has been handed the gambling brief by the new PM.
Commenting on his new task-force role, Kármán reportedly accused Szerencsejáték of using its gambling revenue for “propaganda purposes”.
He’s got a point: Just last week it was revealed in the Hungarian press that Orbán’s favourite band Ismerős Arcok had received HUF195m (€540,866) in funding from the gambling operator over the past decade.
Good things coming: There are high hopes among the international gambling community that this review is the start of a transition towards a more outsider-friendly framework in Hungary.
Magyar has been boldly pro-EU in his messaging to date and promised voters he would re-orientate the country back towards Brussels after 16 years under Orbán, who was often cast as the bloc’s most persistent agitator.
That would likely include respecting rulings from Europe’s top court that Hungary’s gambling model is against EU law, not to mention numerous judgements by Hungarian courts that also call for reform.
You’re next: Hungary’s online casino licences are reserved exclusively for land-based casino concession holders, but the companies are not state-owned and will not be included in this initial sweep by Magyar’s cabinet.
However they are broadly viewed as closed allies of the Orbán regime and with the casino model also on shaky ground when it comes to EU law, a shakeup of this sector is also expected to be on Kármán’s to-do list.
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Banijay confident World Cup will “be significant”
Betclic-Tipico integration on track as company learns about “new retail business”
World Cup fever: Banijay CEO François Riahi said he was confident that the kick off times of World Cup matches in North America this summer will not hinder betting volumes for its Betclic and Tipico sports betting brands. Discussing the group’s Q1 results with analysts, Riahi said many of the games will take place in the afternoon and “evening in Europe, so we believe it will be a significant World Cup for”.
With 48 teams and 104 matches, there will also “be more games so we expect a really big event and the same impact that we had during the previous World Cups”, he added.
Banijay’s gaming and betting divisions performed strongly during the quarter with revenues up 17% to €433m thanks to +20% growth in unique active players. Sportsbook revenues increased 14.4% to €326.5m and online casino, poker and horse racing revenues were up 27%, despite the impact of the French tax hikes that come into force in July 2025.
Retail add-on: Riahi said the integration of Tipico was on track and the Betclic teams were learning “more about the retail business, which is new to us” and is “an important add-on”.
Possession play: Banijay doesn’t break down revenues by countries, but CFO Sophie Kurinckx-Leclerc said the number of UAPs should continue to rise thanks to the World Cup, although “the main challenge of these big events is really to attract and retain” those players, she added.
The group accounted for a €50m EBITDA hit in 2026 due to the French tax rises, although half of it had been recorded in 2025 following their introduction in July, said Riahi. Group revenues were up 9% to €1.14bn and adj. EBITDA was up 5.4% to €197m, excluding the tax increases in France its adj. EBITDA would have increased 11.3%, the group said.
Live and TV content and production revenues were up 4.5% to €714.5m, thanks to a 101.5% rise in live event income “underpinned by the production of Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony”.
The merger with All3 Media is due to be completed in the summer, guidance to 2029 of 10% and mid-single digit growth for Banijay Gaming and Banijay Live respectively was unchanged.
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Bally’s-Evoke M&A deadline extended
The two companies say they are continuing discussions, as deadline pushed to June
Give me just a little more time: Struggling online giant Evoke has bought itself a few more weeks to secure a takeover by Bally’s Intralot, after what should have been the final deadline for a firm offer passed on Monday night. In an announcement Tuesday morning, Evoke said it had agreed with Bally’s to extend the deadline to June 8.
The two parties are still engaged in “constructive discussions” following Bally’s original offer of 0.50p per share valuing Evoke at around £225m.
Cash and carry: The deal is expected to comprise an all-share combination with a partial cash alternative, Evoke said. Shares in the operator opened 5% up following news of the agreed extension.
London fog: The UK continues to be a huge drag on Evoke ans its key brands William Hill and 888. Regulatory tightening and, most significantly, increases in online casino tax rates to 40% of GGR have had huge impacts on and cast a major cloud over its future.
In its FY2025 earnings, Evoke reported a 3% decline in UK online revenue, even as its overall group revenue rose 2% to £1.78bn. However the company still reported losses of £549m, more than double the previous year, because of its exposure to the British market.
Shutters down: The operator could close as many as 270 William Hill retail shops as it sets out cost-cutting measures.
The grass is greener: Bally’s Intralot, meanwhile, struck an entirely different tone as it revealed its first Q1 results since the €2.7bn merger of the two storied gambling brands in Oct25, reporting revenues of €268m in the first three months of 2026.
In sharp contrast to its acquisition target, Bally’s is revelling in the “continued strength” of its UK operators after it reported growth of 10.6% in the British market. Bally’s Q1 numbers brought pro-forma 12-month revenues to €1.06bn and €427m in adj. EBITDA.
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Sports and iCasino’s different US outlooks; more insider trading accusations for Polymarket
Prediction markets impacting investor sentiment towards sportsbooks, as more insider trading claims hit Polymarket
Tale of two verticals: Despite US online operators delivering mostly positive Q1 results (9% EBITDA beats on average), the split between sports and casino-first brands was clear, according to the analysts at Macquarie.
DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment posted “modest beats” but saw “downward estimate revisions”, while iGaming-focused operators like “Rush Street Interactive (+25% EBITDA beat, +9% revisions) and Super Group (+5% beat, +1% revisions) continued to benefit from stronger structural growth and margin visibility”.
The analysts said the trend underscored the fact “that online stock moves are increasingly being driven by positioning, sentiment, and macro/narrative factors rather than changes in earnings expectations”.
The online casino vertical continues to be seen as having momentum and generating reliable margins, while sportsbook results were “more volatile due to hold normalization”.
Overdone: Prediction markets were a key topic on analyst calls, but “product constraints” mean player trends are seen as “incremental participation rather than structural disruption”, added Macquarie.
We don’t talk enough about them: The Jefferies team said investors’ fears of prediction markets taking parlay market share from sportsbooks were overblown. Parlays generate 30% of bookmakers’ handle and 60% of their GGR, the analysts noted, but in April, “parlays represented 6% of Kalshi volumes” and “generated c$300m of handle vs. $4.4bn generated by OSB parlays”.
Contrary to expectations of better prices thanks to market makers, parlay hold rates between OSB and prediction brands were broadly similar at 18% for Kalshi vs. 17.8% for bookmakers in Illinois, noted Jefferies.
Although improving in April, flat betting handle in Q1 impacted online casino in the US, with GGR up 19% vs. 22% in Q4 2025 and +29% in Q3, as multi-product consumers spend less or don’t recycle their winnings on iGaming products.
So predictable
Polymarket continues to be accused of enabling insider trading following the news of the US soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke being charged with using classified military information to profit from prediction market bets. Last weekend CBS News’s flagship programme 60 Minutes featured a number of analysts and experts who all expressed deep skepticism about the betting patterns on Polymarket.
Bursting bubbles: Nicolas Waiman, founder and CEO of Paris-based analytics firm Bubblemaps, said his teams spotted “nine Polymarket accounts, all connected who made collectively $2.4m betting almost exclusively on US military operations”. But while Van Dyke made $400,000, those nine accounts made $2.4m and for Waiman: “Here’s the crazy part - 98% win rate.”
On 23 March, $800m was traded on oil moments before President Trump announced “very productive conversations” about ending US-Iran hostilities.
System of a Down: The Anti-Corruption Data Collective added that “betting on war”markets usually had win rates of 35% (vs. 7% for sports), but with Polymarket the win rates were 52%, suggesting there were “systemic signs of insider trading”.
Meanwhile DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish let rip at Kalshi (and don’t get those two names mixed up).
News shorts
Ukraine’s gambling regulator, which renamed itself as PlayCity a year ago, has begun a pilot of a market-wide monitoring service. Known as DSOM, the system will track player and operator activity in real time and should enhance regulatory oversight and tax compliance, the regulator said. The system does not collect personal data about players or track their income or spending outside of gambling platforms, but will monitor their gambling spending, officials said.
Keeping the receipts: The government hopes that DSOM will avoid tax dodging by operators who misreport revenues and transaction volumes. It will also use anonymised player tracking data to check whether the overall payment of Ukraine’s 18% personal gambling revenue tax and 1.5% military levy on gambling earnings lines up with expectations.
Help us out here: The rollout of DSOM comes a month after PlayCity established a new complaints service to allow consumers to flag illegal advertising. Over the past year, Ukraine’s gambling regulator says it has handed out UAH80m ($1.8m) in fines and blocked more than 500 social media pages.
Every Matrix has obtained conditional licensing approval from Alberta in readiness for the province’s regulated launch this summer. The platform provider also went live with Betsson Cameroon in April, with the group’s sports betting UI powered by Goma UX, the company that operates the Betsson France brand, following Goma’s acquisition by Every Matrix in November 2025.
Calendar
Results: May 21: Better Collective, GIG, CIRSA
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