The global impact of EU's new digital regs
Both EU and non-EU operators will be affected, Brazil, Canal+ &Co
Good morning, in Gaming&Co today:
Access all areas: new EU digital regulations will affect all operators
Analysis: Brazil’s tumultuous early days as a regulated market
The split: will Canal+ sell off MultiChoice’s OSB brands?
Netherlands iGaming sector braces for more turbulence
News shorts: Clarion Gaming, British Horseracing Authority, Betchoice
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European digital regulations set for global impact
Upcoming framework will affect both EU and non-EU online gambling firms
Continental and global impact: The European Union is rolling out new digital regulations that could significantly impact gambling operators “both within and outside the EU”, according to the law firm Wiggin. Key legislative developments include the European Accessibility Act (EAA), Digital Services Act (DSA), and the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). These reflect the EU’s broader push to enhance consumer protection, digital accessibility and responsible use of AI.
Access all areas: The EAA will be effective from June and mandates accessibility standards for online services offered to EU consumers, regardless of where the provider is based. Though it applies primarily to B2C services, its influence is expected to extend into B2B relationships in gambling and other similar sectors.
While real money games may fall outside the scope of the EAA, e-commerce elements, such as payment systems and customer service, will likely be included. Harmonised standards are still in development so a period of legal uncertainty is expected, while gambling-specific regulations remain under the purview of member states.
The DSA imposes due diligence and content moderation obligations on digital intermediaries targeting EU users. For gambling platforms featuring chat or social functions, this means they may be classified as “hosting services” or “online platforms” with obligations such as publishing transparency reports and labelling adverts clearly.
AI, O, U: AI technologies are increasingly used in gambling for fraud detection and player personalisation and the AI Act will target their use. Operators using or developing AI tools, especially in consumer-facing roles, may need to comply with new transparency and accountability requirements.
Influencers will also be subject to new regulations under the Digital Fairness Act, which will require them to clearly disclose paid partnerships and sponsored content.
Overall, these evolving laws underscore the importance of proactive compliance, said Ted Shapiro and Tamas Szigeti of the law firm Wiggin, and “gambling operators should assess their digital services and AI systems now to prepare for future enforcement and avoid regulatory risk.”
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Analysis: Brazil’s tumultuous early days
The legal market in South America’s largest economy still has major challenges to overcome
Early doors: The launch in January of Brazil’s regulated market was a watershed moment for online sports betting and gaming in Latin America. But as early figures start to emerge from the regulated market, there have been high-profile enforcement actions against non-compliant operators and persistent black market activity, exacerbated by issues with the state-owned payment infrastructures.
Shockwaves were sent through the industry in April when the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) suspended four operators for breaching compliance rules, although Pixbet’s ban was subsequently overturned after a legal review.
Under the influence: Adding to the turbulence, senior police officials have voiced concerns over black market affiliates siphoning Brazilian traffic via social media influencers. At a parliamentary inquiry, Federal Police Chief Lucimério Barros Campos revealed that R$15m (€2.3m) worth of illegal bets have been placed in the state of Alagoas alone since January, driven by influencers showcasing fabricated ‘winnings’ to entice bettors to fraudulent apps.
PIX and shovels: Regulus Partners also recently warned that the scale of the black market remains a major issue in Brazil, with “a very significant proportion of activity” still outside the licensing regime, estimated at around 60%. Focusing on the highly popular PIX payment system to work out online betting and gaming volumes, it calculated that around US$3bn in monthly volumes were still unaccounted for in Brazil.
The fragmented state of local financial services, combined with operators’ slow adaptation to compliant payment flows, has created bottlenecks that risk pushing consumers back toward frictionless black market options.
Without rapid progress on a payment solution - especially with PIX, Brazil’s dominant instant payment system - the promise of a scalable and competitive legal market may falter, according to Regulus, which warns that solving the payment puzzle will be “critical to long-term channelisation success”.
Harsh words: Regulus adds that “payments is the critical 'soft underbelly' of black market activity,” it said, “and we believe the government's failure to police Brazil's state-owned payment system while licensing online gambling is catastrophically negligent and self-defeating.”
© BetKing
MultiChoice questions for Canal+
French broadcaster will decide on whether to sell off group’s OSB brands
Wind of change: French media giant Canal+ Group has moved a step closer to acquiring pay-TV company MultiChoice Group after the takeover received conditional approval from South Africa’s Competition Commission.
When we were kings: The deal, valued at approximately ZAR35bn (€1.7bn), could have far reaching effects on the betting landscape in Africa as MultiChoice holds a 49% stake in KingMakers, the parent company of Nigerian OSB operator BetKing, and partnered with KingMakers to launch SuperSportBet in South Africa in 2024.
Stay in your lane: Some industry observers expect Canal+ to move MultiChoice away from betting if the takeover goes through, pointing to the company’s singular focus on content and distribution.
In a June 2024 interview, Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada explained the big difference between the two companies was MultiChoice’s belief in diversification.
“We have chosen to focus the allocation of our resources on what we believe is our core business: distribution of content,” he said. “They have a different approach. They have diversified in home security, fintech, insurance, betting and so on. They believe they are right and we are not sure they are right.” The deal is now before South Africa’s Competition Tribunal for final approval.
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Woes continue for Dutch iGaming sector
Crackdown and tough regulations add stress and strife for regulated operators
Perfect storm: The Dutch gambling industry is grappling with significant financial pressures as stringent regulations and a wave of legal actions create an increasingly tough trading environment. In October 2024, the Netherlands implemented strict affordability checks, capping monthly deposits at €700 for most adults and €300 for those aged 18 to 24. Players wishing to exceed these limits must provide proof of financial capability.
These measures have led to a sharp decline in online gambling revenue, with a 12.3% YoY drop in Q424, according to the Spring 2025 monitoring report from Dutch regulator, KSA. Online casinos were particularly affected, experiencing an 18.5% revenue plunge in the quarter. KSA said that in 2024 GGR rose 6% to €1.47bn, but in H2 it was 10% lower than in the previous six months.
Shadow play: This has led to operators issuing sharp criticisms against politicians who they see as pursuing political agendas against the industry, while even the KSA recently denied it was “a paper tiger without teeth” when it comes to enforcement actions against illegal operators.
One thing after another: Compounding the industry's woes, the Dutch government increased the gambling tax from 30.5% to 34.2% in January 2025, with a further hike to 37.8% scheduled for 2026, while Dutch operators are among a number across Europe facing legal challenges from thousands of customers seeking to reclaim losses incurred before online gambling was legalised in October 2021.
Courts have also ordered operators including Bwin and Unibet to refund players, but the latter has been accused of delaying responses to transaction data requests in relation to the pre-licensed period.
Unibet’s parent company Kindred, now part of FDJ United, has cited reasons such as a corporate name change and Maltese regulations for its inability to provide the requested data but legal advocacy groups are understood to be preparing lawsuits to compel Unibet to release it.
News shorts
Blackstone is understood to be exploring a sale of Clarion Events, the organisers of ICE Barcelona, in a deal worth around £2bn “in a test of demand for takeovers after weeks of market turmoil stymied dealmaking”, reports Reuters.
Blackstone bought Clarion in 2017 for £600m and has been holding discussions with CVC, KKR, PAI Partners, Ardian and the Asian private equity firm Hillhouse Investment.
Clarion has recovered strongly from the COVID pandemic, with revenues increasing 68% to £433m in 2024. The £2bn price tag would represent a multiple of 12x EBITDA.
The British Horseracing Authority has told the Racing Post that a proposal to harmonise all online wagering into a single tax that will be called the remote betting and gaming duty (RBGD) could be “the final blow” in a “significant triple whammy” that has seen British racing deal with the consequences of affordability checks and a lack of progress on levy reform. It promised it would be “throwing everything we can at it” to prevent such a damaging change.
Kindred Group’s Australia-focused brand Betchoice has been fined AU$1m (€569,000) for more than 100,000 contraventions of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. The main breach concerned the FDJ United-owned operator’s failure to close 954 customer accounts that were registered with BetStop, Australia’s National Self-Exclusion Register (NESR).
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Calendar
Events: 23 May: Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling lunch seminar, Stockholm, 10-12 June: SBC Summit Malta, 5 Jun: Gaming in Holland, Amsterdam, 26 Jun: Gaming in Spain, Madrid
Contact
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