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Luxury Brands Louis Vuitton and Gucci provide further legitimacy for esports industry – states Abios Founder Oskar Fröberg
Reading Time: 5 minutes
The Abios founder and CEO explains why esports is one of the most promising sectors for future growth within the iGaming market
What does the recently announced relationship with ICE365.com mean to the company and what do you hope to achieve?
We are naturally very excited about the partnership and to contribute to the new ICE365 platform. Abios aims to provide content and detailed insights for the industry to take part of through the platform, while presenting our team with a great communication platform to address important topics and potential issues. Among these are very important but often overlooked topics such as match integrity and regulatory compliance. Building the right foundation for esports is paramount for its continued growth.
Having been active in the industry for 8.5 years, we believe ourselves to have profound insights into what is important and want to bring them to light. Our intention is ultimately to protect the future of esports. Our team also seeks to provide value for the iGaming-community through timely esports content.
The partnership has a clear focus on education – do you think there’s a knowledge gap as far as esports and the broader igaming community is concerned and how do you hope to address it?
The iGaming community is well-aware of esports, as many have already identified the market as one of the most promising sectors for future growth. Most sportsbooks have also started experimenting by at least offering a couple of markets or tournaments in esports.
Esports can however be demanding to navigate since it is both dynamic and fast-moving, with changes introduced on a regular basis and new game titles still trying to establish themselves as part of the core offering. In addition to our data and odds products, we do our best to offer in-depth content around various esports-related topics to help the iGaming community identify opportunities within the sector and make educated decisions.
While there may sometimes be a slight gap in knowledge, it is more often the case that traditional companies lack properly customised tools to monetise esports. Alongside our data business, we are currently investing heavily in enabling sportsbooks to build completely custom and new experiences using our odds product.
You appear to have a strong commitment to protecting the integrity of esports – how important is this and is match-fixing a very real threat?
Match-fixing is a prevalent threat to esports, as it is to any traditional sport. Nobody wants to watch or place a bet on a match with suspicious or unfair behaviour. It removes the fun out of the competition and gambles (no pun intended) with the entire legitimacy of esports. If esports is perceived as an environment with lots of suspicious activity, its public perception and viewership will be adversely affected. This is not only a challenge for Abios but for the industry as a whole.
Today, game publishers are increasingly improving safeguards to deal with cheating, making it more and more difficult to cheat. Tournament organisers work closer with data partners and sportsbooks to identify suspicious betting behaviour. Generally, large tournaments are very safe, game publishers and tournament organisers alike take these issues very seriously. It’s important to continuously raise awareness of these subjects.
Does the involvement of big blue chip sponsors the final symbolic confirmation that esports is here to stay?
While some blue chip-sponsors such as Coca Cola have been in the industry for years, the real shift is seen when non-endemic luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci join the mix, designing skins for games as well as clothing lines with teams. These companies are incredibly quality and brand conscious. Seeing them engage in esports provides further legitimacy for the industry. We’ve come a long way from esports being perceived as a pastime for young boys sitting in their parents’ basements, but there is still a long way to go until esports has reached its full potential.
How important is it that regulators understand the nuances of esports?
We generally do not comment on the work of regulatory bodies in esports, as we respect the immense complexities of the subject. We do however feel that it is important for regulators to understand esports and its intricacies instead of simply copying the regulations of regular sports and pasting them for esports.
A great example of a relatively new regulation is that of player ages. Several countries have put regulations in place against offering matches where the players are minors. This is both to protect the players and to combat match-fixing, which is noble. However, it simultaneously imposes complications for sportsbooks looking to keep their markets open while staying compliant in different regions simultaneously.
Abios has always put a lot of emphasis on regulatory compliance, which encompasses the need for downstream partners, such as sportsbooks, to comply with these regulations without any friction. We therefore make regulatory compliance tools an integral and automatic part of our products.
During the pandemic has esports managed to fill a void while the traditional big sports such as football weren’t able to function properly?
When practically all traditional sports were delayed, postponed or outright cancelled more than a year ago, we experienced a strong influx in interest for esports. The esports betting market has proven to be very pandemic-resilient. The best part is that esports seems to remain popular, even as traditional sports have come back.
The interest is definitely there among punters and the audience is huge. However, we still believe that there is a long way to go with building the best possible products for esports. We are conducting extensive research to find the most engaging markets and fast integration processes for our odds feed and will bring new and unique possibilities for customer differentiation given the data rich nature of esports.
Has the pandemic created a new esports audience and demographic?
With more people staying at home, more people have picked up on esports tournaments. However, the pandemic has also increased the pace of change in the esports industry. New games have grown in popularity, especially sports games which from a competitive esports perspective were very small two years ago. These games have helped bridge the gap to esports for regular sports fans and punters. The sports games have also proven to work tremendously well as filler products for when there are no matches in traditional sports.
Is this the most exciting time to be involved with the esports phenomenon and what does it mean to you personally and to Abios as a company?
With the risk of sounding clichéd, it has always been an exciting time to be involved within esports. The industry is fast-growing and nowhere near its peak.
While our odds product is currently on par with other products on the market, we have so much more in the pipeline. We have built a strong foundation with over eight years of esports data management and base our in house modelling on this unique dataset and platform. This allows us to drive down bet delays and increase uptime through automation while creating completely unique and engaging bet offers.
Clarion’s head of Esports, William Harding, described Abios as being ‘the perfect partner’ – would you concur?
We want to add value to Clarion Gaming’s high-quality content by bringing our expertise and leveraging our 8+ year history in esports to provide the iGaming audience with further insights. Given the past years growth in the esports iGaming-sector, this partnership is certainly a perfect fit.
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IBIA and the AIA sign a strategic partnership to strengthen sports betting integrity across Africa
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Protecting African sports and regulated betting operators from match-fixing
The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) and the African iGaming Alliance (AIA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance collaboration and promote integrity across Africa’s rapidly developing sports competitions and betting markets. The agreement establishes a framework for cooperation between the two associations, each representing regulated betting operators, to support responsible and sustainable sports betting markets across the continent.
Under the terms of the MoU, IBIA will become the AIA’s strategic betting integrity partner, while AIA will act as IBIA’s primary betting policy and regulation partner for Africa. The partnership will facilitate the exchange of information, joint engagement and coordinated policy initiatives aimed at protecting consumers, regulated operators and sports from betting-related match-fixing.
Peter Emolemo Kesitilwe, CEO of AIA, commented: “Integrity is the foundation of Africa’s betting future. This partnership between the AIA and IBIA represents a decisive step towards ensuring that Africa’s growing betting industry is anchored on trust, transparency, and accountability. As a pan-African industry platform, AIA is committed to working with global integrity leaders like IBIA to harmonise standards, promote responsible gaming, and support regulators in safeguarding markets from manipulation and illicit practices. Together, we can strengthen Africa’s credibility as a world-class, igaming frontier.”
Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “Africa represents one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing betting markets in the world. Ensuring that this growth is underpinned by robust sports betting integrity standards and effective regulation is essential. Our partnership with the African iGaming Alliance reinforces our shared commitment to supporting a sustainable, well-regulated African betting industry that safeguards consumers and sporting competitions alike.”
The partnership will enable both organisations to share insights on betting integrity, regulatory developments and policy trends across Africa. The partnership reflects a shared commitment to strengthening integrity frameworks for regulated betting operators and to fostering closer cooperation between the associations’ members.
From 2020 to Q3 2025, IBIA reported 131 suspicious betting alerts across African sporting events, primarily involving football (64) and tennis (62).
Backed by over 90 operators and 200 betting brands, IBIA safeguards sport and regulated betting markets through global monitoring, intelligence sharing and stakeholder collaboration. It monitors over 1.5 million sporting events and $300bn in bets each year. Its alerts have contributed to the successful prosecution of numerous match-fixing cases worldwide, reinforcing IBIA’s role as a trusted partner to regulators, sports and policymakers.
The post IBIA and the AIA sign a strategic partnership to strengthen sports betting integrity across Africa appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Movers and Shakers – From Data to Decisions: What It Really Takes to Make AI Work in iGaming
Reading Time: 3 minutes
“Movers and Shakers” is a dynamic monthly column dedicated to exploring the latest trends, developments, and influential voices in the iGaming industry. Powered by GameOn and supported by HIPTHER, this op-ed series delves into the key players, emerging technologies, and regulatory changes shaping the future of online gaming. Each month, industry experts offer their insights and perspectives, providing readers with in-depth analysis and thought-provoking commentary on what’s driving the iGaming world forward. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to the scene, “Movers and Shakers” is your go-to source for staying ahead in the rapidly evolving iGaming landscape.
By Claudia Heiling, Co-Founder & COO, Golden Whale
For years, iGaming has considered itself a data-driven industry. We’ve all spent time refining segmentation, optimising CRM journeys, mapping behavioural signals, and building increasingly complex player models. And with machine learning now widely available, whether bought, built, or borrowed, it would be reasonable to assume that the industry is already fully realising the benefits of AI.
But speak to most operators, product teams, or data leads and you’ll hear a different story.
There are models running somewhere – and usually several. There are predictions being generated. There are dashboards, reports, and insights circulating. Yet the business impact often feels inconsistent. Some initiatives deliver a clear uplift; others stall or never make it past a proof-of-concept stage. Projects that shine in testing environments don’t always translate into live, reliable operations.
The issue is rarely the model. And it’s rarely the data team. The gap is operational.
It’s one thing to build machine learning models. It’s another to make them function as part of the daily working rhythm of an iGaming business.
The operators and providers seeing the strongest and most reliable gains are the ones who treat AI not as an experiment, but as a capability: something that must be designed, deployed, monitored, re-trained, and continuously improved. This is closer to how we already treat core game operations, promotional systems, risk tooling, or CRM orchestration. It’s iterative, structured and ongoing.
In practice, that means building the frameworks around the models, not just the models themselves. Continuous data flows. Automated re-training. Real-time deployment pipelines. Feedback loops that allow systems to learn not just once, but constantly. When we work with iGaming clients who have embraced this operational mindset and leverage our ready-to-deploy MLOps system built for iGaming, the impact becomes both compounding and predictable.
The other shift happening is cultural. There has been a lingering expectation in some corners of the industry that AI will replace manual decision-making entirely and that it will “take over” processes like CRM optimisation, fraud detection, or product adjustment.
That’s neither realistic nor particularly desirable.
iGaming is too contextual, too human, too dependent on craftmanship and intuition.
The real value of AI is in augmentation: giving teams better visibility, faster feedback, and stronger evidence on which to base decisions.
In organisations where this mindset has taken hold, you see a different dynamic.
CRM teams run more experiments, more often, because they aren’t spending time rebuilding segments from scratch. Analysts spend less time on manual spreadsheet simulation and more on strategic exploration. Live-ops managers can respond to player behaviour as it changes, not after the weekly report comes in.
AI becomes the layer that enhances judgement, rather than replaces it.
And when AI is integrated technically and culturally, the commercial outcomes are hard to ignore. In setups where continuous learning pipelines are properly established and aligned with live operations, we’ve seen engagement and retention metrics improve dramatically and sustainably, with activity and revenues rising by 100–200%, while bonus and incentive costs drop by 20%+, driving growth and both securing and expanding market share. Operational teams benefit too, with workflows becoming smoother and less manual because the system is handling the constant data processing and iteration.
The improvements don’t come from having more complex algorithms. They come from having a structure that allows those algorithms to perform reliably, adapt to change, and keep learning over time.
This is where the conversation about AI in iGaming is quietly changing.
It’s no longer dominated by model performance or dataset scale, rather it is focused on repeatability, reliability and learning speed.
The distinction matters because it separates having AI, from running AI.
And the operators and providers who get this right aren’t just improving performance in the short term. They are building organisational momentum, a capability that compounds over time and is very difficult to replicate quickly.
In a sector defined by tight margins, competition and rapidly shifting player expectations, that advantage is significant.
So, if there is a “next step” in the industry’s AI journey, it’s not a more complex algorithm. It’s not a bigger data pool. And it’s not a new suite of predictive dashboards.
It’s the ability to learn continuously, responsibly and at scale.
Because in iGaming, as in intelligence, data alone doesn’t win. What wins is the ability to turn learning into action again and again.
The post Movers and Shakers – From Data to Decisions: What It Really Takes to Make AI Work in iGaming appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Reading Time: 2 minutes
New partnership to enhance player engagement and revenue through ThrillPots integration
BOYLE Casino, brought to you by one of the UK and Ireland’s leading independent betting and gaming operators, BOYLE Sports, has strengthened its product offering through a new partnership with B2B jackpot specialist ThrillTech.
The deal sees BOYLE Casino integrate ThrillTech’s flagship ThrillPots product into its gaming and casino offering, enabling player-funded, side-bet jackpots across its digital casino and sportsbook platforms.
The integration is now live for customers in both the UK and Ireland, with additional rollouts planned across other regulated markets in 2026.
ThrillPots allows operators to launch bespoke, player-funded jackpot mechanics designed to drive measurable increases in engagement, retention, and monetisation.
Each jackpot is funded directly by opt-in player contributions, giving operators a fully compliant and scalable tool to boost incremental revenue without disrupting gameplay.
Faye Williams, Head of Business Development at ThrillTech, said: “Partnering with BOYLE Casinos and BOYLE Sports marks another major milestone in our growth across Europe. BOYLE Sports is one of the most trusted and respected brands in UK and Irish betting, and its commitment to offering players fresh, responsible, and high-performing experiences makes this a perfect fit.
“ThrillPots was built to deliver tangible revenue uplift while enhancing entertainment value for players – and we’re excited to see it go live with such an iconic operator.”
BOYLE Sports Gaming Director Steve Payne added: “At BOYLE Sports and BOYLE Casino, we’re always looking for innovative, compliant ways to add excitement for our customers. ThrillTech’s player-funded jackpot model gives us a flexible new mechanic that strengthens engagement across multiple verticals while maintaining our focus on responsible growth.
“The integration process was seamless, and we’re confident our players will enjoy the added thrill that ThrillPots guarantees.”
The partnership follows a series of operator integrations for ThrillTech in 2025, as demand for its licensed player-funded jackpot solutions continues to grow across regulated markets worldwide.
The post BOYLE Casino integrates ThrillTech’s jackpot solution across UK and Ireland appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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