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Gaming in Central and Eastern Europe in focus at #EGC2020VE with +10 industry experts from the region
Reading Time: 7 minutes
Central and Eastern Europe in focus at European Gaming Congress VE (Virtual Edition).
#EGC2020ve – The CEE gaming industry has been in the highlights of many media outlets and believe it or not there is always something big happening in this region.
In the Czech Republic: Just one week ago, Czech Lawmakers have voted in favor of a new decree to ban all electronic and mechanical gaming machines in the Czech capital. The decree awaits a nod from the city council.
If it gets the council’s approval, it will mean the end of all legal slot machines and video lottery terminals in the Czech capital once the current licensing period completes in 2024.
In Austria: The Austrian Financial Police have carried out a total of 278 inspections on suspected black-market gambling venues since January, resulting in the confiscation of over 660 gaming machines. Over half of the seized machines were found in Vienna, the capital city of Austria.
In a statement issued on July 28, Austria’s financial police set out the progress it has made this year towards a reduction in illegal gambling in the country. It made clear that the majority of illegal gambling activity is taking place in larger urban centers such as Vienna and Linz.
In rural areas, illegal gambling has been largely reduced – for example, in the states of Burgenland, Styria and Vorarlberg combined, only two devices have been found since January.
In Poland: The new figures published by Poland’s finance ministry have revealed that while the gambling revenue decline for the year to date, newly regulated products helped mitigate the falls in online betting and land-based gaming.
The gross gaming yield projections provided by H2 Gambling Capital revealed that the total for the year to June 11 is expected to fall 9.5% from 2019’s figures. This is significantly lower than the 19.6% decline projected across all EU markets.
Poland’s lower projected decline was due to the development of newly regulated verticals such as online casinos and land-based arcades. Online casino revenue grew 96.7% for the year to June 11, aided by growth from Totalizator Sportowy’s Total Casino site.
Also in Poland, ace football striker Robert Lewandowski has signed an investment deal with Movie Games, in a Polish manufacturer of sports-related video games, which has gained publicity during the coronavirus lockdown.
According to Movie Games, Lewandowski will become a shareholder in a company that is going to be started in launched by September to develop sports video games.
Lewandowski said in a statement released by Movie Games: “I see a huge potential in this segment.”
In Bulgaria: The National Revenue Agency (NRA) has officially assumed the power of regulating the gambling industry in Bulgaria. The country’s National Assembly passed a resolution to this effect last month. It replaces the State Commission on Gambling (SCG).
NRA Director Galya Dimitrova, who has the option to nominate a deputy to oversee the regulated gaming market, will be in charge of all proceedings.
The previous licenses will remain valid until they expire. NRA will process license applications and renewals within six months.
SGC was dismantled from the gambling regulation responsibility following several scandals, leading to the resignation of Chairman Alexander Georgiev in February after he was questioned in connection to an investigation into Vasil Bozhkov, owner of Bulgaria’s oldest betting operator, Eurofootball.
The is plenty of news to share about the Hungarian, Slovakian and Romanian gambling industry as well, but we will leave that to the professionals who will join the 3 special panel discussions at the virtual edition of European Gaming Congress 2020.
The virtual edition of European Gaming Congress 2020 is taking place between 6-7 October and gathers top names of the gaming industry who will present their insights to create Europe’s largest gaming compliance gathering.
THE EASY AND FREE REGISTRATION PROCESS IS SPONSORED BY ALTENAR AND YOU CAN REGISTER FOR FREE HERE!
The conference will cover +28 jurisdictions and you have the opportunity to dive into quality information about the CEE region via 3 special panels.
The “GAMING REPORT: CENTRAL EUROPE (PART ONE)” panel discussion will focus on the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. The discussion will be moderated by Jakub Kolomicenko (Head of the legal department at Endorphina) and will be joined by Jan Rehola (Director at IFGR and Partner at PS Legal), Ewa Lejman-Widz (Head of Polish Desk at WH Partners), Anna Wietrzyńska-Ciołkowska (Legal advisor, Local Partner at DWF Poland), Jakub Myszkorowski (Chief Commercial Officer at STATSCORE) and Dr. Robert Skalina (Senior Advisor at WH Partners).
The “GAMING REPORT: CENTRAL EUROPE (PART TWO)” panel discussion will focus on Hungary and Slovenia under the moderation of Dr. Robert Skalina (Senior Advisor at WH Partners).
The discussion will be joined by Helembai Gabor (Attorney-at-law at Bird & Bird Hungary) and Jaka Repansek (Media and Gaming Expert, Partner at Hipther Agency).
The third panel discussion is going to focus on the updates from Romania and Bulgari and is titled “GAMING REPORT: EASTERN EUROPE”.
The discussion will be moderated by Ana-Maria Baciu (Managing Partner Simion & Baciu Law Firm) and will be joined by Dan Iliovici (Vice President of ROMBET – Romanian Gambling Organizers’ Association) and Georgi Dimitrov (Legal counsel at EGT Interactive Ltd).
You can find more details about the speakers’ and moderator bios below.
AS MENTIONED ABOVE THE EASY AND FREE REGISTRATION PROCESS IS SPONSORED BY ALTENAR AND YOU CAN REGISTER HERE NOW!
The HIPTHER FESTIVAL includes a full week of conferences that are designed to bring together innovation with compliance via several talks and discussions in multiple industries and will run between 5-9 October.
The festival includes the following conferences:
- PICANTE Marketing Summit (#MS2020ve) – 5 October
- European Gaming Congress (#EGC2020ve) – 6-7 October
- PICANTE TECH Conference Europe (#TCE2020AutumnVE) – 8-9 October
The registration is free and you can attend all three conferences with just one registration!
You can find more details about the Agenda here or you can register here!
For further inquiries about the speaking/sponsoring options, make sure to send an e-mail to Andrada Marginean (B2B Sales Executive at Hipther Agency) or subscribe to the weekly newsletter on the following link.
For media-related inquiries, please contact Alexandru Marginean (Marketing Specialist at Hipther Agency).
Ana-Maria Baciu – Managing Partner Simion & Baciu Law Firm
Ana-Maria Baciu is a regulatory and intellectual property lawyer, assisting clients in various industries, including gambling, IT, e-commerce or pharmaceuticals, for more than 20 years.
In the gaming field, Ana-Maria has been guiding betting & gaming companies, solution providers, marketing affiliates, other companies with an interest in this sector and industry-relevant associations, on the full range of regulatory and operational gaming aspects.
Ewa Lejman-Widz – Head of Polish Desk at WH Partners
Ewa is heading the Polish Desk of WH Partners as part of the strategic partnership under the WH Partners brand with Izabella Żyglicka and Partners, a very well reputed full-service law firm in Poland and a member of Ally Law.
Ewa is a business lawyer with over 12 years of experience. She assists clients on matters related to gaming and gambling, contract law, M&A and IT service market law.
Anna Wietrzyńska-Ciołkowska – Legal advisor, Local Partner at DWF Poland
Anna Wietrzyńska-Ciołkowska is a corporate lawyer dealing with M&A transactions focused on the gambling and insurance sectors.
She advises clients from the gambling sector on setting up a business and obtaining a permit to run a gambling business in Poland, providing gambling services to Polish residents from other jurisdictions, organising promotional lotteries, organising betting transactions, distributing gaming machines, gambling components in computer games or lotteries, acquiring gambling companies and structuring cooperation between partners in such companies, outsourcing of gambling functions, restrictions on making payments or advertising activities in gambling, as well as matters related to gambling tax.
Jan Řehola – Director at IFGR and Partner at PS Legal
Jan Řehola has over eight years of experience in the gambling field, both from the public and private sector.
He holds a Master’s of Law from Charles University in Prague. Jan worked for four years for the Ministry of Finance – the Czech gambling regulator; firstly, as a Head of the Legal Unit and later, as a Director of Gambling Department. In his work for the Czech gambling regulator, Jan was responsible for all gambling policy issues, including the drafting of new legislation, the issuing of gambling licenses and cooperation with other European regulators as a member of the European Commission Expert Group on Online Gambling.
After leaving the Ministry of Finance in 2014, Jan became a member of Petroš Sedláčková Legal and co-founder of the consultancy company BetOnSkill Consulting, a full-service international gaming consultancy.
Georgi Dimitrov – Legal Counsel / Compliance Manager at EGT Interactive
Georgi Dimitrov is a legal counsel at EGT Interactive Ltd., with a focus on legal, regulatory and technical compliance matters related to the iGaming industry. He specializes in international gambling regulation and provides guidance on licensing and certification frameworks, policy drafting, and compliance processes. His line of work involves communication with focal stakeholders in the business such as testing labs, regulators and operators.
Gábor Helembai – Senior Associate at Bird & Bird Budapest
Gábor is a Senior Associate in the Corporate and Commercial teams in the Budapest office of Bird & Bird. He advises on both domestic and cross-border transactions and investments in various industries. He has a special sector focus on gaming/betting, advising major online and land-based operators, and slot machine manufacturers on regulatory matters.
Dan Iliovici – Vice President of ROMBET – Romanian Gambling Organizers’ Association
Dan Iliovici is the Vice President of ROMBET – Romanian Gambling Organizers’ Association, one of the most important associations of the industry.
With rich experience in the gambling industry, former President of the Romanian gambling regulator – The National Gambling Office.
Dr. Robert Skalina – Senior Advisor at WH Partners
Robert Skalina is a Czech Advocate as well as a Registered European Lawyer in Malta. He is based in Prague and works in Malta regularly.
He is a financial service and corporate lawyer and provides advice to a wide range of investment managers, advisors and funds, including private equity and hedge funds. Robert also regularly advises clients in the gaming/gambling industries and has vast experience in the area of mergers and acquisitions and complex cross border transactions.
Jakub Myszkorowski – Chief Commercial Officer at STATSCORE
With more than 10 years of experience in the professional sport and betting industries, Jakub is now leading the Sales and Marketing operations at STATSCORE, a Polish company aiming at becoming the Biggest Sports Data Center in the world.
As a former football UEFA A coach and soccer performance analyst, he merges the best sports practices into managing the staff.
Jaka Repanšek – Media and Gaming Expert, Partner at Hipther Agency
Jaka has worked for various TIME (Telecom, Internet, Media, Entertainment) companies since 1996. He is recognized as one of the leading experts on gaming, media and digital law in Slovenia. Jaka graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and gained his graduate degree from Cambridge University in England and Faculty of Law in Ljubljana (Diploma in European Community Law) and completed two-year MBA graduate studies at the University of Kansas in the USA.
Jakub Kolomicenko – Head of the legal department at Endorphina
Jakub Kolomicenko started his practice as a corporate lawyer and member of the Czech Bar Association but then he changed his focus and as an in-house counsel specializes in IP law and all aspects of gaming law
He is currently the Head of the legal department at Endorphina and works with a team that consists of highly qualified international professionals with many years of experience in online casino games creation.
Source: Latest News on European Gaming Media Network
This is a Syndicated News piece. Photo credits or photo sources can be found on the source article: Gaming in Central and Eastern Europe in focus at #EGC2020VE with +10 industry experts from the region
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Lisbon’s streets set the pace for Season 2 of GR8 Tech’s Bet It Drives—the drive-time podcast where iGaming’s most interesting voices speak freely. Hosted by Yevhen Krazhan, Chief Sales Officer at GR8 Tech, each episode captures raw insight, candid stories, and the energy you can only find on the road.
Episode 4 of the Season 2 finale puts the spotlight on Kelly Kehn, founder, board member, and startup advisor in gaming. As co-founder of Defy the Odds (DTO), she’s building a launchpad and community connecting startups, investors, and operators—with a focus on female and minority founders. Previously, she co-founded the All-In Diversity Project, held ecosystem roles at happyhour.io and SBC, and serves on boards including FUNNZ.
During the ride, Kelly opens up about:
- Why iGaming events matter: the community, access, and acceleration you only get in the room.
- Defy the Odds (DTO): why she and her co-founders built it, what it is, and how founders plug in.
- Women in iGaming: real challenges and how to lower the barrier to entry; inclusion as a growth strategy.
- Pitch ideas that paid off and common startup pitch mistakes.
- The next possible unicorn in iGaming and what makes it possible.
- Soundtrack to success: the song for a win, the pre-coaching track, and the one that sums up her career.
- The boldest ideas: intention, asking for help, and doing the homework.
- The unwritten rule of iGaming.
- Halloween rubric: the scariest moments in life and career, and why saying the hard thing out loud matters.
- Kelly’s Champion Rule: Be kind to yourself and to others.
“As Kelly said, ‘When we open the space to more people and more perspectives, we all win and the pie gets bigger.’ This episode was the perfect finish of our Season 2 in Lisbon,” said Krazhan.
Watch or listen to Season 2, Episode 4 with Kelly Kehn on:
Season 2 of Bet It Drives launched with Rasmus Sojmark, kept pace with Tiago Pereira and Kyrylo Korobka, and now crosses the line with Kelly Kehn in the finale. But still, don’t unbuckle yet: Season 3 is coming soon with more interesting conversations and more reasons to hit play. Follow GR8 Tech to stay in the loop.
The next chapter of iGaming belongs to champions who play smart and bold. Join GR8 Tech at SiGMA Central Europe 2025, Rome, November 3–6, booth 5028-2, and discover the Heavyweight Rulebook—built for operators ready to scale, localize, and win.
The post GR8 Tech’s Bet It Drives Season 2 Finale: Kelly Kehn on Opening iGaming to New Founders appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Latest News
GambleAware Warns Outdated Gambling Advertising and Marketing Regulations are Leaving Children at Risk of Gambling Harm
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Regulations for online gambling marketing must urgently be brought into the digital age, a new report from the charity GambleAware has warned.
The report reveals that despite gambling being an age-restricted product, children are being exposed to gambling marketing online, before they reach an age at which they can critically evaluate it. This is leading to gambling being normalised and portrayed as “risk-free”, which increases the risk of them experiencing gambling harm.
Gambling harms are becoming an increasing part of children’s lives, with previous research finding that in 2024, around 85,000 children in Britain were experiencing harm from their own gambling, a figure which has doubled since 20233. GambleAware’s new report highlights how seeing gambling marketing and content, online and via social and streaming platforms, could be encouraging children to gamble and contributing to the number experiencing harm.
The new report calls out poor regulation of gambling marketing online, highlighting how more needs to be done to ensure the rules reflect the unique challenges presented by the digital age and urges a reduction in self-regulation to protect children from being exposed to age-restricted gambling content. Alongside this, GambleAware is also calling for mandatory health warnings to be put on all gambling marketing so people are aware of the risks and support available.
Specific changes to help protect children could include moves to hold online platforms to greater account and ensuring existing government programmes, such as the Online Safety Act and Online Advertising Programme, more directly address gambling marketing and content online. Alongside this, other recommendations include the alignment and strengthening of online safety regulatory powers and programmes.
GambleAware research also found strong public support from children and adults for changes to gambling marketing and advertising regulation. Around four in five children (79%) say they want more rules around gambling content and advertising on social media. Alongside this, over seven in ten adults also agree, saying they want more regulation around gambling advertising on social media (74%) and gambling related content on social media (70%).
Anna Hargrave, GambleAware Transition CEO, said: “Gambling operators invest significant resources into online marketing because it works at getting people to gamble more. This has resulted in children and young people being exposed to gambling content online before an age at which they can critically evaluate it and understand the risks that come with it.
“The current regulations covering gambling marketing and advertising online were designed before most children had easy access to the internet. Urgent action is needed to update these rules and bring them into the digital age to help keep children and young people safe from gambling harm.”
The post GambleAware Warns Outdated Gambling Advertising and Marketing Regulations are Leaving Children at Risk of Gambling Harm appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Max Sevostianov, CCO at Betbazar, reveals how AI Cricket blurs the line between sport, tech and entertainment — creating a 24/7 AI sports universe — where every match feels alive and every second counts.
- How did the idea of creating AI-driven Cricket come about?
It started from our roots in Live Data Feed and Live Content. We constantly saw the same demand from operators worldwide — they needed fast, round-the-clock sports content that actually feels alive. Traditional virtuals didn’t cut it anymore; they were too static, too predictable.
Cricket, with its global fanbase and built-in drama, became the perfect playground for something new. We wanted to merge sports logic, AI, and entertainment to create a product that doesn’t just simulate a match — it lives one. That’s how AI Cricket was born: a fast, emotional, and unpredictable experience built for the next generation who expect energy, not repetition.
- What market gap does this product fill – and which Operators or regions is it most relevant for?The biggest gap we saw was the “dead zone” between traditional virtuals and real sports. Virtual games looked repetitive and lifeless, while real matches were limited by schedules and logistics. Bettors were stuck between predictability and waiting.
AI Cricket closes that gap completely. It runs 24/7, behaves like a real sport with live odds movement, and keeps the unpredictability that makes real competition exciting. It’s already resonating strongly in cricket-driven regions — India, Bangladesh, Australia, and across Africa — where players crave constant, authentic action that never sleeps.
- AI Cricket offers a short dynamic format (3–6 minutes). How does it align with the behavior trends of the Next Generation of bettors?Today’s bettors live in a scroll culture. They want action, not waiting. The next generation grew up on TikTok clips, Reels, and esports rounds that last minutes, not hours. That shift completely changed attention patterns — and we built AI Cricket for that world.
Each match lasts just 3 to 6 minutes — quick, intense and rewarding. It’s snackable entertainment with real IGaming logic behind it. Players can jump in, experience the thrill, and move on — or stay for hours of back-to-back action that never loses momentum.
- How exactly does the AI model work to make every match unpredictable and “alive”?Behind every match is a living algorithm. Our AI engine processes thousands of variables — team stats, player behavior, pitch and weather conditions, even dynamic momentum shifts. It learns from real cricket patterns but never repeats itself.
That’s what makes it unpredictable — no scripted loops, no recycled outcomes. Every delivery, every wicket, carries its own story. You can literally feel the rhythm of the game changing, just like in live sports. That’s where the emotion comes from — not from animation, but from intelligence.
- How customisable is the product for each Operator’s brand?
We built AI Cricket to be more than a plug-and-play product — it’s a canvas for each Operator’s brand. Our customisation layer lets partners design branded tournaments with their own visuals, logos, and atmosphere.
That means every sportsbook can offer something that feels exclusive — not “another virtual,” but their cricket universe. It’s a powerful way to build loyalty and keep players coming back, because the experience looks, sounds and plays like it truly belongs to that Operator.
- Does Betbazar plan to expand the AI-driven approach to other sports as well?
Absolutely — Cricket was just the opening chapter. The core AI engine we’ve built is flexible enough to adapt to any sport with a short, dynamic format. We’re already experimenting with new disciplines that share the same DNA: fast action, unpredictability, and constant engagement. Our goal is to create a full AI-driven sports universe.
- How do you see AI-powered Content evolving in the iGaming industry over the next 2-3 years?
AI-powered content transforms iGaming by making it faster to test ideas, launch products, and measure results. It turns IGaming into a form of entertainment — offering new, immersive experiences rather than just odds and outcomes. It’s a powerful way for Operators to experiment with different hypotheses, understand player behaviour, and adapt their sportsbook in real time. The line between sports, gaming, and entertainment is fading — and we want Betbazar to lead that evolution.
About Betbazar
Betbazar is a product-first iGaming technology company that empowers Operators with profitable solutions. From low-latency Live Data Feed and AI-driven products to a Turnkey Platform and Sportsbook Solutions, the company delivers performance, reliability and growth Operators need to stay ahead. Betbazar is a long-term technology partner, helping Operators integrate faster, operate smarter and scale stronger.
Website: https://betbazar.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/betbazar
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