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Exclusive interview with Henri Mirande, CTO and Co-founder of Kinetix
In a nutshell, Kinetix is an AI-driven platform that allows users to generate 3D content easily and quickly. But it is much more than what that quick summary suggests. Here we have with us its co-founder and CTO Henri Mirande in a free-flowing chat about the platform, its features, its vision, its philosophy and its future. So, without any more ado, over to Henri!
Q. Let’s start on a personal note. Tell us briefly about your life and career.
A. I’m an avid gamer. I spent my teenage years playing strategy games, clocking up a total of four thousand hours on Civilization IV alone. As a passionate gamer, I decided to study Engineering in Computer Vision, a field that would allow me to be close to the games industry. After conducting research I joined multiple exciting tech companies bringing solutions to developers and publishers, such as Dynamixyz. My experiences helped me see that AI technologies will transform multiple industries, which is when I made up my mind to start my entrepreneurial journey in AI for gaming!
Q. Now we shall move to Kinetix. What’s the story behind Kinetix? Kinetix, as we understand it, is a product of the Covid-19 era. What were the founding objectives of Kinetix?
A. Kinetix started after I met my co-founder, Yassine Tahi, during the Entrepreneur First program in 2020. We share a common passion for gaming and belief in the potential of AI. We started by interviewing some experts and pros who were our potential users. What brought us together is that we were both convinced that, with recent breakthroughs in research, we didn’t have to limit the AI opportunity to the pros but think about it as a tool for casual users too. In many of our early stage discussions investors were pushing for a SaaS model to address the market of 3D animation professionals. We were convinced that AI was going to give everyone new abilities and that a bigger market was going to be addressable in a short time frame. We made the choice to develop technologies for the mass market setting. The Kinetix vision is to Humanize Metaverse by allowing everyone to create their own stories through Emotes. This unique positioning gave us a strong first-mover advantage and we’re now seeing a lot of players starting to develop AI for broader audiences.
Q. Did you have a clear-cut idea at the beginning about the kind of platform you were going to develop for Kinetix and the kind of technological backbone required for it? Or did you innovate on the go towards the present platform and technological model?
A. We knew we wanted our tech to be very user friendly and as accessible as possible. We evaluate and make all our tech infrastructure choices with that objective in mind. It guides our development and we always leverage what we learn from our users to further simplify the creation or integration process. Our main metrics on our studio are the percentage of our users becoming creators and time it takes them to make their first creation. The metric we monitor on our SDK is the time it takes developers and publishers to integrate it, and we’re happy to say it now takes less than one day for junior game devs. By improving on these metrics, we ensure we’re creating tech that is able to onboard thousands of users and their User Generated Emotes into games and virtual worlds.
Q. You mentioned making the process of 3D content generation easier and more accessible. How far has Kinetix succeeded in doing that? Could you provide some stats, regarding the number of users and the amount of time needed to develop 3D content using Kinetix?
A. On average, our users need 2 to 3 minutes to create and finalize an Emote. More than half of the created Emotes use more than two of our AI and editing features, demonstrating they easily navigate through and play with the multiple creative tools we offer to create awesome Emotes. You don’t have to take our word for it though – give it a try and see how easy 3D content creation can be! Our user base is constantly growing with more than 33% growth each quarter.
Our biggest recent success is for our SDK. We engaged hundreds developers in a beta program that helped us develop it. We are still accepting registrations and invite every developer interested in integrating Emotes in their projects to sign-up as a beta tester.
Q. You also talked about monetization for the users and fairer sharing of ad revenue with the creators. Could you provide some details – for example, stats about sharing of revenues with creators before Kinetix and after Kinetix?
A. The Kinetix Emote SDK has been developed to enable Emote distribution cross games and virtual worlds. AI not only heightens creativity it also guarantees to deliver assets in consistent formats. Our Emotes are 3D animation files that essentially contain information about the position of different points over a given period of time. As opposed to avatar or weapon, they don’t compete with the look-and-feel of the game or virtual world, they can be used agnostically whether the aesthetic is “blocky” (like Roblox), or realistic (like Fortnite). Kinetix Emotes are designed to be interoperable assets and this makes a huge difference for creators, allowing their creations to be used across multiple environments. Interoperability expands usage drastically, which leads to increased asset value, and like many other gaming companies we believe creators must benefit from that fundamental change. Kinetix gives 95% of the value of the first sale of any User-Generated Emote to its creator, as explained in our white paper. This is comparable to what big Web3 virtual worlds offer for their creators, while creator fees on Web2 gaming platforms often range between 20 and 40% of the generated revenue.
Q. The other objectives you had while starting out were better self expression while creating 3D content and interoperability of the content across platforms. After nearly three years of operating, what are your thoughts on these objectives with reference to the performance of Kinetix?
A. With multiple integrations with games & virtual worlds currently being deployed we are beginning to deliver on our ambition of interoperability. One of the most exciting parts in our adventure is how we are progressively changing our focus towards Emotes. We define Emotes as animations that express avatars’ emotions like dances, gestures & celebrations. Working on Emotes and not 3D animations might seem a niche thing, but it is not! It’s a big challenge as we are now dealing with emotions that motions convey. We are creating new categories that are no longer just describing the movements but also the message they share. This is changing how we produce our own content, how we funnel the creative process for users, how we prioritize our R&D projects. We are convinced that this new approach allows us to build tech that is not only capturing movement but what it expresses. We feel that we are heading in the right direction to develop a new standard of self-expression technology.
Q. Now, tell us about the most eye-catching features of Kinetix?
A. The feature I am the most proud of is our Video-To-Emote technology. It is the first one we released but we are now at v1.5 and we can say that our AI has been polished and is getting better and better. Our challenge of delivering high-quality 3D animations with a single camera is very complex. We see many players delivering great tech but their setups are often time-consuming and expensive. We made the decision to give everyone, or at least every smartphone owner, the possibility to become a 3D creator for free and we believe this is the right decision. The level of expertise we reached on our Video-To-Emote technology is awesome and I am proud to see that in addition to the studio we are now offering it as a standalone solution with the recent launch of our “Motion Portal” tool. This solution allows brands to set up a Portal where their fans just upload their 10s videos to animate their favorite brand avatar and universe. It fully relies on our Video-To-Emote and we generate thousands of high-quality videos without any need for animation cleaning. This level of performance is what we were aiming for with my team of 10+ R&D engineers and I am happy to see that the results are engaging our partner communities!
Q. What are the new features to be launched in the near future?
A. We have really exciting features coming soon. One that really excites me is the release of our facial animation feature coming in 2023. My team worked hard to deliver a facial recognition technology embedded within our suite of AI models for 3D animation. Results are outstanding. I am excited to see our community of creators testing it by the summer. We know it will increase the level of fidelity of users’ creations. Mixing body motion capture with facial, style transfer as blend models allows us to provide the most comprehensive suite of AI technologies applied to 3D animations on the market.
Q. Our readers would also love to hear about some of the impressive 3D content generated via your platform. If you don’t mind, provide some great examples.
A. One story I really like is the Next Dancer one. We constantly chat with our community on Discord and also arrange interviews with them. This is how we met with Damien Daube. He is a former professional breakdancer that was using our tech to record his dances and save them as 3D files. When we spoke for the first time he explained to us that he would love to see a game leveraging our tech to allow dancers to bring their dances into a virtual world. It was at the exact moment we were starting to build our SDK. Our paths were perfectly aligned so we went on a common journey and we are really happy that Damien has successfully launched the first version of Next Dancer: the first AI based dance game. This new gameplay is seducing players such as famous IPs, with the French version of “Dancing with the Stars” having already made a collection of dances for the game. Embedding our tech at the core level of such a great game empowers creativity and UGC.
Q. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are witnessing phenomenal changes at a rapid pace. There have been reports that some of the big players in the field are eying 3D content generation using AI, after similar products in text and 2D graphics like ChatGPT and DallE? Do you see a threat or opportunity here?
A. All those new AI releases are a tremendous opportunity. One simple fact that proves it, is that over the last weeks almost every tech enthusiast has learned how to prompt. It is now clear for a lot of people that they will benefit from AI to improve their work and creative process. We believe those general models are putting the spotlight on how AI can impact multiple industries and gaming is a target of choice. Those models are trained on a very large dataset and this is a big difference comparing how 3D animations models are currently being developed. They mainly rely on academic datasets which are way smaller. Being able to collect large sets of animations is one of the main challenges for our technology. As Kinetix not only addresses professionals but creators at large, we built a top proprietary library of animations coming from casual users. This gives us a unique competitive advantage. It sets the foundation for training larger models in animation to excel in our industry. Our R&D tests prove that we are gaining a strong and long lasting competitive advantage.
Q. Finally, do you have any advice or suggestions to new entrepreneurs, especially as someone who started out and succeeded during the Covid pandemic?
A. My advice is to do what you love and love what you do! Founding and managing a company is an exciting adventure when shared with passionate people. What I care about the most is to work with enthusiastic people who have very strong convictions on the future of AI and gaming. We are very cautious in our recruitment process to make sure that every newcomer brings a little more passion to the team.
Reading Time: 4 minutes
“Since the start of Q3, Kambi has signed seven Turnkey Sportsbook partners, three Odds Feed+ deals and two partner renewals – a clear reflection of the commercial progress we are making” – says Werner Becher, CEO of Kambi Group
Financial highlights
- Revenue in the third quarter 2025 was €37.4m (43.0m), a decrease of 13.1%. Excluding €2.3m of transition fees received in Q3 2024, revenues decreased by 8.1%. For the period January to September 2025, revenues were €119.3m (132.0m), a decrease of 9.6%. Excluding €11.2m of transition fees received in the same period in 2024, revenues decreased by 1.2%.
- Adjusted EBITA (acq) in the quarter was €3.4m (4.9m), at a margin of 9.0% (11.4%). For the period January to September 2025, Adjusted EBITA (acq) was €9.4m (18.2m), at a margin of 7.9% (13.8%), and €10.3m (19.1m) excluding the impact of FX revaluations.
- Total expenses were €35.4m (39.4m) in the quarter, a decrease of 10.3%. For the period January to September 2025, total expenses were €113.9m (117.8m), a decrease of 3.3%.
- Operating profit for the third quarter was €1.6m (3.6m), at a margin of 4.3% (8.3%) and €4.0m (14.2m), at a margin of 3.4% (10.7%) for the period January to September 2025.
- Cash flow (excluding working capital and M&A) amounted to €6.1m (5.7m) for the quarter and €15.2m (19.2m) for the period January to September 2025.
- Earnings per share for the quarter were €0.036 (0.083) and €0.072 (0.345) year-to-date.
- Due to the ongoing negative impact of FX, the Brazilian market developing slower than anticipated and the revised timing of a key partner launch, Kambi now estimates full year Adjusted EBITA (acq) to be around €17.0 million.
Key operational highlights
- Signed four Odds Feed+ deals, including with major European operator Superbet Group, underlining the quality of Kambi’s modular odds feed solution
- Agreed numerous Turnkey Sportsbook partnerships, including an online deal with Glitnor Group and with Oneida Indian Nation, which operates three retail properties in New York State
- Acquired source code for a player account management platform from OMEGA Systems, unlocking Turnkey Sportsbook opportunities in Nevada
CEO comment
“Since the start of Q3, Kambi has signed seven Turnkey Sportsbook partners, three Odds Feed+ deals and two partner renewals – a clear reflection of the commercial progress we are making.
Among those agreements is our partnership with Superbet Group for our Odds Feed+ product. Currently ranked no.11 in the EGR Power 50 list, Superbet is one of the leading operators in Europe and Latin America and therefore a great addition to our Odds Feed+ partner roster. Additional deals with LeoVegas Group and Coolbet only further underline the strength of our premium modular odds solution.
From a Turnkey perspective, we partnered with Glitnor Group, which will upgrade from its existing sportsbook supplier to utilise our premium end-to-end sportsbook in multiple markets in Europe and the Americas. We continued to strengthen our tribal gaming ties in the US through a partnership with the Oneida Indian Nation in New York State and signed three partnerships in the Netherlands with Betnation, Holland Gaming Technology and Hommerson. These agreements further diversify our revenue base while strengthening our position in a number of key markets.
We are also focused on increasing future commercial opportunities and to that end we have announced the acquisition of source code to a player account management (PAM) platform. A PAM is a core component of a multi-vertical igaming technology stack that enables operators to centrally control all aspects of player management from KYC to payments to promotional tools, as well as housing casino aggregation capabilities. In the immediate term, the PAM will be focused on unlocking Turnkey Sportsbook opportunities in Nevada and potentially later in other markets where there are few or no viable third-party PAMs available.
Our Q3 financial performance was disciplined in a period impacted by a quieter sporting calendar, which last year included the Euros, Copa América and the Olympics, and the ongoing increased impact of gaming-related taxes. Revenue in Q3 reached €37.4 million, a decrease of 8% year-over-year when excluding transition fees, generating Adjusted EBITA (acq) of €3.4 million. We continue to see the benefits of our cost efficiency programme, which will continue into Q4 and 2026.
The planned Q4 launch of Ontario Lottery & Gaming is now expected to take place in Q1 2026, with revenue generation therefore starting later than originally anticipated. All development work is complete, and we are working closely with OLG on thorough testing. This amended timeline, the ongoing negative impact of FX, and the slower than anticipated development of the Brazilian market have led us to revise our 2025 guidance to an Adjusted EBITA (acq) of around €17.0 million.
With the busy sporting calendar upon us, we continue to focus on delivering an unbeatable product and service to our partners while building the foundations for long-term growth. The recent commercial wins, ongoing improvements to our market-leading product, the opportunities that the PAM will create, as well as the continued progress of our efficiency programme are, together, evidence of the positive momentum we are building. When coupled with the exciting opportunities we continue to pursue, I have growing confidence we will deliver sustainable growth and long-term returns for our shareholders.”
Invitation to presentation of the report
Kambi invites analysts, investors, and media to a presentation of the report at 10.00 CEST on Wednesday 5 November.
The presentation will be held in English by Kambi’s CEO Werner Becher and CFO David Kenyon and can be accessed using the links below. After the presentation there will be the opportunity to ask questions.
Webcast:
If you wish to participate via webcast please use the link below. Via the webcast you are able to ask written questions.
webcast: edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/qrrugvox
Teleconference:
If you wish to participate via teleconference please register on the link below. After registration you will be provided phone numbers and a conference ID to access the conference. You can ask questions verbally via the teleconference.
Registration: register-conf.media-server.com/register/BI543b2e9c60b54630b42e7bd0c0751f6e
The post Kambi Group plc Q3 2025 Report appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Latest News
Sportradar Reports Third Quarter Financial Results, Raises Full Year 2025 Outlook and Announces Increase in Share Repurchase Program to $300 Million
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Third Quarter 2025 Highlights
- Revenue increased 14% to €292 million
- Generated profit for the period of €22 million, 7.7% as a percentage of revenue
- Adjusted EBITDA1 increased 29% to €85 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin1 expanded to a record 29.0%
- Generated net cash from operating activities of €115 million and Free cash flow1 of €65 million
- Achieved a Customer Net Retention Rate1 of 114%
- Raised 2025 full year outlook to revenue of at least €1,290 million, or 17% growth, and Adjusted EBITDA of at least €290 million, or 30% growth
- Announced $100 million increase in share repurchase program, bringing total authorization to $300 million
Sportradar Group AG (NASDAQ: SRAD) (“Sportradar” or the “Company”), a leading global sports technology company focused on creating immersive experiences for sports fans and bettors, today announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2025.
Carsten Koerl, Chief Executive Officer of Sportradar, said: “We delivered another quarter of strong topline growth and increasing flow through, including record EBITDA margins and substantial cash flow generation. The results reflect our sustained operating performance and the durability of our growth strategy. Our continued momentum is driven by our premium content and product portfolio, and leading technology and AI, which is enabling us to consistently drive above market growth and deliver increasing value for our clients and partners. We are very pleased to augment that growth with the completion of the acquisition of IMG ARENA, further bolstering our competitive position, including our unmatched rights offering, industry leading product suite and the depth and breadth of our global relationships. The acquisition of IMG provides additional growth avenues and we are excited by the opportunity to drive meaningful additional value for our shareholders going forward.”
THIRD QUARTER AND YEAR TO DATE FINANCIAL RESULTS
Revenue
| Three-Month Period Ended September 30, |
Nine-Month Period Ended September 30, |
|||||||||||||||||
| in € thousands (unaudited) | 2025 | 2024 | Change | % | 2025 | 2024 | Change | % | ||||||||||
| Revenue by product | ||||||||||||||||||
| Betting & Gaming Content | 176,471 | 162,769 | 13,702 | 8 | % | 569,857 | 515,337 | 54,520 | 11 | % | ||||||||
| Managed Betting Services | 56,336 | 47,295 | 9,041 | 19 | % | 171,737 | 144,726 | 27,011 | 19 | % | ||||||||
| Betting Technology & Solutions | 232,807 | 210,064 | 22,743 | 11 | % | 741,594 | 660,063 | 81,531 | 12 | % | ||||||||
| Marketing & Media Services | 43,957 | 32,944 | 11,013 | 33 | % | 131,559 | 102,637 | 28,922 | 28 | % | ||||||||
| Sports Performance | 11,127 | 10,116 | 1,011 | 10 | % | 34,760 | 29,314 | 5,446 | 19 | % | ||||||||
| Integrity Services | 4,163 | 2,048 | 2,115 | 103 | % | 13,162 | 7,472 | 5,690 | 76 | % | ||||||||
| Sports Content, Technology & Services | 59,247 | 45,108 | 14,139 | 31 | % | 179,481 | 139,423 | 40,058 | 29 | % | ||||||||
| Total Revenue | 292,054 | 255,172 | 36,882 | 14 | % | 921,075 | 799,486 | 121,589 | 15 | % | ||||||||
| Revenue by geography | ||||||||||||||||||
| Rest of World | 225,452 | 200,296 | 25,156 | 13 | % | 680,405 | 611,493 | 68,912 | 11 | % | ||||||||
| United States | 66,602 | 54,876 | 11,726 | 21 | % | 240,670 | 187,993 | 52,677 | 28 | % | ||||||||
| Total Revenue | 292,054 | 255,172 | 921,075 | 799,486 | ||||||||||||||
________________________
1 Non-IFRS measure or Operating Metric. See the sections captioned “Non-IFRS Financial Measures and Operating Metric” and “IFRS to Non-IFRS reconciliations” for more details.
Revenue
Total revenue for the third quarter was €292 million, up €37 million, or 14% year-over-year, driven by 11% growth in Betting Technology & Solutions, and 31% growth in Sports Content, Technology & Services.
Betting Technology & Solutions revenues of €233 million were up 11% year-over-year primarily driven by an 8% increase in Betting & Gaming Content due to both existing and new customer uptake of our content and products, as well as strong U.S. market growth, partially offset by the impact of foreign currency movements. Managed Betting Services revenues of €56 million were up 19% driven by strong growth in Managed Trading Services due to increased turnover, higher trading margins and new customers.
Sports Content, Technology & Services revenues of €59 million increased 31% year-over-year primarily driven by 33% growth in Marketing & Media Services, due to increased spending from new and existing technology and media customers and contributions related to our expanded affiliate marketing capabilities. Integrity Services revenues more than doubled in the quarter driven by uptake of products and services from league partners and the addition of new customers, while Sports Performance revenues increased 10% largely due to higher pricing.
The Company generated strong revenue growth globally with the United States up 21% and Rest of World up 13%. As a percentage of total Company revenues, United States revenue represented 23% of total Company revenue in the third quarter as compared to 22% in the prior year quarter, due to continued market growth and customer uptake of our premium content and solutions.
Customer Net Retention Rate of 114% further demonstrates our ability to cross sell and up sell to our clients, as well as the continued market growth in the United States.
Profit for the period
Profit for the period was €22 million, a decrease of €15 million, compared to €37 million in the same quarter in 2024, as strong operating results were offset principally by a €22 million lower foreign currency gain in the quarter related to unrealized currency fluctuations mainly associated with U.S. dollar-denominated sports rights.
Adjusted EBITDA
Third quarter Adjusted EBITDA was €85 million, up €19 million, or 29% compared to €66 million in the same quarter in 2024. The increase was largely driven by the 14% revenue growth, primarily offset by increased sport rights costs related to the continued success of the ATP partnership deal and our renewed partnership with Major League Baseball, as well as by higher adjusted purchased services driven by growth in Marketing and Media Services revenue.
Business Highlights
- Entered into partnership with DAZN providing data and broadcast services across their global media platform, spanning more than 30 sports and 8 languages.
- Developed Performance View, a customized 4Sight product for NBC Universal for Peacock’s streamed NBA games, giving fans a new way to experience the action on the court by providing an on-screen layer of data and deep analytics.
- Renewed agreement with Spanish Football Federation to exclusively sell international media rights for the Spanish Super Cup until 2032, ensuring long-term control of global broadcast sales and continuity as the Real Federación Española de Fútbol’s trusted partner.
- Extended and expanded partnerships with Google and Yahoo, providing live game day sports statistics for Google and extending our relationship as a primary provider of sports data for both Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Fantasy.
- Introduced Bettor Sense, the Company’s proprietary, AI-powered responsible gaming solution, and launched with Underdog in the U.S. and BETesporte in Brazil.
- Awarded 2025 American Gambling Awards Data Service Provider of the Year, our second consecutive win, reaffirming leadership in delivering trusted data solutions to the U.S. sports betting market.
IMG ARENA Acquisition
On November 1, 2025, Sportradar completed its acquisition of IMG ARENA and its global sports betting rights portfolio. The closing of this transaction marks a milestone in Sportradar’s growth strategy, further strengthening and differentiating its position as a leading technology and content provider in the most bet upon global sports, including soccer, tennis and basketball.
Sportradar is not providing any financial consideration as part of the acquisition. Instead, the deal includes total financial consideration of $225 million comprised of approximately $122 million in cash prepayments by the seller to certain sports rightsholders and approximately $103 million to Sportradar. The payments to Sportradar, which are subject to customary purchase price adjustments, will be made over a two-year period. Given the unique transaction structure, the acquisition is expected to be accretive to Sportradar’s Adjusted EBITDA margins and free cash flow conversion, while accelerating the Company’s revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow growth.
The acquired portfolio encompasses strategic relationships with over 70 rightsholders, delivering approximately 38,000 official data events and 29,000 streaming events across 14 global sports on six continents. Sportradar sports coverage now totals more than one million matches annually. The acquisition enhances the Company’s content distribution and will further fuel product development. Sportradar expects to seamlessly integrate and monetize these rights across its highly scalable technology platform and client network.
Balance Sheet and Liquidity
The Company’s cash and cash equivalents were €360 million as of September 30, 2025, as compared with €348 million as of December 31, 2024. Net cash generated from operating activities for the nine-months ended September 30, 2025 of €315 million due to strong operating performance was partially offset by net cash used in investing activities of €166 million, primarily from payments related to sport rights licenses, and by net cash used in financing activities of €102 million. Financing activities included $65.5 million in share repurchases related to the April 2025 secondary offering and €15 million of payments related to the acquisition of the remaining non-controlling interest in a subsidiary. Free cash flow for the nine-months ended September 30, 2025 was €149 million, an increase of €28 million from €122 million in the same period in 2024.
Including an undrawn credit facility, the Company had total liquidity of €580 million as of September 30, 2025, as compared to €568 million as of December 31, 2024, and no debt outstanding.
2025 Full Year Financial Outlook
Sportradar is increasing its fiscal 2025 outlook as follows:
- Revenue of at least €1,290 million, representing year-on-year growth of at least 17%
- Adjusted EBITDA of at least €290 million, representing year-on-year growth of at least 30%
- Adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of approximately 240 basis points
- Free cash flow conversion1 rate still expected to be above the 2024 level of 53%
The 2025 guidance reflects the acquisition of IMG ARENA, which closed on November 1, 2025, as well as the anticipated impact of foreign currency fluctuations.
Share Repurchase Plan
In March 2024, the Board of Directors approved a $200 million share repurchase plan and in October 2025 the Board of Directors increased the authorized share repurchase plan to a total of $300 million. As of September 30, 2025 the Company has repurchased 4.8 million shares under the plan for a total of $85.8 million, including $65.5 million in 2025.
Conference Call and Webcast Information
Sportradar will host a conference call to discuss the third quarter results today, November 5, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Those wishing to participate via webcast should access the earnings call through Sportradar’s Investor Relations website. An archived webcast with the accompanying slides will be available at the Company’s Investor Relations website for one year after the conclusion of the live event.
The post Sportradar Reports Third Quarter Financial Results, Raises Full Year 2025 Outlook and Announces Increase in Share Repurchase Program to $300 Million appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Romanian lawmakers have introduced new legislative proposals aimed at tightening gambling access and advertising rules, particularly to protect young people. The bills, submitted by MPs Raluca Turcan (PNL) and Diana Stoica (USR), would raise the minimum legal gambling age from 18 to 21 and restrict online gambling advertising between 06:00 and 24:00.
Under the proposals, individuals under the age of 21 would be prohibited from participating in gambling activities, while gambling ads would be banned across online platforms during daytime hours. The legislation also seeks to outlaw the use of influencers, athletes and public figures in gambling promotions.
Protecting young audiences
“We have an obligation to protect our children from the threat of gambling,” said USR deputy Diana Stoica, citing studies showing early exposure to slot machines and online betting among Romanian minors. According to Stoica, brain development, particularly in areas linked to impulse control and decision-making, continues until around the age of 21, making younger individuals more vulnerable to gambling addiction.
“One in four adolescents has played on these so-called ‘machines of death’ before turning 18,” she added, arguing that the legislation is a necessary step to reduce risks.
Aligning with European trends
PNL deputy Raluca Turcan called the proposed age increase a “simple change with deep effects,” noting that countries including Portugal, Greece and Moldova have adopted similar measures. She highlighted that individuals aged 18 to 21 often face increased financial pressure and impulsivity as they enter adulthood, making them a key target group for gambling marketing.
“By raising the age threshold, we protect young people during a vulnerable stage,” Turcan stated, referencing international examples where similar policies reportedly reduced early-age indebtedness and problem gambling cases.
Tighter ad rules and warning messages
The draft legislation further proposes:
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A complete ban on online gambling advertising between 06:00 and 24:00
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A ban on influencer and public-figure participation in gambling promotions
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Mandatory visible harm-prevention warnings across digital and physical gambling environments, modeled after tobacco and alcohol regulation
The measures would amend Romania’s existing legal framework under Emergency Ordinance 77/2009.
What comes next
The bills will now proceed through the legislative process, including debate and committee review. If adopted, the changes would introduce some of the most restrictive gambling-advertising and access rules in the region.
The initiatives reflect an ongoing trend across Europe, where regulators are increasing focus on consumer protection, youth safeguards, and advertising limitations in the gambling sector.
The post Romania Proposes Raising Gambling Age to 21 and Restricting Online Advertising appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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