Fortuna Entertainment and Endorphina sound the alarm on ‘Brand Spoofing’, the imitation of regulated brands and technologies that is spreading in CEE markets with no grounds for intervention.
In comparison to its neighbouring states, the Czech Republic has witnessed little drama in the governance of its gambling sector and licences.
The home market panel of the HIPTHER Prague Summit 2026 even praised the oversight of the Czech Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Celní Správa, the Customs Authority, in applying much-needed player protection measures introduced as of 2024.
In the subsequent years, Czech gambling licences (online and retail) have adjusted to heightened demands on civic protection, as authorities and licensees work together to exclude up to 700,000 citizens from gambling via the RVO register.
Yet not all is serene on the banks of the Vltava, as Czech leaders sound the alarm on a new and rising threat of ‘brand spoofing’.
No funny business
The term may evoke the sale of fake handbags or cheap counterfeit goods on beach resorts , but as criminal networks target online environments with AI-driven mechanics, brand spoofing is no trivial matter, according to Jan Holub, Compliance Lead and Member of the Supervisory Board of Fortuna Entertainment.
Holub provided a breakdown of “bad actors replicating the digital identity of a gambling brand” copying web assets, domains, UX environments and even customer communications to deceive users into “revealing sensitive information or downloading malicious software.”
Enhanced by AI, Holub has witnessed the evolution of ‘spoofed environments’ that not only resemble front-end brands, but also replicate backend systems.
Piggybacking on the brand recognition and marketing activity of regulated operators, these spoofed platforms can generate high engagement with unsuspecting audiences and make millions in illicit funds.
“We have progressed in Czech. But I must raise this concern of brand spoofing as a new danger. In my role at Fortuna, I witness fake brands promoted online via Google, Facebook and app stores,” Holub stated.
“We immediately ask the platforms to take them down, but the response is slow. These fake websites or apps can be live for a period of two or three weeks.”
Though cooperation with Czech authorities is strong, Holub questioned the lack of accountability for protecting the IP of online gambling brands among big tech and media platforms — where enforcement is clearly lagging.
A double jeopardy
These concerns are shared by Jan Urbanec, CEO of Prague-based Endorphina, who noted that spoofing is spreading across markets and rapidly expanding into “the B2B architecture of online gambling.”
“This is a double jeopardy for our industry, as the threats are not B2C alone. These actors can replicate the UX of payment gateways, affiliate websites, CRM flows, and even supplier technologies,” Urbanec explained.
As a digital threat, brand spoofing creates a multi-layered risk for the balance of regulated markets. Reputational damage becomes immediate and difficult to contain, as consumers often cannot distinguish between a legitimate site and a cloned interface.
Dealing with such a nuanced threat, Urbanec told delegates that Endorphina has tripled its resources to protect IP — highlighting what he sees as the limited capacity of regulators to intervene effectively.
“For games developers, there is no real IP protection. We have to monitor every environment, and it is very expensive to track who is copying our brand, engines and algorithms,” he said.
Regulators soft on IP protection
Gambling regimes across Europe, including the Czech Republic, have largely been designed to identify and block unlicensed operators as standalone entities. They are less equipped to tackle actors disguising themselves as licensed B2C or B2B incumbents, exploiting brand trust as their primary entry point.
Witnessing ‘spoofing’s encroachment’ in the Czech Republic, Holub and Urbanec believe that this new Ai-led threat will become a new “health check” for European gambling regulators — one that cannot be addressed through traditional IP blocking alone as sentiments turn to improving gambling IP protections.
As Urbanec concluded: “It’s time to realise that criminal gangs target gambling to make quick money, our regulators are fixed on making rules. This has to change, we need stronger action on IP and brand enforcement of licensed operators, before it is too late.”