Part two of our iGaming Daily podcast breakdown highlights some of the biggest news stories covered by SBC from around the world that will most definitely continue well into 2026.
UKGC revamps problem gambling research
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) released its second Gambling Survey of Great Britain earlier this year. However, this time around the survey was conducted by using a brand new methodology that doubled the sample size to 20,000 – touted by UKGC CEO Andrew Rhodes as the “new academic baseline for gambling research”.
One of the highlights that the survey revealed is just how significant lotteries are for the UK gambling sector. This goes for all types of lotteries, the National Lottery, social and postcode lotteries, which if extracted from the survey lead to a drastic drop in gambling participation rates.
On the topic of lotteries, online engagement with the National Lottery was on the rise – a key development when it comes to gambling conglomerate Allwyn and its mandate as holder of the lottery licence, highlighting that the commitment to modernising the infrastructure is bearing fruit.
Meanwhile, online betting was shown to be more prominent than its retail counterpart – with the UKGC itself concluding that weekly participation in retail betting has a higher chance of occurring in deprived areas.
This particular detail bore resemblance to an important political debate that took place throughout this year, namely calls from local governments for more licensing powers when it comes to retail premises in their constituencies.
At the end of the day, this is exactly why such national surveys matter – they inform crucial policies by providing a detailed representation of the current trends within the UK gambling sector.
UK Budget leads to significant market readjustments
Another highlight from the past year was Sky Bet, which is owned by Flutter, moving key C-Suite figures from their offices in Leeds into Malta – a decision that can be traced back to months of speculations that gambling taxes in the UK will increase, which were confirmed with the announcement of next year’s Budget on 26 November.
Those actively following our news coverage will know that Chancellor Rachel Reeves decided to raise the Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) from 21% to 40% in April 2026.
Corporation tax on the island is also currently at 25%, which combined carry a significant challenge for any gambling business that has an online offering.
These figures are in stark contrast to Malta’s regime, where gaming tax and corporation tax are both currently capped at 5% – which makes Flutter’s move a strategic financial execution.
It is yet to be seen whether companies relocating to other gaming hubs like Malta or Gibraltar due to financial headwinds will become the latest trend going into the year.
Such a development is far from far stretched, as we’ve already seen household names scaling back their international operations in order to regroup ahead of the increased costs.
Two such examples are Evoke’s William Hill, which closed shop in a number of jurisdictions in Africa, and most recently Malta’s very own LiveScoreBet, which pulled its platform out of Bulgaria while directly quoting the UK Budget as the reason behind this.
Gambling reforms cause a stir down under
Even on the other side of the world, an as well known topic as gambling advertising is within the gambling industry still reverberated across the halls of the Australian Parliament.
A potential threat that gambling ads will be met with a blanket ban prompted one of the biggest regional media outlets, Nine Entertainment, to issue a warning to PM Anthony Albanese’s cabinet that it will seek compensation from the state to recoup the losses in the event of such legislation.
There are currently concerns about the societal impact of gambling advertising in Australia, but the sizeable sports industry, how intertwined it is with betting, as well as concerns about empowering the black market, have all kept such a drastic measure like a total prohibition of marketing at bay – at least for now.
With Albanese at the helm for at least three more years after an election victory earlier in May, 2026 could turn into an intense faceoff between him and Australian gambling stakeholders.
Keeping in touch with the CEOs
Going back to company-specific news, the industry did not come short of producing success stories throughout the year.
On multiple occasions we’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Pontus Lindwall, CEO of Betsson AB, as the multinational firm kept its internal record-breaking momentum by topping its performance quarter after quarter.
From the start of the year, Lindwall was adamant that Betsson will continue with its expansion across all fronts – whether that be market share acquisition, strategic M&A movement, or innovation development, with AI and even crypto payments being thrown in by the CEO as growing interests for the company going forward.
All in all, next year is shaping up to be even more profitable for Betsson, especially when it ramps up its presence in Brazil as the market continues to settle after it launched back in January. Rest assured, SBC will continue to provide you with regular updates of Betsson’s performance thanks to Lindwall’s insights.