Contributor
Liam O'Brien is a contributor to iGaming Times, writing on the commercial and marketing side of the gambling industry.
His career in gaming media began at Clarion Events, where he worked across ICE Totally Gaming, iGB Affiliate and iGB Live before moving into esports with Challengermode. As Head of Partnerships at The Gaming Boardroom he built a revenue stream from scratch across membership, sponsorship and live events, working with C-suite decision makers at some of the world's largest operators and suppliers.
He later served as Head of Digital Media at SiGMA World, with responsibility for digital and sponsorship revenue across its global event and media portfolio, and as Chief Growth Officer at Aphex Media, leading SEO and growth strategy for gaming clients.
Leading operators implement machine learning to detect high-risk players in real-time, reducing affordability breaches by 40% while maintaining player retention. New compliance tools from DraftKings, FanDuel reshape operator margins.
Following the successful conclusion of the Casino Guru Awards 2026, winners, sponsors, and industry leaders have shared their reflections on an evening that celebrated excellence, responsibility, innovation, and positive change across the global iGaming industry.
New Jersey senators have advanced a trio of responsible gambling bills, led by S-2356's mandate to study and standardise advertising language, as the state's iGaming revenue hits a record $276.3 million and builds on the Division of Gaming Enforcement's new behavioural-monitoring standards.
Türkiye reported more than 84,000 illegal gambling sites for closure in 2025 and froze roughly 5.1 billion lira, approximately $131 million, in suspect funds, yet offshore hosting and resilient demand expose the limits of a prohibition-led strategy with no licensed alternative.
A High Court of England and Wales judge has ruled that foreign law and earlier Georgian judgments must be weighed in SPRIBE's intellectual property battle over the Aviator crash game, blocking Aviator LLC's attempt to fast-track the ownership question. The procedural win decides nothing on the merits, with trademark and copyright issues deferred to a full trial.
Spain's gambling regulator, the DGOJ, has ordered a precautionary nationwide block on Polymarket and Kalshi and opened a sanctions procedure, treating the prediction platforms as unlicensed gambling rather than financial exchanges and aligning Spain with a widening European crackdown.
As its licensed gambling market reaches €1.55 billion, Slovakia's regulator has signed two May 2026 memoranda, building a multi-source database with Digitálna koalícia and embedding gambling-harm training at a Nitra university to shield minors from unlicensed offshore operators.
Hosted by Denisa Vydumska, the gala honored operators, providers, and individuals who are actively shaping a more transparent, innovative, responsible, and player-focused future for iGaming. The event featured dazzling live performances, powerful speeches, world-class entertainment, and emotional winner announcements that highlighted the incredible progress being made across the industry.
The Playa has just brought one of the iGaming industry's most experienced VIP operators on board as a Strategic Advisor. The timing is no accident. With personalisation moving from competitive edge to baseline expectation, the company is positioning its new VIP Intelligence product to reshape how operators manage their most valuable players.
The AffPapa iGaming Awards celebrate excellence across affiliates, operators, and B2B providers, recognizing organizations that consistently demonstrate impact, innovation, and long-term value in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving industry.
A debt crisis among young people in Enschede has reopened a Dutch debate that won't go away. With one in five local youngsters in debt, a councillor is pushing for the legal online gambling age to climb to 24, a level that would be unprecedented in Europe.
Polymarket has reportedly removed the waitlist on its US iOS app, opening its prediction-market exchange to general American users for the first time since 2022. The comeback rests on its $112 million QCEX acquisition and a CFTC no-action letter, and it sharpens an already intense rivalry with market leader Kalshi.
France's regulator has built a tool that lets operators measure whether their own player protection systems are actually working. The findings should worry the entire industry: excessive players may account for 60% of account-based gambling revenue.
A cross-party group of MPs has gone directly to the Culture Secretary with a stark warning about what proposed affordability checks could do to British horseracing. With the Gambling Commission set to decide this month, the political pressure is intensifying.
Taking place on May 25 at Xara Lodge in Malta, ahead of the NEXT Valletta conference, the Awards have established themselves as one of the industry’s most respected recognitions for fairness, player protection, and ethical business practices.
Stake has just gone live in Mexico, but the company is already looking at where it heads next in Latin America. The region has become central to the operator's long-term growth story.
After years of complaints about gambling research being influenced by industry funding, the UK has set up its largest ever independent research centre. The new body is built explicitly to break free of those concerns.
The Philippines regulator has drawn a line on operator promotional spending. With cash-back capped at 15% and rebates at 1.5% of turnover, the days of unlimited bonus competition in the Philippines are over.
A hidden casino on the ninth floor, a fraudulent crypto call centre on the fourth, all running from the same Kyiv business address. Ukraine's crackdown on illegal gambling and financial scams just produced one of its more striking convictions.
Ryan Comstock has the top job at Ainsworth on a permanent basis. He inherits a business navigating a contested ownership structure, a mixed financial performance and intense pressure from competing major shareholders.
Casino Guru has been named the runner-up in the 2026 SBC Awards Europe Casino Affiliate of the Year category at the official ceremony that took place on April 30 at Xara Lodge.
With this deal, Kambi will be powering sports betting in eight of Canada's ten provinces. The PROLINE expansion is one of the most significant supplier wins in North American sports betting this year.
The most consequential US gambling story of the year has just unfolded inside one company. Amy Howe is out at FanDuel, the sportsbook is bleeding customers and Flutter is betting nine figures on prediction markets to fix it.
The Netherlands has flagged thousands of unlicensed gambling adverts to Meta in a single month. With the country's licensed market shrinking and the black market growing, the role of social platforms in fuelling that shift is becoming impossible to ignore.