The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) has launched a free online tool that lets consumers check whether a gambling website is licensed, as part of what it describes as the first internationally coordinated awareness campaign against illegal gambling.

The tool, Check Before You Play, went live on 9 November at the start of IAGR’s inaugural Illegal Gambling Awareness Week, which runs until 13 November. Member regulators including the Illinois Gaming Board and the Florida Gaming Control Commission have issued their own statements backing the campaign.

How the tool works

Users enter a gambling site’s web address at checkbeforeyouplay.org and receive available licensing information for the IAGR member jurisdictions the service covers. IAGR said the tool draws on “regulatory records and other verified public sources”.

The service was contributed by Sharp Vision, a Paris-based regulatory technology company. Alongside the URL check, the site offers a country selector that shows each jurisdiction’s regulator together with lists of licensed and blocked sites. With the United Kingdom selected, it lists the Gambling Commission and 1,242 licensed sites.

A disclaimer warns users that the tool does not cover non-IAGR jurisdictions, may be incomplete or lag recent licensing changes, and that results should be confirmed with the relevant regulator. The site says it does not store data or access the sites being checked.

“People often mistake visibility for trust,” said Kevin Mullally, IAGR chief executive, in the association’s announcement. In the Illinois release, he added: “We want gamblers to enjoy themselves while remaining safe, and that starts with knowing whether the site they are using is licensed in the jurisdiction; unlicensed is unprotected.”

Regulators sign up

IAGR first outlined the campaign at its annual conference in Lima, Peru, in late October. Creative agency R&R Partners produced the materials, including 30-second and 15-second videos, social media content and talking points in English and Spanish, which members can co-brand. The campaign is fronted by a mascot called Sal, described as a “Gaming Grifter”.

The Illinois Gaming Board said in a statement on 9 November that it was joining the effort. “As an IAGR member, the IGB is proud to stand with IAGR in this important public education and awareness campaign to arm consumers with information about deceptive, unlicensed gambling websites and apps,” said Marcus D. Fruchter, the board’s administrator.

Florida’s Gaming Control Commission, which has no legal online casino market to protect but has been active against unlicensed operators, also took part. “Educating Floridians is another way we can help protect them from unscrupulous operators,” said Alana Zimmer, its executive director.

IAGR has not published a full list of participating regulators, and other members can still join the campaign.

Part of a wider push

The launch adds to a growing set of consumer-facing licence checks. The Philippine regulator PAGCOR has set a December target for its own licence-check app for players, while European regulators have increasingly paired site blocking with public warnings.

The timing also fits a period of heavier enforcement focus on the illegal market. In the UK, the Gambling Commission has just published an illegal gambling index putting past-month use of unlicensed sites at 2.5% of online gamblers.

For licensed operators, the value of the tool will depend on how comprehensive and current its coverage proves to be. A check that fails to recognise a legitimate licence, or that misses a newly blocked site, could undermine trust in the very distinction regulators are trying to promote.

Playtech now expects full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA of more than €300m, ahead of market forecasts, after trading in the four months to 31 October was boosted by what it called continued strong performance in the Americas.

The supplier said in a trading update to the London Stock Exchange on 10 November that results for the period from 1 July to 31 October were ahead of expectations. Its new guidance compares with analyst consensus of €279m, the mean of seven estimates ranging from €271m to €285m, and with the “at least €270m” Playtech had guided to over the summer.

The company also warned that next year will carry heavier headwinds from Brazil, UK taxation and growing competition in its most profitable US product. Consensus for 2027 adjusted EBITDA stood at €266m before the update, according to the footnotes to Playtech’s announcement.

Hard Rock partnership drives the upgrade

Playtech said it had “benefitted materially” from being first to market with Hard Rock Digital in the first half with its product built on past motor racing (PMR) results, and that PMR revenues had remained strong in the second half.

That edge is set to narrow. Other third-party PMR suppliers are now being introduced, and Playtech said it expects them to have a “more material impact” on its wallet share into 2027.

Mexico and Colombia also benefited from tailwinds following the men’s FIFA World Cup, the company said.

“We have continued to deliver an excellent performance in 2026 to date, reflecting sustained momentum in regulated markets, notably the Americas,” said Mor Weizer, Playtech’s chief executive. He added that the group was working towards the top end of its medium-term targets.

Brazil and UK tax weigh on 2027

Playtech said it expects to absorb the three-month impact of “recent political and regulatory developments” in Brazil within its 2026 numbers, but warned of a “more significant impact” in 2027 if the existing market shutdown is not lifted. Brazilian operators were forced offline in October and their licences expired as Lula won re-election, leaving the federal market closed pending political and court decisions.

Brazil has already hit others in the sector. Flutter cut its 2026 guidance earlier this month after exiting the market.

In the UK, Playtech continues to absorb the increase in Remote Gaming Duty that took effect in April 2026. The full-year effect will land in 2027, alongside higher gambling taxes in other European markets.

The update did not include revenue figures or a segment breakdown, and Playtech gave no numerical guidance for 2027. Trade press coverage, including SBC News and CasinoBeats, framed the announcement as a stronger 2026 bought partly at the expense of a tougher 2027.

What comes next

The upgrade caps a strong year for the supplier, which reported first-half revenue up 10% to €425.1m in September, with US and Canadian B2B revenue more than doubling on the back of the Hard Rock relationship. The question for investors now is how much of that US growth survives as Hard Rock Digital opens its PMR offering to competing suppliers, and how long Brazil stays shut.

Playtech’s full statement is published on its investor relations site.

Allwyn has agreed to take a global perpetual licence to Kambi Group’s sportsbook source code, a deal that will let the lottery and gaming group run its betting operations on technology it owns. It also confirmed that it will buy the 30% of Instant Win Gaming (IWG) it does not already hold.

The Lucerne-based group announced both transactions on 10 November in a release titled “Allwyn advances strategy to own and manage key technology and content capabilities”. Allwyn has been saying for months that sports betting was the one major vertical it had not yet brought in-house.

Kambi deal: source code rather than white label

Under the agreements, Allwyn receives a licence to Kambi’s sportsbook source code covering both digital and retail channels. Allwyn described it as the first transaction of its type for Kambi, which normally supplies its sportsbook to operators as a managed service paid for through a revenue share.

Kambi will provide development and deployment services during a transition period, after which a dedicated Kambi team will move across to Allwyn. Allwyn did not say how long the transition will last.

Allwyn will pay €50m over the three years to 2029 and expects to capitalise the cost, with roughly half falling in 2027. It will also build central sportsbook capabilities of its own, including trading, pricing and risk management. The group expects these to add central costs of “a low-tens-of-€millions amount annually” from 2027, which it said would later be offset by savings in its business segments.

The new platform will cover Allwyn’s existing sports betting operations, which generated more than €800m in gross gaming revenue in the 12 months to 31 December 2025, “with optionality to expand into new markets”. The release did not say which brands or markets will migrate first.

“We are delighted to announce further progress in our strategy to own and manage key technology and content capabilities that enhance product innovation, differentiation and time to market,” said Kresimir Spajic, chief executive of Allwyn Digital.

Werner Becher, chief executive of Kambi, said Allwyn’s decision to choose Kambi technology to unify its sportsbook operations “reflects the strength of our product, our expertise and our track record of delivering at scale in regulated markets”.

Full control of IWG

Separately, IWG’s minority shareholders have exercised a put option requiring Allwyn to buy their remaining 30% stake. The price, set by a pre-determined valuation formula, is about US$120m (€107m), subject to customary closing and working capital adjustments. Completion is expected in the first quarter of 2027.

Allwyn first took its 70% holding in the instant-win and e-instant game developer in 2024. It said IWG’s adjusted EBITDA grew 30% in 2025 on a US dollar basis, that the founders will remain in their executive roles, and that the buyout simplifies the group’s corporate structure.

Why it matters

The Kambi licence gives Allwyn a route to an owned sportsbook after an earlier attempt to buy one fell through. As reported by iGaming Business and other trade outlets, Allwyn walked away earlier this year from its agreement to acquire a majority of Novibet’s parent company after feedback from the Hellenic Competition Commission, a deal that had been driven largely by Novibet’s sportsbook technology.

The move fits a wider push to own core technology across the group, which also saw Allwyn hire former Betsson technology chief Fredrik Ögren as group CTO in October.

For Kambi, the deal is a test of a new commercial model. Rather than earning a recurring revenue share, it is effectively selling its core product outright to one of Europe’s largest gambling groups, with trade press reports citing a Kambi estimate of €45m to €50m in operating profit contribution over 2027 to 2031. Other B2B suppliers will be watching whether large operators follow Allwyn in preferring to license and own sportsbook code rather than rent it.

Allwyn’s full announcement is available on its investor news page.