EEG sat down with Ivan Bilash, Director of Partner Operations at SOFTSWISS, after the SiGMA Central Europe Summit, where the company launched its 2026 iGaming Trends report. With over eleven years of experience in project and product management, Ivan brings a practical yet visionary understanding of operational excellence and partnership building. In this conversation, we explore key iGaming trends for 2026, the importance of data-driven insights, and how SOFTSWISS uses technology and collaboration to help operators improve player acquisition and build stronger relationships with affiliates.

Interview by Maria Emma Arnidou for EEG, HIPTHER.

The SOFTSWISS iGaming Trends report has become a highly anticipated annual playbook for industry professionals. What inspired this initiative, and how has it evolved into a vital resource over the years?

When we released the very first edition four years ago, the idea was to bring together everything the industry was experiencing but hadn’t structured yet. There was a lot of noise in the market – regulatory changes, new technologies, shifts in player behaviour, and so on. But there was no single place that connected all these dots.

Over time, the report has evolved into a tool that helps the market understand where things are actually heading. And that’s why it is so anticipated by both iGaming professionals and newcomers. It’s not just ‘trends for the sake of trends’ – it’s grounded in real data and clear patterns we observe, supported by our experience in analysing them.

For us at SOFTSWISS, it’s also a way to share what we see from the inside. We work with hundreds of operators, so we naturally spot early signals before they become global trends. The report is a way to turn all of that into something useful for the entire industry.

This year’s 2026 edition gathers insights from over 350 experts and applies AI analysis to more than 120,000 media headlines. From your perspective, what are the most striking or transformative findings emerging this year?

To be honest, there are many, which is why the report is over 100 pages long. But let me highlight the key points. 

The first thing that jumps out is how quickly the industry is maturing. As we note in the report, the industry has outgrown its ‘Wild West’ phase. We see this in regulation, taxation, responsible gambling, and advertising. Many markets are tightening rules, but they are also becoming more predictable. That’s a good sign of a sector moving towards sustainable growth.

Another big takeaway is the scale of M&A activity. It’s no longer just large companies buying smaller ones. It’s about building ecosystems and obtaining technologies that help acquirers prepare for a world where efficiency is as important as market share. 

And last but not least, of course, there is AI – not as a buzzword, but as infrastructure. Companies have moved past experiments, and now expect AI to deliver real value. This primarily concerns fraud detection and player protection. But I think it’s fair to say that AI has permeated all areas of business, from coding to marketing, and this shift is happening fast. In the report, we call this the industrialisation of AI.

When you combine all these trends, you realise that iGaming is becoming more mature and more structured, but also far more competitive. And with that comes a new reality: the industry is now much more demanding operationally.

The report presentation launched alongside the iGaming Trends Marathon at SiGMA Central Europe. What role do live discussions and community dialogue play in shaping industry progress?

I strongly believe that conversations matter more than slides. Trends only become useful when people challenge them and connect them to their own experience.

During the marathon, we saw something important: different parts of the industry –  operators, suppliers, tech companies, media – are finally speaking the same language. Everyone understands that the next stage is about taking responsibility and making smarter decisions.

Events like SiGMA create that space. When you place 200+ people in one room and let them debate AI, regulation, M&A, and marketing, you get insights you would hardly get from reading a report alone. These discussions help operators understand why acquisition is becoming more complex and why working closely with affiliates, rather than treating them as a separate layer, is increasingly important.

For me, as someone responsible for partner operations, this is invaluable. These events show what operators are truly concerned about and what they expect.

Speaking of acquisition, how do you see the role of affiliates changing within the iGaming ecosystem?

This is an important topic that frequently arises in conversations with operators. Traditional acquisition channels are becoming increasingly expensive, more restricted, and in some cases simply unavailable. Naturally, this pushes the industry to rely much more on affiliates.

But affiliates today are no longer just traffic suppliers. Many have grown into strong, independent ecosystem players with their own strategies, data, and long-term goals. They understand user behaviour extremely well and often have deeper insight into acquisition funnels than anyone else in the market.

We also see another interesting shift: some large affiliate groups are moving into direct operations. This changes the dynamics. On one hand, there is less traffic available on the open market. On the other, new operators emerge with very strong marketing expertise from day one. That naturally increases competition for the end player.

Budgets are no longer the only decisive factor. Operators’ success now also depends on the quality of partnerships, transparency in working with affiliates, and having a product and strategy capable of converting and retaining high-quality traffic. From our perspective, this is a long-term trend that will shape the industry’s growth in the coming years.

The 2026 iGaming Trends report builds on years of data, but also integrates new analytical layers powered by AI and expert research. What makes this edition stand out, and how can professionals best use its insights?

This edition stands out because it explains why certain trends are emerging. AI helped us process more than 120,000 media headlines, and confirmed what operators tell us privately: the market is recalibrating. Responsible gambling rules are strengthening, cybersecurity is becoming a board-level topic, and compliance is now part of product design.

If you’re an operator or a supplier, the best way to use this report is as a planning tool. We’ve done all the heavy lifting and distilled each business area down to the most important insights. We have also introduced ‘Adaptation Paths’ at the end of each chapter. It’s a kind of checklist that operators can refer to when building their strategy. 

Of course, the report won’t make decisions for everyone, but it gives a very clear map of the road ahead.

Finally, as Director of Partner Operations, what do you see as the most valuable trait in industry partnerships going into 2026?

I’d say consistency. Everyone talks about innovation, but in practice, what partners value most beyond stable operations is predictable communication and support they can rely on.

This year’s report shows that growth will depend on how well companies adapt to the new reality of increased speed and stricter regulations. In 2026, the best partners will be those who can combine flexibility with discipline: reacting quickly when needed while also thinking long-term.

For SOFTSWISS, this approach is in our DNA. We work side-by-side with operators through technical support, risk management, and daily operational guidance. When the market becomes tougher – which it inevitably will – this kind of partnership becomes a competitive advantage.

As SOFTSWISS continues to pioneer data-driven growth across the global iGaming ecosystem, the 2026 iGaming Trends report reaffirms the company’s commitment to knowledge sharing, collaboration, and innovation.

The 2026 iGaming Trends report is available – download it now!

The post 2026 iGaming Trends Marathon by SOFTSWISS – A Sneak Peek with Ivan Bilash, Director of Partner Operations appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

From shifting regulatory pressures and emerging markets to changing player expectations and the looming presence of AI, the iGaming industry will be a very different place at the end of 2026 than at the start.

For this roundtable, we have invited a group of industry professionals to discuss what markets are going to be the big talking points of the year, how player expectations will continue to evolve, and what strategies will best position you for success over the coming 12 months.

The following have all contributed to this discussion:

• Deborah Conte Santoro: Managing Director, ReelLink at Swiss Casinos
• Martyn Hannah: Co-founder and Managing Director, Comparasino
• Fiona Hickey: Managing Director, Games Inc
• David Black: Chief Growth Officer, beBettor
• Giorgi Tsutskiridze: Chief Commercial Officer, SPRIBE
• Jamison Selby: Chief Executive Officer, Rubystone

Which regions or markets do you expect to offer the most meaningful growth opportunities in 2026, and what makes them attractive?

Fiona Hickey: The markets everyone will talk about in 2026, Finland, Alberta, New Zealand, and the UAE, are attractive, but let’s be honest: once regulation lands, revenues drop. Taxes rise, RG tightens, marketing gets capped, and the commercial upside isn’t nearly as big as the headlines suggest. Great for stability, not great for margins.

The real growth, the uncomfortable kind nobody puts in a press release, will still come from unregulated and grey markets. Latin America, outside tightly regulated pockets, large parts of Africa, and India’s semi-regulated landscape will deliver higher yields and faster scaling simply because they’re less restricted, and operators aren’t drowning in 40% duties and endless compliance cycles.

So the honest picture is this: regulated markets offer credibility and long-term sustainability for large organisations, but unregulated markets offer commercial returns, and for many, this is hard to ignore.

David Black: Growth in that sense is limited to the total addressable market and associated market-share strategies. So the question deserves an answer around growth that moves the needle. The game changer always comes from innovation. It would be great to see the opening of new regulated markets as a means of driving growth. Still, both this and corporate consolidation, whilst always sound, appear to be relegated to second and third place, respectively.

First place, this year is how and when operators will introduce new edge-type technologies which enhance an entertaining and profitable player experience. It feels like we are in another phase of product innovation, which is very exciting. This will inevitably cycle to M&A in the coming years, but for now, it is all about innovation.

Jamison Selby: The most interesting growth in 2026 won’t come from the regions people usually name at conferences. The U.S., LATAM, and parts of APAC will all continue to expand, but the real upside is in how those markets are evolving, not simply their geography.

In the United States, the traditional regulatory map of betting has become an increasingly narrow lens. The real story is happening in parallel markets (sweepstakes, skill gaming, and prediction platforms) operating under entirely different regulatory structures. These categories scale faster than licensed products because they aren’t boxed in by state-by-state fragmentation. They offer national reach, healthier margins, and a player demographic much closer to mainstream digital entertainment. That’s where the opportunity is shifting.

LATAM remains attractive, but not in a monolithic way. Brazil will draw the headlines as formal regulation takes shape, yet Mexico and Colombia often present cleaner, more immediately scalable conditions. What unifies the region isn’t regulatory uniformity; it’s a young, mobile-native audience that treats interactive entertainment as a daily habit rather than an occasional activity. That dynamic alone makes LATAM a sustained growth engine. APAC, similarly, is not a single story. India’s scale, particularly within skill-based formats, creates an environment where even modest regulatory clarity can unlock enormous upside.

But the markets likely to shape the industry’s direction in 2026 aren’t defined by geography at all. They’re defined by the regulatory lanes that allow new product categories to emerge. Prediction markets, skill-based ecosystems, and hybrid entertainment formats are absorbing demand that once belonged exclusively to gambling. They’re doing so with lower acquisition costs, fewer structural constraints, and far more room for product innovation. That combination doesn’t just produce growth. It produces the kind of explosive scaling that reshapes industries.

The common thread across all these markets is simple. The operators with flexible product architectures, those capable of moving between regulatory frameworks rather than being confined by them, will capture the most meaningful share of that growth.

What changes in 2026 do you expect in player behaviour, product formats, and entertainment consumption that operators must prepare for?

Deborah Conte Santoro: Operators must prepare for several things:

Players see gaming as broader entertainment. Expect blended formats that mix casino, sports, live shows, social gaming, streaming and influencer-driven experiences.

Seamless, omni-channel continuity. Players expect the same favourites and progression across mobile and the casino floor, with no perceptible boundary. Technologies like ReelLink will be essential to deliver identical content and unified loyalty across channels.

Younger players demand modern UX. Instant load times, mobile-first design, social features, community tools and rewarding progression systems will be table stakes. They’ll favour experiences that feel fresh, discoverable and shareable.

New formats rise. Multiplayer, skill elements, live game shows, AR/VR lounges and metaverse-style interactions will gain traction for engagement and retention. Higher expectations on payments and onboarding. Instant KYC, fast payouts, local rails and compliant crypto options will dramatically impact conversion and LTV. Operators must treat content, data, and payments as a single, cohesive product experience, online and on the floor.

Martyn Hannah: Instead of looking at what’s going to change, I think it’s just as important, if not more so, to consider what’s going to stay the same. No matter what laws, regulations and tax requirements come into force, consumers are still going to want to play online slot and casino games. The question is where. Will players drift to the black market in search of bigger bonuses and higher RTPs, or will they favour licensed brands they trust?

Some players will knowingly turn to black-market sites, while others will stick with licensed brands they consider safe and reputable. But there’s a large cohort of players in the middle that don’t know the difference between the two, with many unknowingly playing at offshore sites. These are your swing voters, and with the right education and messaging, I believe many will swing towards licensed online casinos.

This, combined with effective enforcement action against unlicensed operators and the comparison sites promoting them, will stunt black market growth, improve channelisation to licensed brands and better protect players.

Jamison Selby: Players don’t want gambling. They want entertainment with stakes. This distinction will define 2026. The convergence everyone talks about isn’t casino-meets-sports. It’s gambling-meets-everything-else.

Traditional gambling’s biggest competitor isn’t another operator. It’s every other form of digital entertainment. When players can bet on their Fortnite matches, predict which TikTok trend will explode next, or wager on reality TV outcomes in real-time, is spinning a slot still fun?

We see a rising cohort of players who spend less time in single-session environments and more time in continuous, ambient ecosystems where their progression, status, and social capital persist over time and across products. Operators still building for the traditional “gambling consumer” are targeting a segment that’s rapidly ageing out. Operators that treat their platforms as entertainment networks rather than isolated casinos will win the battle.

The next generation doesn’t see boundaries between gaming, trading, betting, and socialising. It’s all just having skin in the game.

What strategic capabilities, across compliance, marketing, payments, or responsible gaming, will separate the winners from the rest in 2026?

Fiona Hickey: If I actually knew the secret formula for winning 2026, I’d already be on a yacht off my private island with a very smug LinkedIn bio, pretending my days were long and tough, so no, I don’t have the magic answer, but here are a few things I think are key;

All business operators and suppliers alike need a compliance team that understands the rules and the intent. People who can read between the lines keep you competitive and avoid the trap of over-compliance.

Instant payouts aren’t a nice-to-have; they are essential. Offshore sites pay in minutes; regulated operators need to stop pretending players won’t notice the difference.

Regulated ecosystems are crowded, slower, more restricted and, yes, getting duller. Players chasing excitement will drift elsewhere. Operators who ignore that are simply handing them over. If you are arrogant enough to think your brand is important to players and they won’t go elsewhere, you are in trouble.

Giorgi Tsutskiridze: The companies that succeed will be those that combine strong regulatory discipline with the ability to move quickly. Compliance can’t be an afterthought; it needs to be built into every part of the business, supported by real-time tools and responsible gaming systems that actually help players. Marketing will shift toward community and storytelling, not just performance-driven numbers. And payments have to be smooth and localised, no friction, no confusion. Ultimately, the winners will be the brands that can scale globally but still feel local, personal, and trustworthy to every player they reach.

Jamison Selby: The winners of 2026 and beyond won’t be the best gambling operators. They’ll be the best platform and ecosystem builders who happen to offer gambling.

Three capabilities will matter above all else:

Community building over customer acquisition: Traditional CAC and LTV metrics are being hammered by increasing competition and lower revenues. Winners will build ecosystems where players recruit players, where the product is the marketing. Pure product-community fit wins.

Regulatory-inspired innovation: Those who master building within existing regulatory boxes have a path. Those who use the regulations as a map to seek new verticals have a path. Those who are slow to adapt face a painful decline.

Multi-vertical brand elasticity: The ability to stretch a single brand across different regulatory structures and product categories. Traditional betting where it’s licensed, sweepstakes where it’s legal, same with prediction markets, skill gaming, and social casino. Same brand equity, different regulatory wrappers. Winners won’t be solely defined by their licensing but by their ability to meet players wherever regulations allow, in whatever form works.

The post iGaming in 2026: Emerging Markets, Changing Player Demands, and Winning Strategies appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Black Cow Technology Founder and CEO, Max Francis, on why the company has shifted focus from software development to game development, and why he believes multiplayer is the future of online gambling entertainment

Black Cow has just announced its transition into a multiplayer content provider. What made you refocus the business in such a way?

We truly believe that multiplayer is the future of online gambling entertainment, and with our own technology capable of building next-gen multiplayer experiences, we wanted to transition into a content-led business and release some innovative games of our own. Our Multiplayer RGS is especially powerful, allowing operators and suppliers to bring multiplayer gameplay to any game format, even including non-gambling events. Black Cow’s robust, reliable and highly flexible technology is already used by some of the biggest organisations in the industry, including the likes of DraftKings and Light & Wonder. The shift into creating our own multiplayer content enables us to build on our successful Remote Game Server (RGS) and Jackpot Server technology to create first-of-its kind games offering unique player experiences via our Multiplayer RGS platform.

Tell us more about your Multiplayer RGS and its capabilities. What sets it apart from similar solutions in the market?

Our Multiplayer RGS has been several years in the making and is already live with Light & Wonder. Our Multiplayer RGS can be used to create multiplayer experiences across anything from slots and table games to crash, plinko, lottery, live dealer and bingo. Games can be player-cooperative or player versus player. The system’s capabilities are really only limited by the imagination of the people using it, and that’s why we’re so excited to be moving into the realm of game development so that we can push its limits to disrupt online casino lobbies with Black Cow content.

Taking a business in a new direction is a significant undertaking, not without its risks. How have you approached this transition?

It was clear to me that we had the technology to create multiplayer content, but not necessarily the experience to date, and that’s why we’ve been making strategic hires. This year we have promoted Paul Jefferson to the role of Chief Technical Officer and we have welcomed two more big-hitters to the business – Ernie Lafky as Chief Product Officer and Shelley Hannah as Chief Operations Officer. Ernie is taking the lead when it comes to what our games will look like and how we combine key elements like multiplayer, gamification and social interaction. Shelley is managing the operational aspects of our transition to a hosted product-first model. In terms of mitigating the risk, it comes down to the deep rooted confidence we have in our technology and our fantastic team, plus our belief that players are seeking social multiplayer entertainment.

Why do you have such a firm belief that multiplayer content is the future? And to what extent will it dominate online casino game lobbies?

It’s not the future, it’s the now. You just have to look at the experiences offered by other online entertainment options to see that they are becoming increasingly multiplayer and social. From dating to streaming, social media to mobile gaming, consumers want to engage with products and experiences that can be enjoyed with others. But online casino and sports betting sit at odds with this as they have been, and remain, mostly solitary experiences. We have started to see a bit of a shift away from this, first with live casino and then the rise of the crash game format. But this is just the start of what multiplayer online gambling entertainment can look like, and at Black Cow we have the vision, people and technology to really spearhead the multiplayer movement and be a true leader in the space.

As for the degree to which multiplayer content will dominate online casino and sportsbook lobbies, I think it has the potential to be significant but there will always be players that want to engage with more traditional games, products and experiences, so it will be down to each operator as to how they promote multiplayer games. Naturally, this approach will differ from brand to brand based on their specific player-base.

What can we expect from Black Cow now that your transition into a multiplayer game developer is well underway?

Paul, Ernie, Shelley and the team are working hard on our initial product roadmap, including the first run of games that will leave our production line. This is a really exciting moment for me and the whole team, as it will bring our vision to life and set the blueprint for what our multiplayer games will look like moving forward. It goes without saying that our multiplayer games will embody the core values we have built Black Cow on – reliability, flexibility and robustness. This is a big change for Black Cow, and change does bring challenges. But we are all aligned and excited by the new direction. Success is never guaranteed, but we are walking into the next chapter of the Black Cow story confident that it will be our best yet.

The post Inside Black Cow’s Decision To Go All In On Multiplayer appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.