Latest News
Alibaba, Tencent, SoftBank Invest in India’s Gambling Loopholes
Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group and SoftBank Group are investing millions of dollars in Indian apps that use loopholes in anti-gambling laws to offer bettors cash prizes, vacations to Macau and new iPhones.
About 300 million players use apps such as Dream11, Play Games24x7, Paytm First Games and FanFight to gamble on “fantasy cricket” and rummy card games. Industry sales are forecast to reach about $3.3 billion by 2024, prompting India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, to say the business eventually will surpass that of music, movies and TV shows combined.
“India is sweetly positioned to exponentially grow the gaming industry. The online platform has a very strong outlook considering India has the world’s largest youth population and the second-largest internet penetration,” Vishal Seth, a managing director overseeing mergers and acquisitions for Protiviti India, said.
While e-commerce and video streaming are gaining in popularity, online gaming is considered a better business proposition because individual transactions are immediately profitable. That is because operators do not have to invest much in building up logistics, inventory or content.
The boom is driven by Indians who prefer vying for cash and prizes as better use of their online time than watching movies or playing video games that do not offer any rewards.
More than a third of India’s 1.3 billion people are internet users, and most of that is via budget smartphones with cheap data-usage plans. Before the coronavirus outbreak crushed the global economy, the local smartphone market was growing at a 10% rate.
As much as 90% of gaming in India happens on phones, said Girish Menon, head of media and entertainment for KPMG in Mumbai.
“That is attractive to Alibaba and Tencent because their entire ecosystem is developed around mobile phones. The time spent on gaming is far higher than any other form of entertainment,” he said.
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Contributors Program
Gamblers Connect names Gali Hartuv as seventh 2026 Contributors Program voice
The Playa strategic advisor will publish on VIP operations, segmentation and retention, starting with an anonymous VIP Operations Survey 2026.
Gamblers Connect has confirmed Gali Hartuv, Strategic Advisor at The Playa, as the seventh voice to join its 2026 Contributors Program.
The independent B2B iGaming media platform said the programme will reveal one senior industry voice per month throughout 2026, with contributors publishing under the Gamblers Connect Contributor Editorial Code.
Gamblers Connect said Hartuv has more than 15 years’ experience in VIP management, including designing and optimising VIP programmes across more than 50 operator brands, and training “hundreds of professionals” now working in VIP roles across the industry.
Hartuv will publish across four areas: building VIP programmes that drive long-term value; AI-powered VIP identification and player segmentation; hyper-personalisation and retention strategy; and scaling VIP operations across different markets and cultures. His first contribution is a VIP Operations Survey 2026, an anonymous survey intended to benchmark how VIP teams work across iGaming operators, including portfolio sizing, tools, qualification thresholds, workflow standards and where time is spent during the week.
Partnerships and Operations Lead, Luka Dimitrijevic, said: “VIP management is where a great deal of an operator’s value is won or lost, and very few people can speak to it with Gali’s depth. He has spent his career turning high value player relationships into a discipline rather than guesswork, and he is refreshingly candid about what works and what does not. Through the Contributors Program he will share practical insight on VIP strategy, retention, and the smart use of AI, with content grounded in real results rather than recycled best practices.”
The post Gamblers Connect names Gali Hartuv as seventh 2026 Contributors Program voice appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Alberta
St8 extends TonyBet partnership to Alberta after securing supplier registration
St8 has extended its partnership with TonyBet into Alberta, expanding their Canada footprint following an earlier launch in Ontario this year.
Under the expanded agreement, TonyBet will use St8’s game aggregation platform through a single API integration. St8 said this provides access to its wider catalogue of casino content for players in Alberta.
St8 said the Alberta rollout follows its newly acquired registration to operate in the province as an iGaming Services Supplier, allowing it to provide aggregation services to licensed operators in the market. The company said its platform connects partners to more than 200 game providers via a single API.
David Fall, Business Development Manager at St8, said:
“Entering Alberta’s regulated market is a strong step for St8 that represents our continued efforts to bring our offerings to as many territories as possible, delivering top-tier results for partnerships at the local, national and international stage. We share this commitment with TonyBet, a company that we are very fortunate to be working with so collaboratively and closely as we continue to grow our presence across North America.”
Kiryl Liudvikevich, Head of Product at TonyBet, said:
“We’re proud that our work with St8 has enabled us to continue expanding across Canada. Through St8’s aggregation platform, we can seamlessly access games from the industry’s leading providers via a single integration, helping us scale efficiently while maintaining a strong focus on the player experience. St8 has cemented itself as our go-to partner for expansion into regulated markets, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration as we grow into new jurisdictions.”
The post St8 extends TonyBet partnership to Alberta after securing supplier registration appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Alberta
St8 continues partnership with TonyBet with an expansion into Alberta
The post St8 continues partnership with TonyBet with an expansion into Alberta appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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