Latest News
As eSports become more popular, time for the industry to get real about security
Police in Ukraine recently seized 3,800 PlayStation 4 consoles, which currently retail for around 290 each, and found to their surprise that the operation wasn’t mining cryptocurrency as they assumed but was in fact being used to generate content packs for FIFA Ultimate Team, a popular game mode in the FIFA football series.
The raid and its results underline a fact that may escape more traditionally minded members of the gaming community: eSports is a major industry, and like any industry it is susceptible to fraud. The fact that the games themselves take place virtually is irrelevant to fraudsters who can use the familiar toolkit of multi-accounting, bonus abuse and affiliate fraud to earn thousands.
With many sports teams unable to play throughout much of 2020 and 2021, eSports grew massively. League Championship Series (LCS), one of the largest eSports leagues, became the third most viewed professional sports league amongst 18-34 year olds in the U.S and has retained its corporate sponsors at a time when other leagues were shut down. Success stories like these are blunted by how pervasive eSports fraud is,
So, what kinds of fraud are taking place in eSports, what is it costing eSports organizations and what can be done to stop it?
What kinds of fraud are possible in eSports?
eSports attracts very similar types of fraud to regular sports betting, including:
- Bonus Abuse: Like other sports betting companies, eSports companies often give sign-up bonuses such as free bets to new players. By coding automated systems, a fraudster can sign up to hundreds of accounts and use the free bets to win real money. This can cost gaming companies up to 15% of their revenue.
- Multi-accounting: Similarly, a fraudster can use multiple accounts to perform other types of fraud, such as matched betting, ‘smurfing’ or arbitrage of affiliate fraud.
- Affiliate Fraud: Those eSports betting organizations that draw in some of their new players from affiliates are vulnerable to affiliate fraud in which an affiliate creates fake accounts to gain the pay-out.
- Account takeover: Using lists of passwords from data breaches, keyloggers or phishing a fraudster can gain access to a player’s account and drain their funds.
- Chargeback fraud: A player, who may be a legitimate gamer and not a professional fraudster, initiates a chargeback on a transaction. This is common in gaming when gamblers regret a bad bet and claim that their account was hacked.
The costs of eSports fraud
Fraud costs have a way of snowballing, with each $1 lost through fraud actually costing companies $3. The above techniques are hardly equivalent to the major data breaches of major banking and tech companies that cost on average $3.86 million, but the constant barrage of low-level frauds can soon drain your company’s security budget. Aside from the cost of the fraud itself, there are a number of hidden costs such as:
- Chargeback losses: Investigating and disputing chargebacks will take up your risk team’s time, leaving them little time for more valuable activities. More worryingly, a company with a large number of chargebacks is likely to find it difficult securing credit or loans. Visa and Mastercard’s resolution processes are making things even more difficult for merchants, so you are likely to lose even more.
- Affiliate budget waste: You could be paying for useless clicks from bot networks rather than legitimate customers, wasting your marketing budget and reducing overall ROI.
- Reputational damage: Once word of mouth spreads about customers losing the entire bank accounts to account takeovers it will not be long until players start deserting your site.
- Regulatory fines: The regulations around eSports are not as stringent as with other sports betting, but it will not be long before they catch up. With the industry growing it will not be long before countries put regulations in place to protect players, and without stringent security your company could be fined.
The solutions
You will notice that the majority of the types of fraud common in eSports have to do with fake accounts. These are easy for fraudsters to create using the wealth of publicly available data and leaked information, but fortunately artificial intelligence-based tools have been developed that allow companies to spot synthetic identities.
Through device fingerprinting, email profiling and IP analysis a complete picture of a new signup to your site can be created, allowing software to spot the tell-tale signs of a hastily created account. For example, it could find that an email address does not match any social accounts, or that they use VPNs and data centers to conceal their IP address.
Of course, a sophisticated fraudster could create a convincing fake identity, especially with the wealth of information available from data dumps, so modern technology can also spot the use of pre-paid credit cards or even the speed with which information is entered, which could indicate it is being filled in automatically by a script.
By combining data points from a large and ever-growing set a system can determine whether it is likely that any given new account is fraudulent. For the many cases in which it will not be fully clear whether an account is authentic or not adaptive Know Your Customer checks can be used – customers with several red flags will be given full tests to determine their identity whereas other customers will have less obtrusive tests for a smoother site experience.
eSports has gone from a niche concern to an Olympic sport in a few short years, and that success is going to attract fraud, so it is vital for the industry to pre-emptively defend against fraud by adopting the very highest levels of security.
To learn more, visit: https://seon.io/
CasinoCanada.com has entered into a partnership with Slota Casino aimed at increasing the platform’s visibility and directing traffic from non-regulated Canadian markets.
As part of the collaboration, CasinoCanada will prepare and publish informational materials describing Slota Casino’s features and game offerings.
The partnership includes ongoing content development, efforts to increase platform visibility and user acquisition activities across CasinoCanada’s media channels.
CasinoCanada is an online casino guide focused on the Canadian market, operated by SEOBROTHERS.
Eugene Ravdin, Head of PR at SEOBROTHERS, commented:
“We focus on delivering accurate information about the Slota Casino platform while maintaining consistent content updates and supporting steady traffic growth across our channels.”
Slota Casino was launched in 2024 by GBL Solutions N.V. under a Curacao licence.
Slota Casino is operated by the Slota Partners affiliate program.
The platform provides access to more than 12,000 online casino games from 130 providers, including Play’n GO, Endorphina and Games Global.
A representative of Slota Casino said:
“We’re genuinely excited about teaming up with CasinoCanada. This is a major step forward for us.
The Canadian market has enormous potential, and partnering with a portal as respected as CasinoCanada gives our brand the visibility and credibility it deserves in this region.”
The post CasinoCanada announces partnership with Slota Casino appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
Brazil
Esportes da Sorte has renewed its official sponsorship of the Parintins Folklore Festival for the 2026 edition
Esportes da Sorte has renewed its official sponsorship of the Parintins Folklore Festival for the 2026 edition.
The brand reinforces its strategy of promoting Brazilian culture after fostering an exchange between the North and Northeast regions during the Pernambuco Carnival.
Esportes da Sorte announced the renewal of its official sponsorship of the Parintins Folklore Festival for the 2026 edition.
Scheduled to take place from June 26 to 28, the event is part of the brand’s strategy to strengthen Brazilian cultural expressions and support the regional creative economy.
The continuation of the partnership follows a cycle of cultural integration promoted by the company over the past year.
In 2026, the group brought artistic references from the Parintins Festival to Recife Carnival by inviting Amazonian visual artist Iran Martins to design the brand’s parade float at Galo da Madrugada.
The project incorporated movement mechanisms and aesthetic elements inspired by the “bumbás” universe into the visual language of frevo.
Beyond brand exposure, the investment in Parintins is part of a positioning strategy focused on valuing Brazilian cultural identity and strengthening initiatives with strong regional ties.
“Our presence in Parintins goes beyond a branding action. It is a commitment to valuing Brazilian culture and the professionals who drive this creative ecosystem.
By bringing together references from the Parintins Festival and Recife Carnival, we show how different cultural expressions in the country can dialogue and create new connections.
We want to continue expanding this impact and contribute to keeping the bumbá tradition strong,” said Marcela Campos, Vice President of Grupo Esportes Gaming Brasil, owner of Esportes da Sorte.
Economic growth and new Bumbódromo
The Parintins Festival 2026 is expected to generate around R$193.2 million, a projected 5% increase compared to the previous edition. The forecast also includes approximately 30,000 direct and indirect jobs, as well as the arrival of around 126,000 tourists.
The audience will be welcomed in the new Bumbódromo, a structure with capacity for up to 25,000 people per day, which will become part of the festival’s expansion in the coming years.
Esportes da Sorte
Esportes da Sorte is one of Brazil’s leading sports betting platforms, with 100% national operations and a license granted by the Ministry of Finance (SPA/MF) to Esportes Gaming Brasil — the group that also owns the Onabet and Lottu brands.
The company is part of a Great Place to Work certified group and generates around 1,000 direct and indirect jobs. Its pillars include innovation, commitment to responsible gaming, and support for sector regulation.
It maintains strategic partnerships with institutions such as ANJL, IBIA, Sportradar, EBAC, and IAA, strengthening control practices, problem gambling prevention, and user protection.
In addition to sports betting, Esportes da Sorte invests consistently in sports, culture, and social projects. It is a master sponsor of clubs such as Corinthians, Ceará, Ferroviária, and Náutico, as well as supporting major cultural events like Galo da Madrugada, Carnival celebrations in cities such as Recife, Olinda, Salvador, Maceió, Natal, Caicó, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo, and the Parintins Festival. The brand also expands its digital presence through creative campaigns and influencer partnerships, strengthening its connection with audiences across online platforms.
The post Esportes da Sorte has renewed its official sponsorship of the Parintins Folklore Festival for the 2026 edition appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
Digicode will showcase its Diger Suite at SBC Summit Canada, taking place in Toronto from May 19–21, 2026.
At the event, the company will highlight how its product suite addresses evolving technical and partnership demands in Canada’s regulated iGaming market.
As the market moves beyond initial entry and into a phase defined by performance, scalability, and compliance, operators are re-evaluating their technology foundations.
Digicode’s Diger Suite is built to support this shift, offering a modular architecture that enables faster adaptation to regulatory changes, improved system reliability, and more efficient operations.
Aligned with the summit’s 2026 theme, “Partnerships, Performance, and Market Reality,” Digicode will demonstrate how its technology supports sustainable growth.
The Diger Suite equips operators with tools to manage complex integrations, streamline localized payment processing, and ensure compliance with responsible gaming requirements.
Its AI-driven framework automates backend workflows while maintaining strict standards for security and uptime.
“The Canadian market has entered the phase of operational maturity where the focus is no longer on expansion alone but on improving efficiency and long-term profitability,” said Elkhan Shabanov, CEO of Digicode Americas.
Operators are looking for solutions that not only meet regulatory demands but also enable them to scale efficiently and maintain control over their platforms.”
During the summit, Digicode’s team will engage with industry stakeholders on topics including AI adoption in product development, modernization of legacy systems, and the transition away from traditional SaaS and revenue-share models toward full platform ownership.
The company aims to help operators regain control of their technology stack, reduce dependency on third-party vendors, and build scalable, compliant solutions tailored to their business needs.
About Digicode
Digicode is a full-cycle AI-enabled product development company that designs and delivers enterprise digital solutions for organizations in complex, regulated environments.
Digicode supports clients with enterprise systems, integrations, and long-term software development. The company operates internationally and prioritizes projects where ownership and technical responsibility remain with the client.
The post Digicode to showcase Diger Suite at SBC Summit Canada 2026 appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
-
Asia6 days agoKazakhstan Orders Telecom Providers to Block Illegal Online Casino Payments via Mobile Balances
-
Amusnet6 days ago
Weekend Reels | Week 19: Slot Drops & Trends
-
bets6 days ago
The necessary containment of predictive markets in Brazil
-
Brazil6 days agoThe IBJR stresses that combating the illegal market is crucial for Desenrola 2.0
-
Brasil6 days ago
A necessária contenção dos mercados preditivos no Brasil
-
ANJL6 days ago
ANJL promotes debate on combating the illegal betting market in Brasília
-
Allaster Gair6 days ago
97 Percent of Bacta Members Support Increased Action on Illegal Gambling Operators
-
FanLabel6 days ago
SCCG Management Partner and Portfolio Company FanLabel Launches FanLabel SongPicks App, Bringing Skill-Based Music Contests to Fans Nationwide
