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As eSports become more popular, time for the industry to get real about security

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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.

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Sportradar Report | World Cup 2026: Opportunities for the Latin American Sports Betting Market

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With the World Cup set to be the largest edition of the tournament to date, Sportradar has published a new report exploring the opportunities and challenges facing sports betting operators across Latin America.

The report examines how sportsbooks can capitalize on the surge in betting activity expected during the tournament and convert it into long-term customer growth.

Key topics include:

  • The impact of 104 matches across 39 days on betting activity
  • The rise of a new bettor profile seeking personalized and interactive experiences
  • The three pillars of sportsbook success: enhancing the betting experience, fueling fan engagement, and safeguarding market integrity
  • The role of AI in delivering personalized experiences and real-time engagement

Among the report’s findings:

  • An estimated US$50 billion in betting handle globally
  • 60% of consumers plan to bet online or via mobile apps
  • 19% are expected to place their first-ever sports bet during the tournament

We hope you find these insights valuable for soccer’s biggest event.

The report is available here: 

For your reference, here’s the link to our LinkedIn post: linkedin.com/posts/sportradar_sportradarsoccer

The post Sportradar Report | World Cup 2026: Opportunities for the Latin American Sports Betting Market appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

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Gmonitor.ai

Gmonitor llega a Latinoamérica: la plataforma de inteligencia de mercado para operadores debuta en seis mercados regulados

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Gmonitor amplía su cobertura a Brasil, México, Colombia, Panamá, Perú y Argentina tras su participación en SBC Summit Americas

Gmonitor.ai, la plataforma de inteligencia de mercado para el sector del juego online, anuncia su lanzamiento oficial en los mercados regulados de Latinoamérica. La compañía pone a disposición de los operadores su plataforma en Brasil, México, Colombia, Panamá, Perú y Argentina, llevando a la región la misma inteligencia diaria de mercado, juegos, promociones y competencia que ya utilizan operadores de primer nivel en Europa.

El anuncio se produce tras la participación de Gmonitor en SBC Summit Americas, celebrada en Fort Lauderdale entre el 9 y el 11 de junio, donde la compañía presentó su plataforma a operadores, proveedores y reguladores de toda la región y confirmó el fuerte interés del mercado por herramientas de inteligencia competitiva accionables.

Gmonitor monitoriza a diario los lobbies de los operadores con licencia, sigue la posición y el rendimiento de cada juego, mapea el panorama promocional y consolida datos de mercado en un único panel. El resultado permite a los equipos de marketing, marca, producto, trading y contenido sustituir miles de horas de seguimiento manual por información lista para la toma de decisiones: qué juegos crecen, cómo se mueven los competidores y dónde están las oportunidades de captación y retención.

Latinoamérica es una de las regiones de mayor crecimiento del juego regulado del mundo, pero los operadores siguen tomando decisiones con una visibilidad limitada de lo que ocurre a su alrededor. Llevamos a la región una plataforma ya probada con operadores líderes en Europa.” Hákon Magnússon, COO de Gmonitor

Con cobertura inicial en seis mercados, Gmonitor da servicio tanto a operadores que buscan defender y ganar cuota como a proveedores de juegos que necesitan entender su distribución y posicionamiento frente a la competencia. La compañía tiene previsto seguir ampliando su cobertura a Estados Unidos en las próximas semanas.

 

The post Gmonitor llega a Latinoamérica: la plataforma de inteligencia de mercado para operadores debuta en seis mercados regulados appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

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André Boesing General Manager for South LatAm at OKTO PAYMENTS

OKTO says Argentina’s provincial rules complicate iGaming payments and operations

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The payments provider points to fragmented licensing and local requirements as operators expand across Argentine jurisdictions in 2026.

OKTO PAYMENTS said the rapid expansion of iGaming across Argentina’s provinces is increasing operational complexity for operators, as each jurisdiction brings distinct regulatory requirements, licensing processes and local commercial dynamics. The company shared its view in a June 2026 statement focused on the country’s multi-jurisdiction framework.

Unlike other Latin American markets with a single national model, Argentina’s provincial approach forces operators to adapt to multiple regulatory environments within one country, OKTO said. The company argued that as the market matures, expectations around transparency, traceability and operational control are also rising.

For years, growth was the industry’s primary objective. Today, the challenge lies in how to scale efficiently in a market where each jurisdiction may present different requirements, expectations, and operational dynamics,” said André Boesing, General Manager for South LatAm at OKTO PAYMENTS.

Boesing added that consumer expectations for consistent user experience can mask the complexity behind the scenes. “Users expect a simple and seamless experience regardless of where they play. But behind that experience lies increasing operational complexity that operators must manage efficiently as they expand into different jurisdictions,” he added.

OKTO said capabilities such as orchestrating deposits and withdrawals, treasury and liquidity management, and efficient settlement processes are becoming more important as operators work with multiple providers and payment methods across provinces. “In many cases, infrastructure goes unnoticed until something goes wrong. However, in highly fragmented markets like Argentina, the ability to manage multiple providers, maintain operational consistency, and adapt quickly to local requirements can become a competitive advantage in itself. At OKTO PAYMENTS, we call this ‘playing a different game’: competing not only through products and services, but also through operational resilience and adaptability,” he explained.

The company concluded that long-term success in Argentina will depend on balancing growth with operational control and adaptability. “The operators best positioned for long-term success will be those capable of combining growth, operational control, and adaptability. Financial infrastructure is no longer simply a technological support layer; it is becoming a strategic advantage in increasingly sophisticated markets,” Boesing concluded.

 

The post OKTO says Argentina’s provincial rules complicate iGaming payments and operations appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

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