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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/
Jack Watson Brand Manager at Zingo Bingo
Zingo Bingo pushes “community, accessibility” message for National Bingo Week
Brand manager Jack Watson argues bingo’s growth should focus on social play and cultural moments, as the operator plans a free-to-play day on 27 June.
Zingo Bingo is using National Bingo Week to argue that bingo’s next phase should prioritise “community, accessibility and shared cultural experiences” over “innovation for innovation’s sake,” according to Jack Watson, Brand Manager at Zingo Bingo.
In the statement, Watson says technology is reshaping gaming, but that bingo’s core appeal remains social interaction and shared entertainment. He points to sector shifts including mobile-first experiences, personalised content and themed gameplay, while claiming players still want “the shared excitement that comes from participating alongside others.”
Watson also flags nostalgia as a product and marketing lever, describing it as an “instant emotional connection” that can help online bingo feel “both fresh and recognisable.” He adds that operators should focus on presentation—such as “mobile optimisation, themed rooms, contemporary branding and strong community experiences”—rather than changing the fundamentals of the game.
Zingo Bingo said it will mark National Bingo Day with “a full day of free bingo, running from 12pm to 8pm on Saturday 27 June,” allowing players to participate without purchasing tickets. Watson positions free-to-play events as a way to reduce friction for first-time players who may hold outdated views of online bingo.
The company also highlights responsible gambling measures, stating it offers tools including deposit limits, session reminders and self-exclusion.
The post Zingo Bingo pushes “community, accessibility” message for National Bingo Week appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Boomerang Partners
Boomerang Partners’ case study: how affiliates prepare traffic campaigns around major sports events
On June 11, the FIFA World Cup 2026 starts in North America. It will be the biggest sports event of the year, but the real challenge for affiliates is the rest of the schedule. Throughout 2026, dozens of major tournaments – from football and tennis to Formula 1 – are running almost back-to-back across the sports calendar. This creates one of the most overloaded sports calendars affiliates have worked with in recent years.
Periods like these usually bring some of the highest traffic volumes and strongest audience engagement of the year for affiliate teams.
But data from Boomerang Partners shows that old tactics no longer work. You cannot just launch a campaign on match day and expect good results. Today, teams have to plan their traffic and content weeks before the first game begins.
Regular leagues create more stable traffic
The pressure of this busy schedule became clear during the recent TIME TO WIN affiliate tournament, organized by Boomerang Partners. The project became a live test for different traffic strategies during major events.
The tournament highlighted one clear pattern. Teams like Fumma LTD pointed to the UEFA Champions League and the English Premier League as some of the most reliable traffic drivers. This approach gives affiliates several advantages:
- Fixed schedules make it easier to prepare content and distribute traffic across several tournament stages.
- Recurring match cycles help teams plan campaign timing and prioritize key fixtures well before kick-off.
The real problem in sports is overlapping events. Several big tournaments now run simultaneously across different regions and time zones.
For sports-focused affiliates, this means competing for the same audience attention at the same time. In many cases, the audiences overlap as well. If two major match cycles collide, teams have to choose quickly where to push traffic. Otherwise, they will lose their visibility entirely.
Campaigns must start before kick-off
The timeline for traffic preparation has completely changed. Affiliate teams increasingly start campaign preparation long before the opening match. By the time the live event starts, much of the preparation work is already done.
Preparation now involves several steps. Content teams need to prepare match materials in advance, and media buyers must schedule traffic around the most important fixtures and play-offs.
During the live match, there is no time to fix mistakes. Audiences move too fast between different games. This is especially true when several big matches happen on the same day. If a campaign fails at kick-off, fixing it on the fly is almost impossible.
This is why arbitrage remains one of the strongest sources for sports campaigns. As Sanan Kamilli, CBO at Fumma LTD, noted during TIME TO WIN: “Google PPC works best for sports-focused campaigns because it captures high-intent users actively searching for event-related queries, allowing precise targeting, scalable volume, and strong conversion rates compared to other channels.”
Users searching for specific matches, teams, or betting odds usually show much stronger intent than broader tournament audiences. This makes search traffic particularly valuable during major sports events.
Sports traffic extends beyond the final match
Many affiliates think that sports traffic disappears once the final whistle blows. This is a mistake.
As Fumma LTD noted during TIME TO WIN, sports-driven audiences typically remain valuable for several weeks after the event. The company continues working with these users through retargeting, promoting upcoming matches, and using CRM campaigns to drive repeat engagement and increase lifetime value.
Fumma LTD also highlighted conversion rate (CR), earnings per click (EPC), and player lifetime value (LTV) as some of the key metrics for evaluating traffic quality and long-term profitability in sports-focused campaigns.
For affiliate teams, this creates opportunities beyond a single tournament window. Large finals still generate the biggest traffic peaks, but audience activity often continues into the following match cycles as well.
Using the 2026 Calendar to manage niche traffic
With so many tournaments running back-to-back in 2026, the main difficulty is managing multiple campaigns at once. Content creation, publishing, and ad buying must happen simultaneously.
To help with this, Boomerang Partners launched the Sports Marketing & Betting Calendar 2026. This tool gathers major leagues, global tournaments, and niche events in one place.
For teams like Paradise Media, this centralized schedule solved a major workflow problem. As the company noted during TIME TO WIN, football still accounts for more than 80% of online sports betting activity, so having all World Cup match days, groups, and teams in one place helps speed up research and campaign preparation. To make their workflow faster, the team also combines the calendar with different AI and LLM tools to gather information and cross-check with the calendar to enrich their content, said Mehdi, Director of Affiliates at Paradise Media.
Niche sports also play an important role during quieter periods between major football tournaments. They may not generate the same traffic volume as top leagues, but they help affiliates maintain publishing activity and keep audiences engaged throughout the year.
For many teams, this is no longer just about traffic volume. Covering niche events also helps build authority and positions affiliate platforms as more consistent sports sources outside the biggest football peaks.
A structured calendar always beats reaction
The main takeaway from the market is simple: sports marketing is no longer about quick reactions. 2026 requires good coordination, pre-made content, and smart scheduling across overlapping tournament cycles.
The strongest affiliate teams are already moving toward structured, calendar-based strategies where preparation starts weeks before kick-off and continues well beyond the final match.
About Boomerang
Boomerang Partners is a rapidly growing global marketing agency offering a wide range of services. Boomerang Partners is an Official Regional Partner of AC Milan. In 2024, it launched the inaugural Golden Boomerang Awards – a global tournament for affiliate teams. More than 400 affiliate teams participated in the second season of the tournament in 2025. Partners of the Agency launched six new products in 2024-2025, contributing to a nearly 1.5-fold increase in product users.
The Agency’s clients’ portfolio contains 10+ brands offering affiliate and entertainment services across multiple markets in compliance with local regulations. These products provide incentive programs and 24/7 multilingual support.
FIFA World Cup and other third companies are made for descriptive purposes only. Boomerang Partners is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to these entities in any way.
The post Boomerang Partners’ case study: how affiliates prepare traffic campaigns around major sports events appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Boomerang Partners
Boomerang Partners’ case study: how affiliates prepare traffic campaigns around major sports events
On June 11, the FIFA World Cup 2026 starts in North America. It will be the biggest sports event of the year, but the real challenge for affiliates is the rest of the schedule. Throughout 2026, dozens of major tournaments – from football and tennis to Formula 1 – are running almost back-to-back across the sports calendar. This creates one of the most overloaded sports calendars affiliates have worked with in recent years.
Periods like these usually bring some of the highest traffic volumes and strongest audience engagement of the year for affiliate teams.
But data from Boomerang Partners shows that old tactics no longer work. You cannot just launch a campaign on match day and expect good results. Today, teams have to plan their traffic and content weeks before the first game begins.
Regular leagues create more stable traffic
The pressure of this busy schedule became clear during the recent TIME TO WIN affiliate tournament, organized by Boomerang Partners. The project became a live test for different traffic strategies during major events.
The tournament highlighted one clear pattern. Teams like Fumma LTD pointed to the UEFA Champions League and the English Premier League as some of the most reliable traffic drivers. This approach gives affiliates several advantages:
- Fixed schedules make it easier to prepare content and distribute traffic across several tournament stages.
- Recurring match cycles help teams plan campaign timing and prioritize key fixtures well before kick-off.
The real problem in sports is overlapping events. Several big tournaments now run simultaneously across different regions and time zones.
For sports-focused affiliates, this means competing for the same audience attention at the same time. In many cases, the audiences overlap as well. If two major match cycles collide, teams have to choose quickly where to push traffic. Otherwise, they will lose their visibility entirely.
Campaigns must start before kick-off
The timeline for traffic preparation has completely changed. Affiliate teams increasingly start campaign preparation long before the opening match. By the time the live event starts, much of the preparation work is already done.
Preparation now involves several steps. Content teams need to prepare match materials in advance, and media buyers must schedule traffic around the most important fixtures and play-offs.
During the live match, there is no time to fix mistakes. Audiences move too fast between different games. This is especially true when several big matches happen on the same day. If a campaign fails at kick-off, fixing it on the fly is almost impossible.
This is why arbitrage remains one of the strongest sources for sports campaigns. As Sanan Kamilli, CBO at Fumma LTD, noted during TIME TO WIN: “Google PPC works best for sports-focused campaigns because it captures high-intent users actively searching for event-related queries, allowing precise targeting, scalable volume, and strong conversion rates compared to other channels.”
Users searching for specific matches, teams, or betting odds usually show much stronger intent than broader tournament audiences. This makes search traffic particularly valuable during major sports events.
Sports traffic extends beyond the final match
Many affiliates think that sports traffic disappears once the final whistle blows. This is a mistake.
As Fumma LTD noted during TIME TO WIN, sports-driven audiences typically remain valuable for several weeks after the event. The company continues working with these users through retargeting, promoting upcoming matches, and using CRM campaigns to drive repeat engagement and increase lifetime value.
Fumma LTD also highlighted conversion rate (CR), earnings per click (EPC), and player lifetime value (LTV) as some of the key metrics for evaluating traffic quality and long-term profitability in sports-focused campaigns.
For affiliate teams, this creates opportunities beyond a single tournament window. Large finals still generate the biggest traffic peaks, but audience activity often continues into the following match cycles as well.
Using the 2026 Calendar to manage niche traffic
With so many tournaments running back-to-back in 2026, the main difficulty is managing multiple campaigns at once. Content creation, publishing, and ad buying must happen simultaneously.
To help with this, Boomerang Partners launched the Sports Marketing & Betting Calendar 2026. This tool gathers major leagues, global tournaments, and niche events in one place.
For teams like Paradise Media, this centralized schedule solved a major workflow problem. As the company noted during TIME TO WIN, football still accounts for more than 80% of online sports betting activity, so having all World Cup match days, groups, and teams in one place helps speed up research and campaign preparation. To make their workflow faster, the team also combines the calendar with different AI and LLM tools to gather information and cross-check with the calendar to enrich their content, said Mehdi, Director of Affiliates at Paradise Media.
Niche sports also play an important role during quieter periods between major football tournaments. They may not generate the same traffic volume as top leagues, but they help affiliates maintain publishing activity and keep audiences engaged throughout the year.
For many teams, this is no longer just about traffic volume. Covering niche events also helps build authority and positions affiliate platforms as more consistent sports sources outside the biggest football peaks.
A structured calendar always beats reaction
The main takeaway from the market is simple: sports marketing is no longer about quick reactions. 2026 requires good coordination, pre-made content, and smart scheduling across overlapping tournament cycles.
The strongest affiliate teams are already moving toward structured, calendar-based strategies where preparation starts weeks before kick-off and continues well beyond the final match.
About Boomerang
Boomerang Partners is a rapidly growing global marketing agency offering a wide range of services. Boomerang Partners is an Official Regional Partner of AC Milan. In 2024, it launched the inaugural Golden Boomerang Awards – a global tournament for affiliate teams. More than 400 affiliate teams participated in the second season of the tournament in 2025. Partners of the Agency launched six new products in 2024-2025, contributing to a nearly 1.5-fold increase in product users.
The Agency’s clients’ portfolio contains 10+ brands offering affiliate and entertainment services across multiple markets in compliance with local regulations. These products provide incentive programs and 24/7 multilingual support.
FIFA World Cup and other third companies are made for descriptive purposes only. Boomerang Partners is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to these entities in any way.
The post Boomerang Partners’ case study: how affiliates prepare traffic campaigns around major sports events appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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