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

Published

5 years ago

July 26, 2021

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/

Related Topics:eSports latest-news PlayStation 4

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BC Brothers

Why BC Brothers is Betting on “Affiliate-as-a-Product”

Published

23 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

Wladimir P.

why-bc-brothers-is-betting-on-“affiliate-as-a-product”

The iGaming affiliate industry has a problem, and it begins with the “Top 10” list. For years, the business has relied on a foundation of simple review pages. Walls of text that often prioritize commission rates over user experience. But as players are becoming tired of biased endorsements, the traditional review site is entering its twilight years.

“Look, the industry is at a crossroads,” says Borja Imbergamo, CEO of BC Brothers. “The old playbook, where you rank operators based on who writes the biggest check and then dress it up as expert advice, is just broken. It’s a short-term hustle in a world that’s demanding long-term transparency.”

Imbergamo isn’t just criticizing the status quo. Instead, he is pivoting away from it. He’s pushing BC Brothers toward this ‘Affiliate-as-a-Product’ model, which honestly isn’t just some clever rebranding. It’s a total shift in architecture. Rethinking the whole way an affiliate actually connects a player to an operator from the ground up.

Breaking Free from the Template

For most affiliates, WordPress is the default setting. It’s easy, it’s fast, and it’s predictable. However, late last year, BC Brothers began a quiet migration away from standard content management systems toward self-built platforms. While still in the pilot phase in several territories, the move represents a declaration of independence from the limitations of templated solutions.

“WordPress is fine, but it’s a bottleneck for innovation,” Imbergamo explains. “Moving to our own infrastructure allows us to be a lot more flexible. We can develop features that a standard plugin simply can’t handle. These are still pilots, but we have very high hopes for these platforms to become our future. It definitely requires more SEO checks, resources and dedication, but surely will pay off in long term”

This technical shift allows BC Brothers to move beyond the bridge model, where a site is just a transition point for a player, and toward a destination model.

Building an Ecosystem

The pivot isn’t just about how the sites are built, but what they offer. While conversion remains a goal, BC Brothers is investing heavily in products that prioritize utility over the immediate click. These projects are less about a direct sales funnel and more about becoming an essential part of the sports content ecosystem.

One example is BetBrothers.football, a site designed to deliver all the real-time football data and stats a fan could want. Alongside it sits BBSportNews, an editorial project covering the “beautiful game” from every angle – from breaking transfer news and defining stories to deep-dive tactical analysis.

“We are building an ecosystem, not a funnel,” says Imbergamo. “If we provide a player with real-time match stats they can’t find elsewhere, or analysis that actually informs their perspective, we’ve earned their time. By the time they do decide to play, they don’t have to head back to Google to find some random review site. They’re already inside our brand’s ecosystem. It’s about giving them that full 360-degree value so they never feel the need to look elsewhere.”

By focusing on these utility tools, BC Brothers is actually playing a much smarter game with lead quality. Think about it – a person who spends twenty minutes studying data on a platform you built is a way more valuable player for an operator than someone who just clicks a “Play Now” button because they saw a shiny banner. One is an engaged user making an informed choice. The other is just a random click that probably won’t stick around.

Playing by the Rules

This approach is particularly vital in regulated markets, where BC Brothers exclusively operates. The company maintains a strict policy of working only in regulated jurisdictions and exclusively with licensed operators. Getting their Greek affiliate license this past March was simply the next logical step in that process. For Borja, ignoring grey markets isn’t some moral crusade. It’s just the right way to make sure sports betting stays entertaining and safe for everyone.

“We really believe that working only with licensed operators is the right way to keep sports betting fun and sustainable,” Borja says. “We’re committed to staying compliant and actually helping the industry grow in every market we’re in. Sometimes that means taking the harder path. But for us, it’s a long-term investment in a safe environment that protects the players and makes the whole industry healthier.”

The Future of the “Brothers”

The transition from a content house to a product studio is a high-stakes bet. It requires more capital and a willingness to walk away from the easy wins of the grey market. At the end of the day, it requires more developers too. But as the iGaming affiliate landscape becomes more crowded with much more pressure from all sides, the “middle man” who offers nothing but a link is losing their place.

“The era of the disposable affiliate site is over,” Imbergamo concludes. “The next big leaders in this space will be the ones who treat it like a serious tech company, more like the SaaS world. Players want tools, interaction, personalization, and they want value for their time. We’re basically building the infrastructure for a future where the product does the talking, and you don’t have to ask for trust because it’s already built into the code.”

The post Why BC Brothers is Betting on “Affiliate-as-a-Product” appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

1spin4win

1spin4win & Blask report 7 out of 10 top games in Africa are slots

Published

24 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

Wladimir P.

1spin4win-&-blask-report-7-out-of-10-top-games-in-africa-are-slots

The study analyzes key markets across both regions, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. Using real-time data on game placement and player demand, the research provides a clear view of what content operators prioritize and what resonates most with players. The report also features insights from operators such as BetPawa and MSport, adding industry perspective to the data-driven analysis.

One key finding is that slots continue to dominate across both regions. In Africa, they account for 71% of the Top 30 games featured in casino lobbies, while in Latin America, they make up 67% of the Top 30 games analyzed — outperforming both crash and live formats.

At the same time, the data shows that what operators place in lobbies does not always match what players are actually looking for. Some of the most searched-for games are not prominently featured or are missing from lobbies altogether.

For 1spin4win, this report is part of their broader expansion strategy across Africa and Latin America. The provider began actively extending its presence in these markets in 2025, strengthening partnerships with local aggregators and refining its product strategy to better align with regional player preferences. These include mobile optimization and fast loading and smooth performance even on weak internet connections. In Africa, these efforts led to a 9.2x increase in the number of bets.

Olga Hlukhovskaya, Business Development Director at 1spin4win, “At 1spin4win, we place strong emphasis on working with data. It’s at the core of how we approach product development. We focus on understanding player preferences and making informed decisions that help us deliver experiences that truly resonate with our audience.”

Ilya Batcherikov, Blask CPO, commented, “By aggregating non-branded search data at scale, we help teams understand what players are actually looking for in each market — often before those trends become visible inside the product. This allows operators to move from reactive content strategies to proactive ones, aligning supply with real-time demand and capturing value that would otherwise be missed.”

Full insights from the research are available in the report “What’s hot in LATAM and Africa” on the Blask website.

About 1spin4win

1spin4win is an established game provider founded in May 2021 by ambitious developers with over 15 years of experience in the gambling industry. Since its inception, the company has expanded its portfolio to include over 200 classic online slots, all characterized by quality mathematics, transparent mechanics, and well-balanced gameplay — key factors that drive strong player retention. The studio aims to release an average of four new games each month in 2026 and offers effective promotional tools for casino operators to help them enhance player loyalty.

The post 1spin4win & Blask report 7 out of 10 top games in Africa are slots appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

BC.GAME

BC.GAME Releases “Ganesha Golden Wheel”

Published

24 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

Wladimir P.

BC.GAME has released its latest online slot Ganesha Golden Wheel, combining Ganesha-inspired imagery, a Golden Wheel mechanic and a dual-bonus structure in a single release. The game is now live on BC.GAME, alongside the Ganesha’s 7-Day Gift campaign, under which players can complete daily tasks during the promotion period to unlock up to 100 Free Spins in total.

Ganesha is a widely recognised elephant-headed deity in Indian culture, commonly associated with wisdom, good fortune and the removal of obstacles. Ganesha Golden Wheel builds on that cultural imagery throughout its visual design, from gold-toned temple architecture and gem detailing to coin motifs and elephant iconography. A prominent Golden Wheel sits above the reels, giving the game a clear visual centre and making the wheel mechanic a defining part of the overall presentation.

In terms of structure, Ganesha Golden Wheel runs on a 3×3 reel layout with five fixed paylines. Wins are formed from left to right across adjacent reels, with all valid payline wins added together. The game has a theoretical RTP of 96.72% and a maximum win cap of 20,000x bet.

Ganesha’s Wild Respins is one of the game’s core features. When two or more Wilds land in the same result, Respins are triggered and the Wilds remain fixed in place. If additional Wilds land during the feature, the Respin count resets and the new Wilds are also held.

The Golden Wheel is another central feature. During spins, the Roman numeral shown in the centre may activate the Inner Ring, Middle Ring or Outer Ring, with rewards increasing through Wheel Upgrade up to 10,000x. The game also includes Sacred Wheel Bonus, Maxwin Wheel Bonus and Wheel Boost Special Spins.

Ganesha Golden Wheel is now live on BC.GAME, with the Ganesha’s 7-Day Gift Free Spins campaign running as part of the launch.

The post BC.GAME Releases “Ganesha Golden Wheel” appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.