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/
Gaming
Current Games Activates the Nitro on Neon-Soaked Arcade Combat Racer: Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights
Current Games, a new name in indie publishing, based in the Netherlands, announced that it has assumed publishing rights for Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights, a heart-stopping, breakneck combat racing game, soaked in a neon lit future where speed and survival are the only routes to success!
A thrilling arcade style experience, Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights was first launched in Early Access on Steam in 2024, building a loyal community of dedicated fans passionate in seeing the game succeed. Current Games have heard the call and have spent a considerable amount of time diligently working under the hood, implementing a host of game-changing upgrades, delivering a fully revamped, nitro-powered experience, worthy of the Hot Import Nights (HIN) brand.
With the major update due to go live on July 24th 2025, speed demons are in for the ride of their lives as Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights power-ups on Steam, as well as launching on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S and Epic Games® Store!
Make no mistake, this is no mere tweak, from July 24th, a whole host of surprises await fans of the game and newcomers alike. Some of the changes include:
- An all-new sprawling racing track to discover and master
- More cars mean more fun! Discover your favourite vehicles and race like your life depends on it!
- Major balancing changes based on extensive community feedback
- A new single player career mode with championship races
- Overall improvements to the game’s experience and stability
In taking over publishing for Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights Current Games is keen to emphasise their commitment to engaging with and supporting the community. Planned initiatives arriving soon include the reactivation of the games’ Reddit account, a new Discord server and a planned playtest scheduled for pre-launch.
In Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights, street legends are built after dark, as gamers brave enough to face the neon-soaked streets of the future, race, fight, and ultimately conquer with up to eight players competing head-to-head in a fight to survive and pass the winning line alive.
Each chariot in Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights is equipped with an arsenal of outlandish offensive and defensive weapons, enabling players to outmanoeuvre and outgun their opponents as they speed towards victory. Choose from a diverse range of customizable vehicles across three weight classes, each with distinct advantages. Lightweight vehicles boast speed but sacrifice defence, while heavyweight vehicles offer greater protection at the cost of agility. Weapons can be charged through pickups or by executing perfect drifts, adding a strategic layer to the high-speed action.
Accessible yet challenging, easy to play, impossible to put down, ruthlessly hard to master and never anything less than exhilarating, Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights is racing like you’ve never experienced before!
Roderick Roode, CEO of Current Games commented on the major upgrade and console release of Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights, “We are honoured to assume publishing rights for Cyber Clutch and determined to give this high-impact combat racing experience the love, attention and polish it deserves. Cyber Clutch has attracted a loyal audience in the year since launch, but we know the game is destined for even bigger things, and we’re thrilled to finally deliver a fully levelled-up experience, which we’re convinced will delight combat racing fans. In addition, we’re excited to bring the full Cyber Clutch experience to more gamers than ever, releasing on PlayStation, Xbox and the Epic Game Store, and cannot wait to see players assume their position on the starting grid later this month.”
The post Current Games Activates the Nitro on Neon-Soaked Arcade Combat Racer: Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Following an in-depth review by all relevant licensing and regulatory bodies, the Austrian gaming technology group NOVOMATIC has successfully completed its acquisition of the French Vikings Casinos group. This move will strengthen the company’s presence in one of Europe’s most important gaming markets and underscores its long-term focus on sustainable growth and international diversification.
Established in Falaise in 1998, the Vikings Casinos group is one of the leading casino operators in France and has over 300 employees. The company currently operates around 1,000 gaming terminals in more than 10 live casinos across the country, including prime locations along the Côte d’Azur. The acquisition will enable NOVOMATIC to substantially enlarge its portfolio of services in one of Europe’s largest gaming regions and forge ahead with its international growth strategy.
“The acquisition of Vikings Casinos is a key part of our efforts to build up NOVOMATIC’s presence on international markets in a targeted manner. France is one of the most dynamic and most challenging gaming markets in Europe. By making this investment, we are not only reinforcing our leading position in Europe but also demonstrating our clear commitment to our long-term global expansion strategy,” says Stefan Krenn, Executive Board Member of the NOVOMATIC AG.
The fact that French regulatory approval has been obtained is not only a testament to the confidence in the expertise and reliability of NOVOMATIC, but also opens the door to plans for further developing the French casino business under the umbrella of a leading global gaming technology group.
The post Green light for international expansion: NOVOMATIC acquires French casino group appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Latest News
Entain Completes Full Rollout of Group BetStation Across All UK and Ireland Retail Locations
Entain, the global sports betting and gaming group, has successfully and fully deployed its proprietary Group BetStation (GBS) platform across all Ladbrokes and Coral shops in the UK and Ireland.
This marks a major milestone in Entain’s digital retail transformation concluding a journey that began with the launch of the first GBS terminal in Feltham in November 2020 and culminated with the final installation in Swansea. In total, over 2400 shops were upgraded across the UK and Ireland.
GBS by numbers:
• Over 2400 shops upgraded across the UK and Ireland
• 12000 betting terminals converted
• Strong growth in “Other sports” betting
• Grand National bets placed via GBS up by more than half year-on-year
• Football bet builder activity has doubled in the last six months.
GBS is a fully in-house developed, self-service betting solution that delivers a market-leading digital type experience to retail customers. Built entirely from the ground up, the project has converted 12,000 terminals and is now the primary sports betting channel across Entain’s retail estate. The deployment is the result of thousands of hours of development and testing, reflecting significant investment in technology and innovation.
Fiona Wallace, Head of Self-Service Betting Terminals at Entain, said: “Five years ago, Entain set out to deliver a best-in-class betting experience for our UK and Ireland retail customers, through our BetStation terminals. Our software, which tech teams have worked tirelessly on over that period, is market leading, offering customers far more than we did in the past.
“This hard work has meant that all BetStation terminals across our retail estate have now been converted to Group BetStation, this is a transformational achievement. It has redefined the in-shop experience, driven engagement, and accelerated our journey toward retail digitalisation.”
Key to the platform’s success has been extensive collaboration across Entain’s Retail, Product & Technology, Commercial and Operational teams globally — including colleagues from the UK, Austria, Gibraltar, India and beyond. Feedback from over 14,000 UK retail employees has shaped product refinement, ensuring GBS delivers intuitive, responsive and feature-rich functionality.
GBS is reshaping customer behaviour in retail, enabling a shift towards more complex and personalised bets, including accumulators and bet builders. As a result, GBS has become the home for innovative betting formats and is central to Entain’s broader multi-channel growth strategy.
The post Entain Completes Full Rollout of Group BetStation Across All UK and Ireland Retail Locations appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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