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Understanding the Impact of Invalid Traffic: How Online Betting Companies Can Protect Their Ads and Drive ROI

We are honored to publish this byline by Richard Metcalf, Director of Business Development EMEA, TrafficGuard. Make sure to let us know your comments below the article.
The global pandemic has undoubtedly caused a massive increase in the number of active users that gamble regularly. A global statistic from Casino.org suggests that almost 26% of the world’s population gamble, and the global gambling market is expected to grow from $76.79 billion to an impressive $127.45 billion by 2025, according to Research and Markets.
Betting companies are having to distinguish themselves in such a highly competitive and evolving market by investing in digital campaigns and using premium ad networks. However, many of these channels may not be properly equipped to deal with invalid traffic and ad fraud, and as a result, could be losing large amounts of money every day to fraudsters.
The level of financial and competitor growth within the industry has created a strong attraction from fraudsters, and gambling companies can fall prey with little to no knowledge this is even occurring. And, with the betting industry only saturating further, companies cannot afford to suffer from low ROI and poor campaign performance.
Understanding the Risk of Ad Fraud
The risks associated with virtual gambling are unfortunately heightened with such lucrative rewards on offer and many betting companies deploy protection to help minimise the risk of fraudulent transactions or unethical behaviour. However, there is a real lack of awareness around ad fraud within gambling, and many companies don’t realise the level of impact it’s having on them.
Ad fraud is any traffic that is maliciously created and used to target companies’ advertising budgets, and is a subset of invalid traffic, meaning any advertising engagement that is outside of the target of an advertising campaign.
Here are just some of the ways ad fraud is threatening your ad campaign:
- Bots – Bots are programmed to emulate human behaviour and vary in levels of sophistication and can do anything from clicking and viewing ads to watching videos. Promo abuse bots that click on paid search ads and then run scripts to claim free bets or free spins are highly prevalent in online gaming. As these bots ‘convert’, delivering misleading marketing metrics, it means you are likely optimising campaigns using the wrong data and towards winning more bot traffic.
- Browser-Related Fraud – For example, location fraud, which involves manipulating users’ location information to match the advertiser’s targeting criterion, and domain spoofing, when bad actors monetise the traffic from low-quality sites by manipulating the domains and making it appear to come from high-quality sources.
- Misattribution Fraud – A large volume of clicks on both affiliate and mobile campaigns are faked from a mobile device, even though the user never clicked the ad. If a user with a similar fingerprint then visits the target website and installs the app, the spammer receives credit for the conversion/install and is paid commission.
In reality, the result of ad fraud is inaccurate advertising results and wasted budget. One globally-renowned online betting company that was running a Google Ads campaign found that 23% of its clicks were invalidated, which equated to 28% of its advertising spend.
Without any prior visibility or protection, 71% of the gambling company’s wasted spend was attributed to just one of its campaigns. If the company had the visibility and awareness it truly needed to be able to address the problem, there was an opportunity to save $115,000, a mixture of media spend and potential losses in bonus deposits.
All gambling companies that run Google Ads campaigns are equally as vulnerable as this online betting company, which makes it crucial for marketers operating within this industry to proactively put themselves ahead of fraudsters with increased visibility, accurate analytics, and real-time protection.
Protecting and Saving Your Budget
With confidence in your data and analytics, the saving potential for gambling companies is around 10%, 7% higher than that of other verticals. The solution to invalid traffic starts with knowing exactly how it is impacting your business, and how you can combat it. With trustworthy data that analyses every bit of traffic quality, you can easily make a business case to combat bots, browser fraud and misattribution.
With visibility into the scale of the problem, betting companies can then properly evaluate the right solutions and the partner needed to help solve it. Once you’ve identified a partner with the right skills, technology and expertise for you, they can make an immediate impact.
Elimination with Prevention
Ad fraud currently dominates many betting companies globally, but a change of hands is within reach. Luckily, stopping invalid traffic doesn’t have to be complex or costly. In fact, the money you save will almost always outweigh your investment into stopping it, ensuring you can focus solely on making new savings.
By combining proactivity with visibility, betting companies can make enormous savings and address invalid traffic with confidence and ease. With many betting companies globally only looking to scale their digital marketing further, now is the time to understand your advertising losses and prevent them to achieve maximum growth and success.
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Rivalry Reports Full-Year 2024 Results as Strategic Turnaround Takes Hold, Operating Loss Narrows, and Efficiency Improves

Operating expenses reduced 17%, net loss narrows, and foundational rebuild positions Rivalry for a leaner, more efficient, and financially disciplined 2025
Rivalry Corp. (the “Company” or “Rivalry”) (TSXV: RVLY), an internationally regulated sports betting and media company, announces its financial results for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024.
While Rivalry’s 2024 financials reflect only the earliest signals of its company-wide restructuring, the foundational work – most of which began in the second half of 2024 – is now beginning to show results in 2025. The Company narrowed its net loss, reduced operating expenses by 17%, and entered the new year leaner, more focused, and closer to breakeven.
“We made hard decisions last year – rebuilding the product, cutting costs, and refining our approach to players – and those changes are beginning to show signs of positive impact,” said Steven Salz, Co-Founder and CEO of Rivalry. “The latter half of 2024 set the stage, and we’re encouraged by the progress seen so far in 2025.”
FY2024 Highlights
- Net revenue of $13.6 million, compared to $16.2 million in 2023.
- Operating expenses decreased 17% to $32.2 million, down from $38.8 million.
- Net loss of $22.4 million, compared to $23.8 million.
- Deferred revenue of $4.1 million related to pre-sales of Rivalry’s on-platform crypto token.
- Year-end cash of $2.7 million, with materially lower run-rate operating expenses entering 20251.
Organizational Rebuild & Operating Leverage
Rivalry spent the latter part of 2024 and into Q1 2025 executing a comprehensive overhaul across its cost base, product, player strategy, and operational structure. With most changes now implemented, early signs of progress are emerging. Highlights include:
- Lean operating model, with breakeven net revenue now approximately $600,000 USD/month, down from over $2 million USD/month a year ago. Further reductions to operating costs are planned in Q3 2025 to lower the breakeven point even more.
- Restructured VIP program and onboarding, improving retention and monetization from high-value players.
- Expanded casino product, improving baseline stability through missions, races, and progression-based systems.
- Platform upgrades enhancing site speed, responsiveness, and conversion.
- Crypto-native infrastructure overhaul, including a rebuilt cashier, improved user experience (“UX”), and token-ready architecture to support long-term on-chain growth.
These efforts have driven early improvements across the Company’s core key performance indicators in 2025:
- Net revenue per active user and wagers per user at record levels (excluding customary outliers).
- Deposit growth in nearly every month from November 2024 through June 2025, despite minimal marketing spend.
- Monthly new first-time depositors (FTDs) up approximately 40% since January 2025 on flat monthly spend. Average payback on cohorts acquired during this period was approximately 1.5 months, highlighting improved customer acquisition efficiency.
2025 Momentum and Execution
In the first half of 2025, Rivalry continued executing against its strategic turnaround, with a focus on increasing player value, tightening operational efficiency, and accelerating near-term revenue drivers. Key initiatives included:
- Loyalty Program v2: Building on the success of the end-2024 launch, the next iteration of Rivalry’s on-site loyalty program is in development, designed to deepen progression, improve engagement, and anchor major campaigns throughout Q3 2025.
- New Promo Engine: Launching this summer, the rebuilt system introduces immediate-match deposit offers and new promo types, integrated directly into onboarding and reactivation flows to lift first time deposits and retention.
- Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) and Always-On Optimization: Active performance reviews of core flows, geo-targeted reactivation campaigns, and structural upgrades to improve output across the customer lifecycle.
- VIP & High-Value-Player Activity: Fully structured outreach live across geos, with segmentation, high-touch CRM, and LTV-based targeting to reactivate high-value-players.
- Cashier & Site Speed: Continued improvements to platform speed, including faster load times, and reduced friction in cashier UX.
- Ongoing UX Improvements: Consistent updates across the site aimed at visual polish, design coherence, and front-end responsiveness to deliver a cleaner, more reliable user experience.
These initiatives have laid a foundation entering the second half of 2025. The focus now is on maintaining momentum, tightening execution, and scaling revenue through improved player economics and operational leverage.
Strategic Review
The Company’s previously announced evaluation of strategic alternatives remains ongoing. Rivalry continues to explore a range of potential outcomes aimed at maximizing shareholder value. There is no assurance regarding the timing or results of this review.
Outlook
While the 2024 annual results capture only the early innings of Rivalry’s strategic transformation, the changes made throughout the year have meaningfully repositioned the Company. With a leaner cost structure, stronger product, and increasing revenue efficiency, Rivalry is entering the second half of 2025 with sharper operational discipline and renewed focus.
Additional updates will be provided alongside the release of the Company’s financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2025, which are expected to be released on or prior to July 14, 2025.
Unsecured Loan
The Company also announces that it has secured a US$475,000 principal amount senior unsecured loan from its existing senior lender, maturing on September 30, 2025, with an interest rate of 10% per annum (the “Loan”). The Loan reinforces the Company’s senior lender’s support for the Company’s ongoing strategic review process and provides the Company with additional flexibility to continue pursuing its strategic initiatives to maximize long-term stakeholder value.
Update Regarding Management Cease Trade Order
The Company is providing this update on the status of a management cease trade order granted on May 1, 2025 (the “MCTO“) by its principal regulator, the Ontario Securities Commission (the “OSC“), under National Policy 12-203 – Management Cease Trade Orders (“NP 12-203“). On May 2, 2025, the Company announced that there would be a delay in the filing of its annual financial statements, management’s discussion and analysis and related CEO and CFO certificates for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 (collectively, the “Annual Filings”), as required under applicable Canadian securities laws (the “Default Announcement“). On June 18, 2025 the Company further announced that it expects to file its unaudited financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and related certifications (collectively, the “Q1 Filings“) on or prior to July 14, 2025. Although the Annual Filings have now been filed, the OSC has advised the Company that the MCTO will remain in place until the Q1 Filings have been completed.
The Company advises that: (i) there have been no material changes to the information contained in the Default Announcement; (ii) it intends to continue to comply with the alternative information guidelines of NP 12-203; and (iii) except as previously disclosed, there are no subsequent specified defaults (actual or anticipated) within the meaning of NP 12-203.
The MCTO will remain in effect until the Company is no longer in default with respect to its filing requirements and the OSC lifts the cease trade order.
The post Rivalry Reports Full-Year 2024 Results as Strategic Turnaround Takes Hold, Operating Loss Narrows, and Efficiency Improves appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
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iGB L!VE opens in London

The 2025 edition of iGB L!VE opened today (2nd July) at it’s new ExCeL London home. iGaming professionals made full use of ExCeL London’s transport infrastructure with Elizabeth Line and Docklands Light Railway trains full of visitors celebrating the show’s relocation to the Capital.
Organisers are seeking to grow the iGB L!VE attendance and, in the process set another record for the event. The 2024 edition, which was the last to be held in Amsterdam attracted 9,788 unique attendees, surpassing the 7,299 at iGB L!VE 2023 and was nearly double the 5,022 at iGB L!VE 2022. The 2025 edition of iGB L!VE will be the biggest on record, providing attendees with access to over 22,000 sqm of product innovation and inspiration.
Claire Williams OBE, the former leader of the Williams Formula 1 racing team and one of the most prominent and successful women in F1 history provided the iGB L!VE 2025 keynote.
Exploring the best practice parallels which can be drawn between the data-driven worlds of F1 and iGaming, Claire Williams noted: “There are a number of ways that Formula 1 can inspire businesses and provide tangible takeaways for iGaming operators of all sizes, from product innovation to navigating entry into new markets. As well as key requirements such as having a dynamic leadership, a culture of continuous improvement, hiring the very best problem solvers and being the first to embrace technology advances, F1 also demands the organisational agility that’s necessary to nuance strategy in what is an ultra-competitive space. “
Described as the TED of iGaming, iGB L!VE features a mix of highly practical case studies, data presentations and panel discussions on best practices across operators and affiliates. Topics include innovations in in-play betting, how to use IP and branding to protect competitive advantage, integrated marketing and SEO strategies, how to build links when no one wants to talk about gambling, as well as market dives into LatAm, UAE and Italy. The full programme can be viewed at:https://www.igblive.com/event-schedule
The post iGB L!VE opens in London appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Gaming
THE BATTLE OF POLYTOPIA ANNOUNCES GLOBAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH $10,000 PRIZE POOL

Midjiwan, the award-winning independent studio behind The Battle of Polytopia has today announced The Polytopia World Championship with a prize pool of $10,000 USD and a live final broadcast from Stockholm.
The Polytopia World Championship is set to launch this fall, uniting players from across the globe in an epic showdown of fast-paced strategic mastery. The tournament will be themed to Battle of the Tribes. Players will choose to compete with one of Polytopia’s 12 in-game tribes; each with a unique regional theme and skillset.
The tournament will begin with open qualifiers, giving everyone a chance to prove themselves. From there, players will advance through tribe-specific playoffs and head-to-head elimination rounds, each match bringing them one step closer to glory.
The top six players will earn a spot in the live finals in Stockholm on December 6: an in-person event streamed online for fans worldwide. In addition to live commentary of the tournament, the fan event will also provide behind-the-scenes content from the Midjiwan team.
The winner will be awarded a prize pool of $10,000; making this tournament the biggest competitive event in The Battle of Polytopia’s nine year history.
Christian Lovstedt, CEO of Midjiwan AB, commented: “This marks a major new step for Polytopia’s competitive scene, featuring a fresh tournament format and enhanced broadcasting that makes it even more exciting for viewers to watch, learn, and get inspired by the world’s top players.“
The matches will be played on the Polytopia Official Space on the Challengermode esports Platform.
The planned dates are:
September:
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Sep 13–14
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Sep 20–21
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Sep 27–28
October:
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Oct 4–5
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Oct 11–12
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Oct 18–19
November:
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Oct 25–26
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Nov 1–2
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Nov 8–9
Nov 22–23
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Faceoff
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Final Qualifier
Dec 6
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World Championship Live Event
The post THE BATTLE OF POLYTOPIA ANNOUNCES GLOBAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH $10,000 PRIZE POOL appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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