AI
Yaspa becomes founding member of UNLV’s AI Research Hub to advance responsible AI adoption in the gambling industry
Yaspa, a leading fintech specializing in payments and identity solutions, today announces it has become a founding member of the newly launched AI Research Hub (AiR Hub) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) International Gaming Institute (IGI). This collaboration underscores Yaspa’s commitment to integrating next-generation financial technology with academic research to foster a safer, more sustainable gambling environment.
The UNLV International Gaming Institute (IGI) established the AiR Hub to advance the industry’s understanding of the impacts, risks, and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence. Co-founded by Kasra Ghaharian, IGI Director of Research, and industry veteran Simo Dragicevic, the initiative serves as a collaborative ecosystem designed to accelerate the adoption of trusted, responsible AI across the global gaming sector.
Yaspa joins a prestigious group of founding members, including Aristocrat, Evoke Plc, Playtech Plc, and the Responsible Online Gaming Association (ROGA). This diverse coalition is tasked with ensuring that AI development in the sector is grounded in cross-disciplinary expertise.
AiR Hub’s flagship project is the “State of AI in Gaming” report, a first-of-its-kind annual study indexing company AI maturity, as well as tracking regulatory and policy developments. Through this and related projects, AiR Hub seeks to drive innovation and help ensure AI-driven systems are governed appropriately within this highly regulated industry.
As a founding member, Yaspa brings its in-house AI expertise to guide the Hub’s research initiatives, drawing from its experience in developing the technology behind its Intelligent Payments platform and proprietary machine learning categorizer. To support this mission, Max Collinge, Yaspa’s Vice President of Product, will join the AiR Hub Advisory Panel. Collectively, panel members help steer the Hub’s initiatives, ensuring they maintain deep industry relevance.
“Joining AiR Hub as a founding member reflects Yaspa’s commitment to leveraging the synergy between AI and open banking data to drive a more sustainable gambling ecosystem,” said Max Collinge.
“By utilizing deep financial insights through AI-driven analysis, we can deliver significantly better outcomes for players and operators alike. I am personally thrilled to join the Advisory Panel to help shape this next phase of collaboration and ensure research leads to practical, responsible innovation.”
Kasra Ghaharian, Director of Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, International Gaming Institute, commented, “Fintech and AI are two of the most transformative technologies in the world today, and their impact on the gaming industry will undoubtedly continue to be profound. The richness of this data provides intriguing potential across the value chain, particularly regarding consumer protection and compliance. I am excited to see how we can help drive thought leadership for the industry at the intersection of these two technologies.”
Simo Dragicevic, IGI Adjunct Fellow, said, “Yaspa is building the industry’s open banking orchestration layer for player insights and risk assessment. Their expertise in payments, technology and risk will add significant value to the AiR Hub Advisory Panel and we look forward to collaborating with Yaspa as we execute our mission to develop the industry’s ecosystem for collaborative AI research.”
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AI
MGA Launches Consultation on AI Gaming Charter
The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has launched a public consultation on a proposed AI Gaming Charter on the Ethical and Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence.
The Charter has been developed in collaboration with the Malta Digital Innovation Authority (MDIA) and is intended to provide voluntary, principles-based guidance to support the responsible and transparent use of AI within the sector. It is designed to complement existing legal and regulatory frameworks, including the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, while reflecting the specific operational context of the gaming industry.
The post MGA Launches Consultation on AI Gaming Charter appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
AI
SportVot raises $3.6m to expand sports production platform into Europe, US and West Asia
SportVot has raised $3.6m in a new investment round as it plans to expand across Europe, Australia, the United States, and West Asia. The company said the funding will support international growth and further development of its AI-led production and analytics capabilities.
The round was led by Indian Angel Network’s IAN Alpha Fund, with participation from Anicut Capital, SucSeed Indovation Fund, LVX (LetsVenture), Capital-A, and other global investors.
SportVot positions its platform as a unified workflow covering capture, production, distribution, and monetisation for competitions outside top-tier broadcast ecosystems. The company said its cloud-based setup supports remote production in real time and includes automated highlights, graphics, insights, multi-angle viewing, decision review systems, and virtual advertising.
The company lists customers and partners including Junior Super Kings (Chennai Super Kings’ Junior’s Tournament), All India Football Federation, Rugby India, the International Table Tennis Federation (Oceania) and the International Padel Federation. It said that since launching operations in 2025 in Australia it has worked with organisations including Table Tennis Australia, Table Tennis Queensland, Netball Victoria, the National Pickleball League and KommunityTV.
SportVot said it has delivered over 500,000 matches across its core markets, reaching more than 100 million viewers in 30+ countries. In Australia, it said it streamed 12,000 matches over the past year across 30+ partner organisations.
Tim Anderson, Managing Director, SportVot Australia, said: “Over the past year, we’ve seen strong adoption from sports organisations across Australia looking to scale how their competitions are captured and distributed. The ability to deliver consistent, high-quality production across different sports and formats has been key. This next phase allows us to build further on that momentum, both within Australia and in closer alignment with global markets.”
Sidhhant Agarwal, Founder & CEO, SportVot, said: “What we are seeing globally is not a lack of sport, but a lack of structured systems to capture and distribute it at scale. Our focus has been to build something that can work across geographies, sports, and formats without adding operational complexity. As we expand into new markets, the goal is to enable more competitions to be seen, experienced, and sustained.”
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AI
Tugi Tark whitepaper puts AI iGaming support at €0.15 per ticket
Tugi Tark has released a 2026 whitepaper, The economics of AI-powered iGaming customer support, arguing that AI changes the unit economics of player support and can reduce costs compared with human-led operations.
The report cites “verified pricing” of EUR 0.15 per AI-handled ticket. It compares that with fully loaded employer costs for human support in Romania and Bulgaria of EUR 1.73 to EUR 1.88 per ticket. At a “realistic” 70% AI containment rate, the whitepaper claims a blended cost of about EUR 0.67 per ticket, which it describes as roughly a 64% reduction versus a human-only baseline of EUR 1.88.
Tugi Tark says its analysis draws on Eurostat 2024 labour cost data, published research on AI chatbot benchmarks, independent iGaming player behaviour research, and operational data from its own deployments. The company estimates operators can achieve a 55% to 75% reduction in total support expenditure, and argues AI can absorb volume spikes—such as during major sporting events—without additional hiring or training lag.
Harpo Lilja, founder and CEO of TUgi Tark, said: “In 2026, the ‘wait-and-see’ approach to AI is costing operators millions in unnecessary overhead. We aren’t just talking about chatbots; we’re talking about a fundamental shift in the unit economics of player retention.”
The whitepaper also frames customer support as a retention lever, stating that payment issues account for 52% of ticket volume and that slower response times drive churn. It claims a 0.5 percentage point churn reduction could retain an additional 500 players per month for a mid-sized operator, translating to €200,000 in annual revenue based on an assumed €400 Player Lifetime Value. Tugi Tark also claims AI agents average ~7 seconds for first response versus ~60 seconds for human agents, and outlines use cases across Responsible Gambling escalation, KYC/AML workflows, and GDPR-aligned data sovereignty.
The post Tugi Tark whitepaper puts AI iGaming support at €0.15 per ticket appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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