As Europe’s largest iGaming markets mature, suppliers are increasingly turning their attention to smaller, often overlooked jurisdictions across Central and Eastern Europe. Markets such as Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania may lack the scale of the UK or Italy, but they offer something equally valuable – stable regulatory frameworks, strong land-based heritage and growing online adoption.

In this roundtable discussion, Opher Ben Zvi, Team Leader Sales Operations at Greentube and Robert Civill, Business Development Manager at The Mill Adventure, explore how emerging European markets are evolving, how they compare to more mature jurisdictions, and why a ‘multi-market’ approach is becoming increasingly important for sustainable growth.

What distinguishes an emerging iGaming market in Europe today, and how do these markets differ from more mature jurisdictions in terms of player behaviour, regulation and commercial opportunity?

Opher Ben Zvi – Emerging European iGaming markets are typically defined less by scale and more by structure and trajectory. Markets across Central and Eastern Europe, such as Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia, often benefit from stable or steadily evolving regulatory frameworks, combined with strong land-based casino heritage. This creates a player base that is already familiar with classic slot formats and trusted brands, which is not always the case in newly regulated regions elsewhere. Compared to more mature jurisdictions like the UK or Italy, player behaviour tends to lean more heavily towards recognisable content, with a slower shift toward highly gamified or experimental mechanics. Commercially, while individual market size may be smaller, barriers to entry are often clearer and competition less saturated. This allows suppliers to build meaningful positions over time, particularly when supported by local partnerships and a well-adapted content strategy.

Robert Civill – The term “emerging market” can be slightly misleading in a European iGaming context. Many of the jurisdictions often grouped into this category are already mature in terms of regulatory system, player behaviour and competitive dynamics, even if they differ economically from Western Europe.

Romania, as an example, is already a well-established, regulated and competitive online market. At the same time, you have markets like Georgia, where we support a licensed operator today and where player behaviour is arguably more advanced than in parts of Western Europe, with strong engagement in loyalty mechanics, leaderboards and promotional formats that, in some cases, are restricted in larger “mature markets”.

The more useful lens is to look at where opportunity is forming, rather than whether a market fits an “emerging” label. Poland has been a topic of debate for years due to the ongoing monopoly of online casino and whether the market will eventually move towards an open licensing structure. In other cases, opportunity exists in much larger markets that are currently constrained, Germany being the obvious example. It’s hardly an “emerging” market, but despite its enormous long-term potential, factors such as turnover tax and strict regulatory limitations continue to impact channelisation and commercial viability for would-be market entrants.

So, the distinction is less about maturity, and more about timing, structure and whether the underlying economics make sense.

Individually, smaller markets may offer limited scale, but collectively they can represent significant value. How important is a multi-market approach across Central and Eastern Europe to building sustainable growth?

Opher Ben Zvi – A multi-market approach is essential when operating across Central and Eastern Europe. While no single market may rival the scale of Europe’s largest jurisdictions, collectively they represent a significant and sustainable growth opportunity. For Greentube, expansion across these smaller is not about short-term gains, but about building a strong regional footprint over time. These markets often share similar characteristics, from player preferences to regulatory structures, allowing suppliers to leverage learnings and efficiencies across multiple jurisdictions. At the same time, diversifying across several regulated markets reduces reliance on any single territory and creates a more balanced, resilient growth model. By establishing a network of operator partnerships, suppliers can unlock a greater value that far exceeds the sum of its individual parts.

Robert Civill – For most operators, launching across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously is neither practical nor necessary. Individual markets can deliver meaningful value on their own, provided the organisation around the brand is lean, market knowledge is applied effectively, and compliance requirements are managed without inflating cost and headcount.

What tends to work better is a phased approach. Operators identify specific markets where there is a credible balance between regulation, competition and commercial potential, and expand selectively from there. In that context, Central and Eastern Europe remains attractive, particularly for operators looking to diversify beyond highly saturated or increasingly expensive core markets.

That is especially relevant for operators in mature jurisdictions such as the UK, where international expansion is moving up the agenda as businesses look for new growth opportunities and greater operational flexibility. That doesn’t automatically translate into a multi-market strategy across Central and Eastern Europe, but it does reinforce the importance of being able to enter and operate in new jurisdictions efficiently when the right opportunity presents itself.

From our perspective, the challenge is enabling that expansion without forcing operators to rebuild their infrastructure every time they plan to enter a new market. A significant part of our role is helping operators navigate differing compliance, reporting and integration requirements while still allowing them to retain control over key parts of their product stack.

To succeed in smaller markets, how do you balance localisation with deploying proven, recognisable content?

Opher Ben Zvi – Success often comes down to striking the right balance between familiarity and localisation. In many Central and Eastern European jurisdictions, players have a long-standing connection to land-based casinos, which means recognisable titles and classic formats continue to perform strongly in the online space. For Greentube, this means leading with proven content, including well-established brands that players already trust, while complementing this with newer titles that introduce additional features and mechanics. Localisation then plays a supporting but important role, whether through language, currency, or tailoring content mixes to reflect regional preferences. Rather than reinventing the portfolio for each market, it is about making informed adjustments based on local insights.

What are the key considerations operators should make when preparing to enter new regulated markets in Europe?

Robert Civill – The main consideration is compliance, or at least it should be. Market entry is only sustainable if technical compliance and reporting are handled properly from day one. Localisation, brand development and product will naturally attract the most attention, and that’s where performance is measured, but none of it matters if the underlying technology is not reliable or fully aligned with regulatory requirements.

Each market introduces its own reporting obligations, tax logic and integration requirements, which need to function consistently in a live, 24/7 environment. That creates a practical dilemma for operators. Some choose to adapt their existing proprietary stack for each market, maintaining full control but taking on the associated complexity and ongoing overhead. Integrating with a platform that is already compliant and locally certified is a strong alternative that allows for a faster route to market and more cost-effective technical compliance maintenance.

We have developed a hybrid approach that allows operators to integrate core proprietary products, such as their sportsbook and front-end, with a market-ready platform responsible for compliance, reporting and local integrations.

For larger operators in particular, avoiding the need to adapt an existing PAM for every new market can remove an enormous amount of complexity. Market-entry projects often involve extensive planning across multiple departments, additional technical and compliance resources, specialist hires and ongoing operational overhead tied specifically to maintaining local regulatory requirements.

It allows operators to enter new regulated markets significantly faster and with far less operational strain, while maintaining continuity across the products and user experience that define the brand. At the same time, it frees up internal resources to focus on areas that actually drive growth, such as marketing, acquisition and retention.

How are smaller or emerging jurisdictions in Europe influencing your overall expansion strategy?

Opher Ben Zvi – Smaller and emerging markets must play an increasingly strategic role in shaping long-term expansion plans. There is growing value in building presence across a wider range of regulated markets with strong fundamentals, and for us, markets like Slovenia forms part of a broader, measured approach to growth across Central and Eastern Europe. These jurisdictions provide opportunities to establish early partnerships, build brand recognition and gain valuable insights into regional player behaviour. Importantly, experience gained in one market can often be applied to others with similar characteristics, creating a more efficient and scalable expansion model.

Robert Civill – Our business development strategy is centred around identifying and engaging operators that have a genuine interest in expansion and are actively exploring entry into new regulated markets.

In order to support that effectively, we put significant investment into technical compliance expertise and market research. The objective is to provide operators with a practical and clearly structured pathway from initial market evaluation and license application, through to certification, launch and ongoing regulated operation.

Our experience supporting a licensed operation in Georgia, together with previously holding a Romanian Class 2 license, has naturally increased our interest in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Many of these markets continue to offer commercially attractive conditions around taxation, product offerings and player engagement practices, making them increasingly relevant in expansion discussions with operators looking beyond the largest Western European jurisdictions.

At the same time, we continue supporting operators across mature regulated markets, including Sweden, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Portugal, giving expansion-focused operators access to proven market-ready infrastructure across a broad range of European jurisdictions.

Alongside this, securing and activating our Estonian license has naturally increased our focus on the wider Baltics, including Lithuania and Latvia, while Finland represents one of the clearest examples of a genuinely new regulated market opportunity where first-mover advantage may prove significant. We have already supported one of the first license applications there and have several more in progress, reflecting the level of operator interest in entering early and establishing a position from day one.

The post Rethinking growth in European markets appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

The sprawling tendrils of the player refund drama look to finally have ensnared Curacao, much in the way they have imperilled Malta for the past few years, after a local court ruled that a refund owed to a player in Austria must be paid by an operator based on the Caribbean island.

Experts believe the ruling marks a turning point for Curacao in the long-running player refund saga — the attempts by players to reclaim all of their losses from offshore operators in European grey markets.

Last week, the highest legal authority of the Dutch Caribbean islands — The Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba — found in favour of an Austrian gambler.

The individual had originally won their case back in 2023, when an Austrian court ruled that she was entitled to all of the €25,518.42 lost to Raging Rhino N.V., which operates the brand LuckyDays.

This ruling is just one of thousands that have been issued in Austria and Germany over the past five years, with hundreds of millions of euros in refunds either already paid out via judgements and settlements or, more likely, blocked by gambling-friendly jurisdictions.

For the most part, this wave of pro-player judgements has created issues for Malta, where a larger number of current and former grey market gambling providers are headquartered.

That ultimately led to the infamous Bill 55, a piece of legislation which empowers judges in Malta to block rulings from foreign courts against local gambling companies, on the grounds that permitting the refunds to go ahead would violate the country’s public order.

Bill 55 remains highly controversial and is coming under sustained pressure from a series of cases currently being heard before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Order maintained

Curacao has also traditionally offered a friendly environment for online gambling operators, albeit with a considerably more tarnished reputation than Malta.

So it has come as a surprise to many observers that judges in the Raging Rhino case have ultimately sided with lawyers attempting to transfer a refund judgement from Austria.

According to reports in the Curacao Chronicle, Raging Rhino attempted to match the Maltese defense, arguing that allowing the refund to go through would violate Curacao’s public order

Judges also refused to allow the gambling company to re-litigate the case in any way, asserting that their task was simply establishing whether the foreign judgment could be safely recognised in Curacao.

Raging Rhino were also ordered to pay €2,286.72 in legal costs, the Chronicle said.

A tipping point

Although the volume of cash involved in this case is relatively minor, it represents the tip of a potentially vast iceberg that could cost operators in Curacao huge sums.

Lawyers and litigating funding companies have spent years finding potential clients and buying up claims from anyone who gambled in Austria and Germany with an operator without a local licence.

That includes plenty of gambling companies in Curacao, which has long hosted a bustling offshore gambling community.

Until recently, that sector was almost completely hidden by opaque layers of regulation, however recent reforms on the island have forced operators to apply for new licence and, in so doing, join a public register that displays their status.

According to that register, Raging Rhino’s Curacao licence expired on March 26, but it has an application which is currently being assessed.

Although this new era of transparency remains the target of criticism, last week’s ruling demonstrates that forcing companies out into the open is also opening them up to greater legal risk.

The Raging Rhino judgement is blood in the water for the many legal teams and litigating funding firms that have hundreds, if not thousands, of player refund cases on their books.

With major support from Malta, lawyers representing gambling companies have been fairly successful in protecting their clients, following an initial wave of settlements.

Although the tide may be gradually turning against the industry, thanks to the CJEU, pro-industry lawyers still believe that player lawyers who have spent considerable sums acquiring claims are desperate to find ways to generate income while they remain stymied by Bill 55.

A weak point in the armour of Curacao operators, who have for so long resisted any international enforcement, is likely to spur a flurry of new claims and attempts to have judgments transferred from Germany and Austria.

At least one expert in online gambling law believes that this judgment will effectively end all operations in Germany and Austria for Curacao-based companies.

This would mirror the experience of Malta, which saw its local operators pushed out of Austria by the threat of refund judgments.

Maltese firms that chose not to apply for an online slots or betting licence have also exited Germany.

With judges having established a precedent that European refund judgments can be transferred to Malta, a wave of similar cases is sure to follow, raising serious questions about the status of Curacao as a haven for the offshore online gambling industry.

The post Landmark Player Refund Ruling Threatens Curacao appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

London is a city built on institutions that never needed to announce themselves. The law firms on Chancery Lane, the private clubs in St. James’s they endure not through attention, but through trust accumulated over decades. Quietly. Consistently. Without a rebrand every two years. Which makes London an interesting backdrop for the affiliate industry’s annual conversation with itself. Because iGaming, by contrast, has mastered the art of attention.Conference floors are fluent in volume: oversized visuals, stacked merchandise, account managers with pitch decks and a practiced sense of urgency. Every programme is premium. Every stand is exclusive. What it rarely produces is what the spreadsheet actually needs: long-term ROI, partner retention, relationships worth more in year three than month one.

The Market Learned to Perform Premium. It Forgot to Practice It.

When an entire market adopts the same vocabulary premium, VIP, exclusive, top-tier the signal stops carrying information. The gifting mechanics follow the same logic: items chosen for the photograph rather than the relationship. With this approach the partner is the audience, not the counterpart.

The structural problem is this: markets that compete on noise attract partners who respond to noise, and lose them the moment a louder offer comes along. Attention is not loyalty. Activation is not retention.

High-performing affiliate partnerships share a different architecture: predictability over promises, honest communication over promotional language, consistency whether a relationship is new or years old. Strong partners don’t leave for marginal CPA improvements when the relationship itself has value they’d be giving up. That dynamic reduces churn, extends LTV, and compounds over time in ways no single activation can replicate.

Manor as Model: The Economics of Restraint

PlayamoPartners’ presence at iGB London stand H-60, 1–2 July  operates on this logic. The Manor concept takes the British manor as its central metaphor: not a venue, but a model of relationships. There is an etiquette, a code, standards that everyone inside understands. Membership implies alignment.

The aesthetic is restraint. The underlying logic is economic. Trust, in this industry, has a measurable ROI that most programmes never stop to calculate because they’re too busy announcing it.

The Code of Honor: Giving the Industry Its Memory Back

At the centre of the Manor experience is a physical book not a lookbook or catalogue, but a Code of Honor: partner feedback, written by partners themselves, accumulated across events and years. A physical record implies that what partners say is worth keeping in a form that persists that the relationship has a history worth preserving.

The iGaming industry has become extremely efficient at forgetting. Campaigns replace campaigns. Account managers cycle through. Programmes pivot quarterly. The Code of Honor is a deliberate counter to that tendency. It treats reputation not as a marketing asset but as something that grows through repeated honest interaction. An archive of trust, built over time.

Recognition Over Raffle

Partners who contribute to the Code of Honor become eligible for recognition items including a MacBook Neo 13, iPhone Air, and iPad Air. Come by on 02.07 at 14 o’clock and collect your prize.

The framing matters. These are not raffle prizes. Recognition is relational: you are who you are, and that is acknowledged. One is a CPA model applied to gifting. The other is how relationships between people who respect each other actually function.

The partners the Manor is designed for are not the ones who show up for a giveaway they’re the ones who show up to engage, to leave something of their own behind, to participate in the ongoing record of what this programme is.

Continuity of Standards

This approach isn’t new for PlayamoPartners. Past recognition has included Samsonite, Hugo Boss, TAG Heuer, Cartier, YSL. At iGB London, partners at H-60 will find Cartier wallets and MacBooks among the acknowledgements.

Premium gifting delivered consistently, to partners aligned with programme standards, across multiple years and conferences, reads differently from a one-time budget line. It signals a stable set of values with no particular need for an audience.

What Remains After the Conference Floor Clears

Rates, tools, tracking platforms are table stakes. Any serious programme can match them within a quarter. What cannot be quickly replicated is culture: honest communication, payments that arrive without chasing, account managers who know your business well enough to have an opinion about it.

Manor of PlayamoPartners arrives at iGB London not as an activation, but as a position. Behind it: a system, a reputation, a code of conduct that predates this event and will outlast it.

Stand H-60 | 1–2 July | iGB London

Contact the team:

• Edgar @Nertevics — CEO, PlayamoPartners
• Slava @AMOSLAVA — Affiliate Manager Team Lead
• Anna @anna20bet — Affiliate Manager
• Andrey @Andrey_playamo — Affiliate Manager
• Barbara @BarbaraPlayamoPartners — Affiliate Manager

The post Loud Launches, Quiet Exits Why Partner Culture Outlasts Partner Acquisition appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.