By Volodymyr Todurov, CEO at Frogo

For years, the boardroom conversation around anti-fraud has been, frankly, a bit of a snooze-fest. It’s usually tucked away under “Loss Prevention” or “Operational Risk” – a line item on a budget that everyone wants to shrink. In this old-school paradigm, anti-fraud is a digital tax: a necessary, expensive and often clunky barrier that slows down growth in the name of safety.

But at Frogo, we realized that it could be done differently. If your anti-fraud setup is just a “cost center,” you’re not just doing it wrong – you’re leaving millions on the table.

As we move through 2026, the industry is hitting a tipping point. The “dry” analytics of yesteryear are failing against sophisticated, AI-driven syndicates. To win, you need to stop looking at fraud as a series of isolated incidents and start seeing it as a web. This is the Forensic Shift: moving from defensive “blocking” to offensive “revenue recovery” via Graph Analysis.

The Blind Spot: Why “Flat” Data Fails

Most traditional systems look at data in a vacuum. A user logs in, a transaction happens, a rule triggers. Match? Block. No match? Proceed. This “flat” approach is exactly what fraud rings count on. They know how to mimic clean fingerprints and rotate IPs. They play the “numbers game,” knowing that if they look 99% like a legitimate user, they’ll slip through. Traditional tools see the fly but they miss the swarm.

At Frogo, we’ve inherited the “RedCore DNA” – a pedigree of forensic expertise where we don’t just look at the event; we look at the intent. We don’t just want to know what happened; we want to know who else is invited to the party.

Enter the Graph: Turning “Losses” into “Signals”

Graph-based forensic tools are the “secret sauce” that separates the amateurs from the experts. Instead of a spreadsheet, imagine a living, breathing map of every connection in your ecosystem.

When you use Graph Analysis, a single blocked “Bonus Abuser” in an iGaming app isn’t just a prevented loss of $50. It’s the thread we pull to reveal 500 linked accounts, three compromised affiliate sources, and a hole in your payment gateway’s logic.

By shifting to this forensic mindset, anti-fraud stops being a “no” department and starts becoming a Growth Intelligence hub.

More Than Just Fraud: The Multiplier Effect

The most exciting part of this shift? The data we uncover via Realtime Scoring serves more than just the risk team. In the Frogo environment, our “Forensic Leap” provides actionable signals across the entire C-suite:

• For the Affiliate Team: We identify which traffic sources are “dirty” in real-time, allowing you to cut toxic payouts and reinvest that budget into high-LTV partners.
• For the VIP Team: We spot patterns in “false positives,” ensuring your VIPs never face friction, while the real bad actors are neutralized before they hit the gateway.
• For Product Monitoring: We detect internal anomalies and “hidden” user behaviors that signify a broken UX or an exploited loop.

When you stop treating anti-fraud as a shield and start using it as a spotlight, you aren’t just saving money – you’re optimizing your entire CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) and ROI.

Why Frogo? Why Now?

The market is saturated with “headless” corporate tools that don’t focus on adaptability. Frogo is different. We are the Energetic Experts. We’re the ones with the lightning-fast mascot who catches threats before they even land.

Our mission isn’t just to “protect”; it’s to empower. We bring the elite forensic capabilities of the Fintech and iGaming worlds to any business that is ready to grow. With our AI-powered scoring engine and deep-link graph tools, we provide a level of visibility that turns the “darkness” of fraud into a transparent roadmap for profitability.

The Bottom Line

In 2026, staying “safe” isn’t enough. You need to be efficient.

If your anti-fraud report is nothing but a list of blocked transactions, you’re missing the bigger picture. It’s time to move beyond a ‘defensive’ cost-center and pivot to Revenue Capture Optimization. By minimizing false positives and friction, we don’t just stop fraudsters – we ensure every legitimate dollar actually reaches your bottom line.

The era of dry, reactive anti-fraud is over. It’s time to take the leap.

Frogo: Convert losses into profit. One leap ahead of every threat.

The post Stop Paying the “Digital Tax”: How to Turn Your Anti-Fraud into a Profit Center appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

With Bill 55 on increasingly shaky ground amid a transitional era for online gambling, what does the future hold for Malta’s point-of-supply industry?

This week has seen the EU heap yet more pressure on Bill 55, a defensive measure introduced by the Maltese government to hold back a tidal wave of player refund lawsuits that could cost the industry hundreds of millions of euros.

Players in Austria and Germany have been able to successfully argue in court that they should be repaid all money lost to operators that offered gambling in their countries without a local licence. The cases stand to erase years of grey market earnings at many operators.

Bill 55, which in June 2023 became an official amendment to the Malta Gaming Act under the title Article 56A, allows judges to reject court rulings from other EU nations if they threaten the economic security of the island’s gambling industry.

It has served Maltese operators well since it was enacted, effectively blocking lawyers from passporting claims from Austria, Germany and elsewhere to the location where operators are legally headquartered, in order to force them to pay out.

This has triggered an international legal wrestling match, now being fought via a series of cases at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the EU’s highest judicial authority.

So far, the judgements and opinions issued have not made comfortable reading for the Maltese industry or its regulatory officials.

Earlier this month, the court appeared to settle a longtime debate on which the entire premise of Malta as an offshore hub is founded. Judges said that the freedom to provide services within the EU does not allow for operators to ignore local prohibitions on certain types of gambling.

That was followed this week by an Advocate General (AG) advising judges that if they were to consider the legality of Bill 55, it should be struck down.

It also reaffirmed the court’s dim view of gambling as a cross-border service.

As the opinion put it: “Under the current state of EU law, Member States are under no obligation to recognise gambling licences issued by other Member States. Accordingly, a Maltese gaming licence is, in principle, valid only in Malta.”

This opinion is only advisory, and is unlikely to amount to anything in this particular case (C-683/24) because the AG also recommended that the case as a whole should be ruled inadmissible.

But this is just one in a handful of similar issues being considered by the CJEU and the more time that passes, the greater the pressure appears to be on Malta and Bill 55.

The EU is also taking a tandem approach: The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has itself opened an investigation into Malta and the legality of Article 56A and has indicated through its own statements and submissions to the CJEU that it considers the provision to be against EU law.

New tactics needed?

All of which leads to several difficult questions for Malta and the many gambling companies based there.

The first is a defensive issue: With Bill 55 on the ropes, how will the nation prevent the many operators who call its islands home from being stuck with a huge refund charge?

Work is already underway to mount a new defense. The tactic uses the same inspiration as Article 56A, which argues that allowing the foreign court judgments that demand large payments from operators would seriously damage the Maltese economy and thereby upset its “public policy”.

The EU principle, also known as “ordre public”, allows for member states to make legal exceptions in order to protect their society.

In a pair of new cases addressing transferred player refund claims from Austria, Maltese lawyers have argued, without reference to Bill 55, that granting the payment orders would upset the nation’s public order.

These two cases are a clear attempt to establish that, even without any specific Gaming Act amendments, the principle of ordre public protects Maltese gambling firms from having to pay up.

The problem is, the CJEU may have seen this coming.

“The fact that the enforcement of certain judgments may entail serious economic consequences for a national operator, an industry or even the Member State addressed does not justify recourse to the ‘public policy’ clause,” reads the recent AG opinion.

Although lawyers in Malta insist that the AG’s comments should be taken only to refer to Bill 55.

Meanwhile, lawyers fighting to recover refunds believe that cases like these, which have already been appealed, will themselves wind up in the CJEU and at least buy more time for Malta before payouts need to be made.

A new kind of industry hub?

Perhaps the more fundamental question is what Malta offers as a gambling hub over the next decade.

It’s been apparent for some time that the value of a Maltese licence is degrading, through no fault of local authorities.

As European nations gradually switched on their own licensing models, operators have needed to collect local approvals.

Even where nations have clung firmly to monopolies, like in Norway, authorities have also become more effective in enforcing against offshore operators who offer into their territories.

The clear trend of the CJEU also indicates that arguments based on the freedom to provide services are practically finished.

In face of this reality, regulators and business leaders in Malta are looking further afield. Maltese law firms have appeared in locations as far afield as the UAE and Taiwan in recent years, as they look to advertise the nation’s status as a centre of iGaming excellence to emerging online gambling markets.

Leaning into the density of online gambling expertise is also an increasingly important strategy for those looking to attract investment to Malta.

The reason that the industry flocked to Malta in the first place may no longer be relevant, but it’s still the case that two decades later the nation boasts a greater concentration of industry talent than in any other European nation.

There’s also been an increased focus on suppliers, which typically have lower local compliance overheads and more ability to run their businesses remotely from the territories where their content is used.

Although this sector is increasingly subject to local licensing, as well as new compliance burdens designed by regulators looking to drive a wedge between on- and offshore online gambling markets.

Change is inevitable

Malta has demonstrated its ability to adapt and survive, but there’s little denying that the nation’s gambling industry has never been more under siege than it is now.

After decades of growth and success, new ideas are needed to steer the sector into a new phase.

The success with which it emerges from the Bill 55 era will have a dramatic impact on Europe’s online gambling sector and beyond.

The post Malta faces new dawn as EU courts gather strength appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

BVGroup’s flagship brand BetVictor has launched a new brand campaign, “For All Your Favourite Things”, backed by what the company said is its largest AV investment to date.

The campaign, created by Barn Door Studios, uses a rewrite of “My Favourite Things” from The Sound of Music over visuals of sporting events. BetVictor said the creative focuses on “the uncomplicated thrill of sport and betting”.

BetVictor is timing the launch around this weekend’s Premier League schedule, with spots running alongside Arsenal vs Newcastle on Saturday evening and Chelsea vs Leeds on Sunday afternoon.

Media planning is led by Bountiful Cow. The plan includes a new partnership with Sky, spanning live sport integrations, on-demand, YouTube channels and targeted digital placements via Sky Advance. BetVictor also outlined a data-led SVOD and BVOD strategy across ITVX, Channel 4, Prime Video and Netflix, plus digital and social.

Richard Walters, Director of Brand and Creative at BetVictor, said:

“‘For All Your Favourite Things’ captures what BetVictor stands for today – a premium, straightforward experience that enhances the thrill of sport.

When done right, we believe that gambling is a simple pleasure; one that we love connecting our customers to. We wanted to celebrate the moments that matter most to sports fans.”

The post BetVictor rolls out new brand campaign with biggest AV spend to date appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.