Digital maturity, regulation, and AI: key insights from 2027 iGaming trends report by SOFTSWISS

Valentina Bagniya, CMO at SOFTSWISS. Valentina Bagniya, CMO at SOFTSWISS, discusses how artificial intelligence, taxation shifts, and compliance are reshaping the iGaming landscape and what the industry needs to continue maturing. SOFTSWISS has published the fifth edition of its iGaming Trends report. Have any of the headline findings proven to be a particular surprise? There is still a common perception that iGaming is traditional gambling moved online. But when you look at how the industry actually operates, it is much closer to a digital business. This year’s edition, co-authored with WorldGaming (ex Clarion), introduces a new ‘Beyond iGaming’ chapter, featuring insights from experts across other industries, including Amazon Web Services (AWS). It compares the sector with e-commerce, sports, film, gaming, streaming, e-pharma, and crypto across market size, growth, regulation, and digital maturity. The report gives iGaming a Digital Maturity Index score of 4.67 out of 5, based on areas such as AI adoption, mobile-first products, digital acquisition, payments, RegTech and data-driven decision-making. That puts the industry on a similar technological level to advanced e-commerce and fintech businesses. And the scale is significant. The report estimates iGaming will generate €305bn in GGR in 2026, following very strong growth since 2019. This makes it the fourth-largest sector in the benchmark, behind e-commerce, sports and film. At the same time, iGaming operates under the highest regulatory load in the benchmark, scoring 5 out of 5, alongside crypto and online pharmacy. This combination is what makes iGaming particularly interesting: you have advanced technology and huge transaction volumes, but everything has to work within increasingly complex regulatory requirements. It is much more than a gambling vertical – rather a highly developed digital ecosystem. The full report looks behind these figures to explore how iGaming is evolving and is available for free download on the SOFTSWISS website. What have you discovered are the main headwinds that are affecting the industry at this current time? I would highlight three main headwinds: The first is growing regulatory complexity. Operators are not simply dealing with more regulation, but with different requirements across markets. That makes expansion more complex and puts much more emphasis on having technology that can adapt without rebuilding the business for every jurisdiction. The second is cybersecurity and fraud. fintech, ICT and betting ranked as the three most targeted industries for DDoS attacks in Q1 2026. The threats are becoming more sophisticated – from large-scale DDoS attacks to impersonation and fraud targeting payments and other critical financial processes. This means cybersecurity, fraud prevention, AML and payments need to work together as one ecosystem and be able to identify and respond to threats in real time. And the third is trust. Players have more choice, while regulators are paying closer attention to player protection and responsible gaming. This means operators need to demonstrate trust through the actual product experience, such as reliable payments, transparency, security, and responsible gaming tools. Regulatory clampdowns and tax increases have had notable impact in the current time, with widespread job losses and warning of significant black market rises the main theme. Is this something that you believe is set to continue? Regulatory pressure is likely to continue, particularly in mature markets. Governments and regulators are looking more closely at taxation, player protection, advertising, AML and how gambling products are designed and operated. The UK is a good example. Remote Gaming Duty increased from 21% to 40% in April 2026, and the tax rate on most remote betting is set to rise to 25% from April 2027. The important question is how far regulation and taxation can go before they start creating unintended consequences. If operating in the regulated market becomes significantly more expensive or restrictive, there is a risk that licensed operators have less room to compete effectively with unlicensed alternatives. Brazil is a very recent example of this risk. Just one day after the new betting ban was introduced, the number of identified unauthorised betting operations jumped from 331 to 575 – a 74% increase, according to Bet Legal monitoring. Over five days, the increase was around 464%. It is still very early to judge the long-term impact, but it shows how quickly demand can begin shifting outside the regulated environment. Building on the previous questions, what needs to be done to ensure that the potential damage being done does not become more widespread? The key is to focus on creating a sustainable regulated market. Regulation needs to protect players and also support a healthy and sustainable regulated market. Finding the right balance is important, considering how taxation, advertising rules, bonus restrictions and compliance requirements work together and affect the market as a whole. There is also space for closer cooperation between regulators, operators, and technology providers. From a technology perspective, the priority is to build compliance and security into the product from the start, while keeping the infrastructure flexible enough to adapt across markets. This is an approach we already follow at SOFTSWISS. We build compliance-ready products with KYC, AML, anti-fraud, and responsible gaming controls integrated into one ecosystem. As a technology partner for growth, we give operators a strong technological core and help them navigate regulatory complexity and market changes. Broad trends are commonplace across the industry. Of those currently being witnessed, which will stand the test of time and which will fizzle out? Looking at the past five years, we can see that regulation is probably the clearest example of a lasting shift. Compliance is moving deeper into the technology itself: automated monitoring, AML controls, and responsible gaming tools are becoming a part of the platform ecosystem rather than separate processes. It also influences acquisition approaches. We are also seeing the limits of aggressive, bonus-led acquisition. With tighter advertising rules and higher acquisition costs, the focus is moving towards retention and getting more value from existing player relationships. AI will stand the test of time, and we are already moving beyond experimentation towards practical applications in areas such as fraud detection, payment routing and operational automation. I expect AI to become less of a trend we talk about and more of an everyday layer of how iGaming businesses operate. At the same time, some of the trends that attracted a lot of attention a few years ago have become much less central. NFTs, metaverse casinos, and smartwatch gambling are good examples. Crypto is different: rather than disappearing, it has gradually become part of the broader payments conversation. So, the bigger pattern is that the industry has moved away from hype and towards technologies and practices that solve real operational problems and drive growth. What do you envisage that the future holds when it comes to such trends, increased clampdown and/or geographies that could undertake significant changes? I think the next few years will be less about one big trend and more about several forces coming together: tighter regulation, more mature technology, a stronger focus on sustainable growth in regulated markets. Regulation will probably remain the biggest driver of change. We are already seeing regulators look beyond licensing and focus much more closely on how products actually operate – payments, AML, advertising, affordability, and responsible gaming. This means compliance will increasingly need to be built into the product from the beginning. Geographically, I would watch both mature European markets and newer regulated markets. Europe is likely to continue tightening and refining existing frameworks, while other regions may see much more significant shifts as governments reconsider how they regulate, tax, or even restrict online gambling. Technology will evolve alongside this. AI will become less of a standalone trend and more of an operational layer. At the same time, I think the industry will become more selective about innovation. The question will be not ‘is this new?’ but ‘does this solve a real business or player problem?’ Overall, I expect the industry to become more regulated, more technology-driven and, in many ways, more disciplined. The companies best prepared for that environment will be those with flexible technology and the ability to adapt to different regulatory requirements across markets.