The third instalment of the Prague Gaming Summit took place earlier this year, gathering over 110 key industry stakeholders to discuss some of the primary issues that the industry faces at the minute.
We caught up with Bertan Baytekin, co-founder of AppJobs GAP, who spoke at the event. Affiverse spoke to Baytekin to tackle some of the regulatory and compliance issues at the forefront of iGaming.
We discussed the ways in which blockchain and cryptocurrencies can be utilised, as well as some of the trends we’re seeing across Europe at the minute.
1. A number of different countries are beginning to put regulation and compliance at the forefront of the iGaming industry: do you think enough is being done to ensure that operators and affiliates are compliant?
For some countries, yes. Others unfortunately not. Regulation and compliance only works when the regulator understands the market dynamics entirely. Most countries focus on banning and restricting things and they expect it to yield good results. The truth is, it only helps monopolies or underground organisations. I would love to see more digital iGaming experts being hired as consultants by regulators.
2. Can you detail some of the potential uses and opportunities of blockchain and cryptocurrencies for iGaming?
Blockchain can definitely improve financial transactions both from security and speed perspective. Using cryptocurrencies makes deposits faster and more under record. They also make the relationship more direct by taking away the middle-man.
This should, in theory, increase the trust and make the transactions more secure. I still think people don’t understand how blockchain operates in their favour and they focus on the negative PR. There are enough trustworthy applications of this new technology which clearly shows how things could be in the future, so I’d focus on them.
3. What are the main trends that you think we will see across Europe in the coming months?
I think European regulators will start treating iGaming more and more like alcohol and tobacco industries unless the number of questionable brands and practices decrease to a minimum. There will be more restrictions across all acquisition channels which will make the job of small/medium affiliates even harder than today.
I think the trend will be similar to travel industry and we are already seeing the first giant affiliate companies like Better Collective and Catena Media. The important question is, will the operators protect small/medium affiliates for their long-term benefit or will they choose the short-term numbers game?
