The UAE has its first legal horse betting venue. In June this year, the Abu Dhabi licensed platform Play971 quietly launched a horse racing betting feature—before this, the Gulf country's passion and investment in horse racing were never less than the UK or Australia, the only thing missing was a legal betting channel. Philippa Bowland, the commercial director of Play971, spoke very clearly about the significance of this launch: "We are not just building a platform, we are defining a new regulated entertainment category." Her resume lists executive positions at global gambling giants Pinnacle Sports, Flutter, and Entain, and the first challenge she faced after coming to Abu Dhabi was not customer acquisition, not pricing, but—there was no reference. The entire UAE had never had a licensed online gambling platform before, every page, every payment interface, every line of compliance terms, had to be drafted from scratch.
No blueprint to copy: Pay971 is "building and writing the manual at the same time"
The operator behind Play971 is Momentum—this company is also the operator of the UAE national lottery. The platform uses locally licensed payment providers approved by the UAE Gambling Regulatory Authority, and the game content is independently tested and certified by the Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), recognized by the GCGRA. Bowland's description carries a sense of pioneering from scratch: "Creating the first regulated commercial gambling platform in the UAE means there is no existing blueprint to refer to. Every decision—from regulatory compliance to player onboarding, from payment infrastructure to content localization—must align closely with the GCGRA framework, carefully built from the ground up."
User education is also embedded in the launch work. In a market where commercial gambling has just legally appeared, operators not only have to tell players "what we can offer," but also explain "why regulation itself has value." Bowland's positioning is: helping players understand "what a licensed platform means, what protection mechanisms it brings, and how it differs from unregulated alternatives." PASA's official website previously focused on the GCGRA completing the CEO transition in June—from the first CEO Kevin Mullally to former Crown Resorts CEO Ciarán Carruthers, the UAE's regulatory infrastructure is rapidly taking shape. Play971 got the first ticket under this framework.
Dubai's sheikhs' horses and South Asian fans' cricket: A license covers 200 nationalities
Horse racing was chosen as the first category for sports betting, not on a whim. Horse racing has deep cultural roots in the Gulf region—Dubai's World Cup attracts global attention every year, and the sheikhs' stables are regulars at international thoroughbred auctions. Bowland's words carry a sense of "finally matching": "Horse racing in this region has always been more than just a sport—it carries genuine passion and nurtures world-class events. Play971 just adds a new dimension to this already thriving ecosystem: for the first time, horse betting can be done legally and safely on a fully licensed and regulated platform."
The product's target audience directly reflects the UAE's immigrant structure. Over 200 nationalities coexist here, with a high degree of fragmentation in sports preferences—South Asian communities are crazy about cricket, European expats closely follow football and horse racing, and locals have a natural affinity for horse racing, camel racing, and F1. Play971's strategy is not to push cross-selling hard—sports betting users can also see casino games, self-developed products, and live dealer tables broadcast directly from the Abu Dhabi studio, but Bowland emphasizes "the focus is not on pushing players from one product to another, but on providing a complete entertainment experience."
"The demand has always been there, Play971 is the belated answer"
In terms of market response, Bowland revealed that registration and interest have "exceeded expectations," especially at times close to major sports events. "The most encouraging thing is the desire shown by players—before this, they simply did not have a legal, locally rooted option. The demand has always been there, Play971 is just that belated answer."
But she also admits that the market is still in its very early stages. The UAE's commercial gambling regulatory framework itself is still in its infancy, and both operators and regulators are stepping into an uncharted territory. "We are still at the beginning of the journey," she said, "but early feedback makes us believe that the opportunities ahead are substantial enough that Play971 can play a significant role in defining this new category." The expansion roadmap has already been drawn—steadily unfolding one category at a time around horse racing, cricket, F1, UFC, and football, sports with strong fan bases in the region. A previously completely blank regulated horse betting market, a new category definition that even had to write its own "manual"—Play971's first bet has already been placed, and what remains to be proven is that this market is worth more operators lining up to enter.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders," a gambling industry news channel:https://t.me/pasa_news
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