As the iGB London industry event approaches, Worldgaming (formerly Clarion)'s Robin Harrison and SOFTSWISS's Alexandra Kavelich engaged in a cross-discussion. One is a long-term observer on the media side, and the other is a technical platform operator. Both approached the same question from different perspectives: What is the real transformation the iGaming industry is undergoing—not the headline-grabbing policy earthquakes or major acquisitions, but the invisible signals quietly rewriting the rules of competition. PASA's official website distilled a core judgment from this conversation: Growth is no longer the only measure of everything, resilience, judgment, and trust are taking its place.
The dual shift of focus: Not just changing maps, but changing minds
Harrison pointed out an overt but often underestimated trend at the beginning—the industry's center of gravity is shifting from Europe and America to Latin America and Africa. He specifically named Superbet and Kaizen Gaming/Betano for their performance in emerging markets, even suggesting an interesting reverse conjecture: Could these challengers who have established themselves in emerging markets turn around and snatch shares in Europe? However, he also admitted that with increasingly strict European regulations and continuously rising tax rates, this direction might not be attractive.
But Kavelich added another dimension: "The earliest signals of change were not geographical, they were behavioral." A few years ago, the first sentence operators would say when meeting was "how quickly can we enter new markets," but now the conversation has shifted to deeper issues—is the technological foundation solid enough, can local compliance be implemented, and will the player experience collapse after scaling up? "I don't think this means the industry has matured, but it definitely tells us where the industry is heading." In her view, what SOFTSWISS's annual iGaming trend report series does is help partners switch from "grabbing markets" to "preparing for what comes after grabbing them."
More data, but has judgment kept up?
Industry leaders today have access to an unprecedented amount of data, but does this mean they are better at foreseeing changes? Kavelich's answer was quite candid: "I don't think having more data automatically makes us better at predicting. If anything, it exposes the biggest growth area for the industry—iGaming still has a long way to go in integrating fragmented data and turning it into truly actionable intelligence."
She cited an ongoing example: prediction markets. SOFTSWISS's prediction market platform uses a fixed odds model, allowing operators to naturally embed this popular concept into existing sports betting or casino ecosystems, rather than starting from scratch. "The progress is not that we suddenly understand the future better, but that we are getting better at capturing early signals, adapting them to our markets, and then turning them into scalable business opportunities."
Harrison then broke through another layer from a communication perspective. Taking the Netherlands as an example: the industry repeatedly warned that increased taxation would harm the market, and the data indeed showed this—by 2025, Dutch tax revenue only increased by a mere 2 million euros, but the government is still tightening control. "Data itself does not guarantee foresight. It needs to be combined with industry knowledge and experience, and interpreted by those willing to accept that data may overturn their assumptions. And how to effectively convey data to external stakeholders is a clear gap in the industry." In other words, it's useless to just pass data among insiders; it counts when regulators can hear it.
Don't just chase "the next big thing," forget about "the existing foundation"
When the entire industry is asking "where is the next growth point," both speakers simultaneously hit the pause button.
Harrison pointed out that the gambling industry is actually very good at solving problems, but this is often overlooked in the increasingly frenetic chase for growth. He referred to offline casinos: this capital-intensive, longer development cycle track often makes more measured decisions. A typical example is Wynn, Sands, and MGM successively withdrawing from the bidding for the lower state license in New York—when the numbers don't add up, not chasing is a clear strategy.
Kavelich took over the conversation and emphasized another point easily drowned out by noise: "The biggest risk is not ignoring today's growth opportunities, but being led by the nose by new things and forgetting what is continuously creating value." She was direct—in iGaming, what continuously creates value are always those things that don't make headlines: technological reliability, compliance capability, security, scalability, and overall player experience. "They're not very eye-catching, but they build trust. And trust is the confidence that operators need to try new technologies, enter new markets, and expand their business scale."
Healthy industry vs. high-speed industry: Resilience is more valuable than speed
The conversation finally settled on one question: What does a healthy industry focus on, and what does an industry only concerned with high-speed growth overlook?
Kavelich drew a clear line: "A high-speed industry optimizes for speed, a healthy industry optimizes for resilience." When growth is the only goal, everything revolves around the next market, the next product. But once the industry moves towards maturity, the questions change: Is the technology stable enough? Is there trust established with regulators, partners, and players? Can what is being done still deliver value five years later? "In the end, technology itself doesn't create lasting partnerships, trust does. And trust relies on the resilience of the product, the transparency of the business, and the fulfillment of commitments."
Harrison's summary was more down-to-earth: "Health means being built on a sustainable foundation—not over-leveraging, having solid processes, strong compliance agreements, player trust, and multi-stakeholder management. For some companies, pursuing growth has become a hamster wheel, always spinning, but unable to get off. Working in such a flexible and changeable industry is indeed exciting, but once maintaining momentum becomes the only goal, a crash is inevitable."
PASA's official website believes that the most valuable takeaway from this conversation might be: The most profound changes are usually not about inventing something entirely new, but ensuring that every new thing is built on a foundation that can withstand and last. Speed can get you a spot, but only stability can keep you there.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders," a gambling industry news channel:https://t.me/pasa_news
Original deep channel for gambling:https://t.me/gamblingdeep
Free data reports: @pasa_research
PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
