SBC Summit Europe: Three Opportunities and Three Challenges Facing the European iGaming Market

Europe is already one of the world’s most developed gambling regions, but maturity does not mean there is nowhere left to grow.

The European gambling market generated an estimated €123.4 billion in GGR in 2024, with online gambling accounting for €47.9 billion. These figures, covering the EU-27 and the UK, show that digital share is expected to continue increasing, while regulatory reform, new technology and changing customer behaviour are creating fresh opportunities for operators across the continent.

At the same time, growth is becoming harder to capture.

Operators still have to compete with unlicensed alternatives, navigate very different regulatory frameworks from one country to the next and find ways to stand out in some of the world’s most established gambling markets.

Ahead of SBC Summit Europe 2027, we look at three of the biggest opportunities and three of the biggest challenges facing the European regulated iGaming market, and what they mean for businesses looking to grow across the region.

Opportunity 1: Regulatory Change Can Create New Markets

Europe may be mature overall, but its individual gambling markets are still evolving.

Regulatory reform can create opportunities by allowing private operators to compete for demand that previously existed under monopolies or outside domestic licensing systems.

Finland will provide one of the clearest examples in 2027.

From 1 July 2027, the country will open betting, online casino, online slots and online bingo to licensed competition, bringing an end to Veikkaus’ monopoly across those products. 

Operators have been able to apply for licences since March 2026, giving international brands time to prepare before the competitive market goes live.

Finland is important because it shows how regulatory reform can expand the addressable licensed market without creating entirely new gambling demand.

Research cited during Finland’s gambling reform process suggests that approximately half of the country’s online gambling expenditure has taken place outside the domestic monopoly system. Improving that channelisation rate is one of the explicit aims of the new licensing model. Finnish Government Programme

That changes the nature of the opportunity. When the market opens to licensed competition in July 2027, operators will not be starting from zero. They will be competing for a substantial pool of players who already gamble online, but currently do so outside Finland’s regulated market.

For operators looking across Europe, regulatory change can therefore create growth not simply by increasing demand, but by bringing more existing gambling activity within reach of licensed businesses.

Opportunity 2: Moving More of Europe’s Gambling Market Online

Despite generating a huge overall turnover in gambling GGR, much of this is driven by the traditional land-based sector across Europe. 

Online gambling represented 39% of European GGR in 2024, compared with 61% generated through land-based gambling. That digital share is projected to increase to 45% by 2029. 

This split is even clearer when looking at individual markets. For example, online gambling accounted for 21.7% of GGR in Italy and just 14.2% in Spain. By comparison, online represented more than two-thirds of gambling GGR in Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

In 2023, online gambling accounted for 21.7% of GGR in Italy and just 14.2% in Spain. By comparison, online represented more than two-thirds of gambling GGR in Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

For operators looking to grow in Europe, this means online growth does not necessarily depend on creating entirely new gambling demand. It could also come from encouraging greater digital adoption among existing land-based players, with omnichannel products helping operators connect their retail and online offerings.

We see an example of this with Flutter’s acquisition of Snai in Italy. When Flutter announced its acquisition of the company, it highlighted the fact that online represented only 21% of Italian gambling GGR in 2023, compared with more than 60% in mature digital markets such as the UK. Flutter identified further digital adoption as one of the reasons it expected the Italian online market to continue growing.

For some of Europe’s largest gambling economies, the next major opportunity could be through converting offline players into online ones. 

Opportunity 3: Personalisation Can Create More Revenue From Existing Players

Growth can also come from creating better experiences for existing customers.

According to research cited by Optimove, 71% of players expect personalised experiences when engaging with casino brands. For operators, that creates an opportunity to move away from offering every customer the same games, promotions and messaging.

AI can play an important role. Much like YouTube or TikTok learns which content a user prefers, recommendation engines can use player behaviour to surface games that are more relevant to individual tastes. The same technology can also support CRM by helping operators tailor communications, promotions and rewards more effectively.

Evolution, for example, said in its 2025 annual report that it had integrated artificial intelligence into its recommendation engines, enabling increasingly personalised suggestions. The supplier has also made its Smart Lobby more localised to help players discover relevant games.

The same principle extends beyond casino. Operators can use customer data to make sportsbook content more relevant, personalise rewards and create smoother journeys between different parts of their product.

Entain’s 2025 annual report provides another example. The operator says CRM helps it personalise content to individual customers, while machine learning strengthens personalisation, improves engagement and supports smarter bonus allocation. It also uses personalised recommendations based on past play as part of its approach to customer retention.

This becomes particularly important in mature European markets, where growth increasingly depends on getting more from existing customer relationships, rather than purely focusing on attracting new customers. However, personalised promotions, recommendations and engagement strategies must also operate within responsible gambling and player-protection requirements.

Challenge 1: Keeping Players Within the Regulated Market

One of the biggest challenges facing European gambling regulators and licensed operators is channelisation: the proportion of gambling activity taking place through licensed and supervised businesses rather than unlicensed alternatives.

Germany illustrates the issue.

A study commissioned by the country’s gambling regulator, the GGL estimated that 77.03% of German online gambling activity was channelled through the regulated market in 2024, leaving 22.97% with unlicensed operators.

Germany is now testing whether greater flexibility can be introduced within the legal online casino market. The standard maximum stake for online slots is €1, but approved operators can allow eligible players to stake up to €3 and, under stricter conditions, up to €5. The arrangement currently runs until 31 December 2027.

That feeds into a wider debate over channelisation. The argument from parts of the industry is that licensed products need enough freedom to compete with offshore alternatives. If the legal offer becomes significantly less attractive, players may simply look elsewhere, taking both gambling revenue and player activity outside the regulated system.

The same concern has been raised in Great Britain. Remote Gaming Duty increased from 21% to 40% in April 2026, with a separate increase in the general rate of remote betting duty to 25% scheduled for April 2027. Industry groups have warned that higher costs for regulated operators could make the black market more attractive to some players. The Betting and Gaming Council has argued that higher taxation, alongside other restrictions, risks pushing more activity towards unlicensed operators.

Finland is approaching the issue from the opposite direction. Rather than tightening an established competitive market, the country is ending Veikkaus’ monopoly across products including online casino and betting and opening them to licensed competition from July 2027.

The Finnish Government has explicitly identified improving the country’s channelisation rate as one of the aims of the reform, with the hope that more gambling currently taking place outside the domestic system can be brought into a regulated and supervised market.

That captures the challenge facing regulators across Europe. A regulated market needs to protect players, but it also needs to attract them.

Ultimately, the success of a regulatory framework is not determined simply by how many operators it licenses. It also depends on how much gambling activity those licensed operators are able to keep within the legal market.

Challenge 2: Scaling Across Europe Is Not Straightforward

Europe offers operators access to dozens of established and growing gambling markets, but expanding across the continent is rarely as simple as launching the same product in another country.

Different markets have different rules around the products operators can offer, how they can advertise and how much tax they pay.

The contrast can be significant. Online casino remains prohibited in France, while operators in Denmark can offer slots, roulette, blackjack and other online casino products.

The differences continue even between countries where the same products are legal. Marketing restrictions, player-protection requirements and licensing conditions can all require operators to adjust how they do business.

That makes European expansion more expensive and complicated. An operator entering several countries may need different products, marketing strategies, compliance processes and local teams for each one.

For the biggest international businesses, that complexity can be managed at scale. For smaller operators and suppliers, it can make choosing which markets to enter much more important.

The opportunity in Europe may be spread across many countries, but capturing it requires operators to understand that there is no single European playbook.

Challenge 3: Getting Your Name out There

Even when an operator secures a licence and enters a market, another challenge remains: convincing local customers to choose it.

That becomes particularly difficult in mature markets where players already have relationships with established brands and no shortage of alternatives.

The UK provides a good example.

BetMGM launched in Britain in 2023 and quickly invested in building its profile, launching a Chris Rock-fronted campaign across TV, digital, radio, social media, out-of-home advertising and live sport.

Midnite has taken a similarly ambitious approach. In 2025, the challenger operator secured a credit facility worth up to $100 million to support its growth, including increased marketing activity. It followed that with a $35 million Series C funding round in January 2026.

That investment has been accompanied by a push for greater brand visibility. Midnite became an official UK betting and casino partner of the 2025 World Snooker Championship, partnered with several Championship clubs and sponsored Channel 5’s coverage of the FIFA Club World Cup.

Those examples show the scale of the challenge facing newer operators in established markets. Being licensed gives a brand access to customers, but becoming familiar enough to compete with long-established names can require significant investment in marketing, sponsorship and brand building.

And visibility alone is not enough. Operators also need a proposition that gives customers a reason to stay once they arrive.

In mature markets, the challenge is not simply launching a brand. It is building enough recognition and differentiation to take meaningful market share from competitors that players already know.

What Comes Next for the European iGaming Market?

Europe’s biggest opportunity and its biggest obstacle have the same source: maturity.

There is still room for land-based gambling to move online. Personalisation and better technology can help operators get more from the customers they already have, and regulatory reform is opening up new markets. But growth is harder to win. Licensed operators compete with unregulated rivals, work to different rules in every country and need enough local appeal to stand out where players are spoilt for choice.

For anyone looking to expand across Europe, the question is no longer which market is growing fastest. It is where growth is still available, what stands in its way and how the answer differs from one country to the next.

Those questions will be at the heart of SBC Summit Europe, taking place on 19–21 April 2027 at RAI Amsterdam, where operators, affiliates, suppliers, regulators and policymakers will examine what is changing across the market.