The Eurasian gaming landscape is at a crossroads, with operators facing both unprecedented opportunities and mounting challenges. At the SBC Summit Lisbon 2025, the “Eurasia Leaders Panel: Expansion or contraction – which way will the bridge between continents swing?” brought together industry heavyweights to dissect the region’s future.
The panel featured Adam Lamentowicz (Superbet), Simon Westbury (1xBet), and George Athanasopoulos (Novibet), moderated by Lasha Machavariani (SMH Global).
Opening the discussion, Adam Lamentowicz, Chief Commercial Officer CEE at Superbet, painted a picture of a region defined by diversity and dynamism: “The Balkans is quite a big region with lots of small and big countries. Each country has different taxation, different regulatory regimes, different obstacles or opportunities that allow you to enter or not.”
Despite these complexities, Lamentowicz remains optimistic: “The spending power increases for the customers, the maturity has increased, and also acceptance of the entertainment industry and gaming industry as a whole has increased over the last years. So overall, this region is growing and will be growing, I believe.”
Superbet now holds over 23% of the Polish market. Four years ago, the company had no presence there, starting from zero, while the top two competitors at that time commanded 47% and 37% of the market, respectively.
Localization, Lamentowicz argued, is the key to success. “You have to be very close to the customer, you have to be able to localize, and localize operationally, and localize products… For Polish people, we are a Polish brand. For Romanian people, we are a Romanian brand. And for the Brazilian population, we are a Brazilian brand. So I think it’s a very important element that has to become the DNA of the winning brands.”
A similar story unfolded with 1xBet in Kazakhstan. When the company entered the market, the leading local operator controlled 80% of the market share. Today, 1xBet holds over 50% of the market in the country.
Simon Westbury, Strategic Advisor at 1xBet, pointed out: “It’s the right product, it’s the right tools, but it’s also the right attitude when you go into the market where there’s someone who’s got 80% and within 10 years becomes the largest operator in that market.”
He also described the Central Asian and Caucasus markets as “kaleidoscopic,” with regulations and market conditions in constant flux. “The Uzbek government has mentioned on a couple of occasions that when regulations come in, we want to regulate the market. And then you wake up in the morning and it’s changed,” he said, highlighting the unpredictability operators face.
Westbury emphasized the importance of adaptability and ongoing dialogue with regulators. “We believe in constant engagement with the regulator. We accept that these markets are challenging and kaleidoscopic, so we have a level of adaptability to what we do. A level of acceptance that, depending normally on political influence in these countries, can move side to side, let’s say, quite quickly.”
Turning to Greece and the broader European context, George Athanasopoulos, CEO of Novibet, addressed the persistent challenge of unregulated operators. “Most of the countries do have a problem with black market operators… It is estimated that more than 70% of gambling in Europe level is happening actually on unregulated businesses. So this is a very big number,” he noted.
Athanasopoulos called for greater collaboration with governments to level the playing field. “We are trying on our side to educate the government, wherever we are licensed, to explain to them what would be the vital contribution that they can make to block black market operations.”
The conversation also touched on the growing threat of the black market, particularly in Romania and Poland.
“There are 90 websites, and around 30 licenses. But black is massive. We see black channelization growing significantly in the past months. It’s growing. So Romania had, let’s say, just last year around 17-18% channelization of the black. Now it’s closer to 30%, so it’s growing rapidly,” Lamentowicz warned.
“There’s 60% of the black market in the Polish iGaming space. Today, it is worth around 500 million euros in GGR. So there’s basically half a billion GGR just sitting there,” he added.
At the end of the panel, Athanasopoulos reframed the industry’s mission: “Because we are not in, in my opinion, we are not in the entertainment, we are in the excitement business. It is not pure entertainment. It has to be something exciting.”
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