{"id":14267,"date":"2026-10-15T14:03:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T13:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/?p=14267"},"modified":"2026-10-15T14:03:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T13:03:46","slug":"maarten-haijer-appointed-head-of-new-international-gambling-organisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbceurasia.com\/en\/2026\/10\/15\/maarten-haijer-appointed-head-of-new-international-gambling-organisation\/","title":{"rendered":"Maarten Haijer Appointed Head of New International Gambling Organisation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Maarten Haijer<\/strong>, former Secretary General of the <strong>European Betting and Gaming Association (EGBA)<\/strong>, has become the first Director General of the Geneva-based <strong>World Gaming and Betting Alliance (WGBA).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The WGBA was formed in July 2026, with <strong>bet365, FDJ United, Flutter <\/strong>and<strong> Entain<\/strong> listed as its current members. Its core mission focuses on the battle against the black market, advocacy and policy work for a more sustainable gambling sector, and increasing the standards of consumer protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Haijer will of course aid the trade body with his more than 13 years of experience at the EGBA, which works in a similar fashion to the WGBA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On his new venture, Haijer took to <em>LinkedIn<\/em> to say: \u201cThe global regulatory landscape is evolving fast, and the case for well-regulated markets has never been more important, both for consumers and for the societies in which they operate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI look forward to engaging with regulators, policymakers and public health stakeholders to help shape the conversation on the global scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe will be formally launching WGBA later this year in Geneva, alongside our first flagship report. Excited for what\u2019s to come in the weeks ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Haijer makes next step after EGBA progress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Haijer announced his departure from the EGBA earlier in August, making way for interim Secretary General <strong>Pierre Tournier<\/strong> to take on the reigns after holding the Senior Director role for 10 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the former Secretary General\u2019s tenure, the EGBA \u2014 in collaboration with various experts and national and international authorities \u2014 managed to publish a voluntary pan-European Standard on the markers of gambling harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was also a key figure in the launch of the annual <strong>Safer Gambling Week <\/strong>initiative, in which hundreds of gambling brands across the EU participate to significantly increase the visibility of their safer gambling messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don\u2019t forget to subscribe to our <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/sbceurasia\">Telegram channel!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maarten Haijer, former Secretary General of the European Betting and Gaming Association (EGBA), has become the first Director General of the Geneva-based World Gaming and Betting Alliance (WGBA). The WGBA was formed in July 2026, with bet365, FDJ United, Flutter and Entain listed as its current members. Its core mission focuses on the battle against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[266,1230,924,324,12072,1047,3477,2818,3174,529,687,452,62,17333],"class_list":["post-14267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gambling","category-news","tag-bet365","tag-consumer-protection","tag-egba","tag-entain","tag-fdj-united","tag-flutter","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-gaming-industry","tag-illegal-gambling","tag-maarten-haijer","tag-online-gambling","tag-responsible-gambling","tag-sports-betting","tag-wgba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Maarten Haijer Appointed Head of New International Gambling Organisation - 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