Latest news and posts
HIPTHER Talks Podcast, 27 May 2025
If you have not heard about the European Accessibility Act (EAA) or are still wondering how to ensure compliance in practice, don't miss this HIPTHER Talks Podcast, which airs on 27 May 2025!
For a sneak peak: https://lnkd.in/dKpYdyX5
Thank you Zoltán Tűndik for inviting us on! It was great to discuss this important topic with you together with our partners at CityMaaS!
Thoughts on MGA's first ESG insights report
The Malta Gaming Authority’s first ESG insights report is out, providing a snapshot of the successes and shortcomings in the approaches taken by participants towards environmental, social and governance commitments.
Our prediction for next year’s report:
♿️Accessibility solutions, ensuring that players with disabilities are appropriately catered to (including from a RG perspective), will become a clear expectation. In the report, the MGA already encourages licensees to expand their D&I focus beyond gender and the obligations resulting from the implementation of the European Accessibility Act will emphasize the need to improve consumer-facing accessibility even more.
📊Level of maturity and sophistication in the reporting will improve, which should help address some of the (expected) teething problems highlighted by MGA such as the incomplete/superficial/inconsistent reporting, lack of robust and measurable data, limited long-term commitments linked to KPIs, lacking actual and demonstrable governance and integration of ESG into business strategy and risk management. However, hopefully it will not only be the reporting which will improve but the actual governance and risk management structures as well as data quality. This will need more than merely an appointed ESG representative.
Kudos to all who participated in the MGA’s voluntary ESG Code reporting to contribute to the information shared by MGA today.
It will continue to be an interesting space to watch.
For the full report, see https://www.mga.org.mt/mga-issues-2023-esg-insights-report-and-opens-enrolment-for-2024-cycle/
NEXT.io Valletta 2025
Excited for a busy week during NEXT.io - The World’s iGaming Community Valletta 2025!
EGARA & CityMaaS Launch First Gambling-Focused Accessibility Toolkit Ahead of June Compliance Deadline
London/Malta, 15 April 2025 – Digital accessibility has become a legal, reputational, and operational risk that gambling operators can no longer afford to ignore. With less than three months until EU Member States must begin enforcing national laws implementing the European Accessibility Act (EAA), gambling industry stakeholders face a fast-approaching compliance challenge.
Failure to meet accessibility requirements could expose operators to financial penalties, enforcement action, public scrutiny, and consumer litigation—especially if key features like responsible gaming tools are not accessible to all users. We’ve already seen how this can unfold in the United States, where thousands of lawsuits have been filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act against digital platforms, including online gambling operators.
In response, gambling advisory firm EGARA and accessibility technology and certification provider CityMaaS have announced a strategic partnership to deliver the first-ever accessibility solution tailored to gambling operators by combining their respective fields of expertise.
This includes accessibility audits, product integration support, certification, and staff training—all delivered with a deep understanding of the unique demands and risks faced by licensed operators in highly regulated gaming markets. It addresses a long-overlooked risk area that also ties directly into responsible gaming,
fairness, and user protection.
Key highlights of the EGARA x CityMaaS Partnership:
➡️ Readiness check: The partnership between EGARA and CityMaaS offers operators a readiness check and manual to implement across their business.
➡️ Certification: The partnership offers operators a solution to certify their accessibility offering. This will prove highly important for operators as several gambling regulators have confirmed the
regulations are in scope and are already themselves being called to action by accessibility enforcement bodies.
➡️ Audit function: The partnership offers a tailored auditing, reviewing platforms’ accessibility offering, ensuring they reach more customers, more effectively in line with the projected regulations, while ensuring critical features like responsible gaming tools are available to everyone with fairness, transparency and actual protection of all groups.
➡️ ESG and Responsible Leadership: The collaboration offers bespoke advice and training to ensure operators lead— and not just comply—by embedding fairness and inclusion into the core
of digital player experiences across all offerings including websites and customer service functions.
➡️ Technical Solution: CityMaaS’s technology incorporates the latest advancements in accessibility, providing a robust and reliable solution for EGARA's clients in the gambling industry.
Operators and platform providers can begin accessibility readiness assessments now:
Quotes:
Jessica Maier, Co-founder of EGARA said: "Despite its transformative potential to harmonize accessibility standards across the EU, the European Accessibility Act has surprisingly remained underdiscussed within our sector, leaving many organisations unprepared for its imminent impact. Through our partnership with CityMaaS, we’re enabling operators to rapidly close any existing gaps to reduce legal and reputational risk, and ultimately make gambling platforms more inclusive and sustainable, bolstering responsible gaming efforts and providing opportunity for sustainable growth."
"CityMaaS is thrilled to collaborate with EGARA to bring our state-of-the-art accessibility solutions to the gambling sector. Together, we are setting a new standard for accessibility and user experience," said Rene Perkins, CEO of CityMaaS.
Ethical Gambling Forum, 29/30 April 2025, Gibraltar
We were delighted to be part of this year’s Ethical Gambling Forum – a timely and important gathering focused on integrity, sustainability, and forward-thinking compliance in our industry.
A sincere thank you to Jo Abergel, Adrian Sladdin and the EGF team for inviting EGARA - Executive Gaming and Risk Advisory to share our insights – and in particular for giving the stage to our co-founder Jessica Maier, who spoke on the panel:
Audits, fines & learning – what can we learn from regulatory failures?
🗓️ Wednesday, 30th April 2025, 14:05–14:50
Moderated by Neil T. (Rightway Compliance), with fellow panellists Andrew Montegriffo (Hassans), Jurmy Menckeberg (The Mill Adventure), and Max Collinge (Yaspa).
The panel looked at various case studies and the practical lessons they offer - not just to avoid future pitfalls, but to build stronger, more resilient organisations. Jessica contributed a particular focus on accessibility and its relevance for the gambling industry drawing from EGARA’s collaboration with CityMaaS and our shared launch of the first gambling-focused accessibility toolkit. It’s an area where compliance, innovation, and inclusion meet – and one that deserves more industry attention.
EGR Europe Briefing 2025, Malta
EGARA - Executive Gaming and Risk Advisory
Last Thursday, 6 March 2025, Jessica Maier represented EGARA - Executive Gaming and Risk Advisory at the EGR Europe Briefing 2025, joining a panel of experts (Cristina Turbatu, Maria Sayapina, Ed Dickerson, and Rosaire Galea Cavallaro) to talk about “European innovation in 2025: a review of compliance and gaming trends shaping the future of European industry”. The panel was moderated by Katie Renton.
World Regulatory Briefing 2025
EGARA - Executive Gaming and Risk Advisory
On Monday, 20 January 2025, Jessica Maier discussed AML on the World Regulatory Briefing (WRB) panel “Harmonisation or Hinderance? Addressing Advancements in AML Obligations” together with Shilpa Arora (ACAMS), Rachel Bezzina (Malta Gaming Authority) and Aleksandar Popov (Bulgarian National Revenue Agency). The panel was moderated by Vasilios Chrisos (PWC).
ICE 2025 Barcelona
2024 Retrospective
EGARA - Executive Gaming and Risk Advisory
As we look back, we are grateful to reflect on 2024 as a year defined by growth, innovation, collaboration, and a fair bit of travel and public speaking engagements 😊.
📌 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: At the heart of everything we do are the incredible clients who trust us to support their businesses. This year, we’ve been privileged to work alongside operators, suppliers, investors, and advisors, not just as consultants, but as partners. We value the strong personal relationships and great teamwork and are proud to have tackled complex challenges, seizing opportunities, and achieving sustainable success, together. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your journey and being part of ours!
𝐈𝐀𝐆𝐀 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭, 𝐖𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐃.𝐂.: We were delighted to contribute to a panel about navigating regulatory changes and market dynamics, joining Edward Winkofsky, Wil Byrne, Anthony Pearl, Alon Segev, and Jaime Rivera-Emmanuelli, Esq. We also cannot wait for the International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA)'s 2025 Summit in Berlin (9 to 11 June 2025).
NEXT.io - The World’s iGaming Community, 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐚: Like every year, a successful conference and one we would not want to miss.
𝐆𝟐𝐄 𝐋𝐚𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐬: Highlights were the IAGA Best Practices sessions, and the Peak Performance Leadership workshop hosted by The Venn Collective (TVC), which offered invaluable insights into effective leadership in our sector.
𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐈𝐀𝐆𝐀 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐞: Our Co-Founder Jessica Maier was appointed as trustee of the International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA) and asked to co-chair the EMEA engagement committee.
𝐈𝐀𝐆𝐑/𝐈𝐌𝐆𝐋 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐞: Attending the joint conference of International Association of Gaming Regulators and International Masters of Gaming Law in Rome was a valuable opportunity to connect with regulators, legal experts, and industry leaders from across the globe.
𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐌𝐀 𝐄𝐒𝐆 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩, 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐚: Alongside experts Floris Assies, Rachel Decelis, Fiorella San Martín, Adriana Frank, Reuben Portanier, and Glen Smith, we unpacked practical strategies to integrate ESG into igaming businesses, shaping a vision for sustainable impact.
Eastern European Gaming Summit 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐚: To close the year, we contributed to a dynamic session on the role of technology in online player protection.
𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐄𝐎 𝐚𝐧𝐝 Global Gaming Women 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠: We continue to appreciate and engage in the amazing networking and discussion groups of women in our industry. Keep up the good work everyone! Special thanks go to Kelly Kehn, Sue Schneider and Paris Smith for their tireless effort to bring everyone together.
𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡: This year also marked the expansion of our EGARA team, adding new expertise to further enhance the support we provide to our clients. Welcome Maria Perici Calascione!
…𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞.