As 2025 approaches, it’s apparent those in the gaming industry are optimistic about the new year’s outlook. Last week we heard from a slew of gaming industry personnel who looked back at the significant stories of 2024 and ahead to what might happen in 2025.
We had so many responses we had to divide the story in half. Here’s part two of CDC Gaming’s 2024/2025 feature, with notable figures weighing in on what the gaming industry accomplished this past year, and their thoughts on the year to come.
Dan Umfleet, Kindbridge Founder and CEO
2024
Reflecting on 2024, three pivotal stories stand out in how they impacted the ever-evolving U.S. gambling landscape: the rise of election betting, scandals in sports wagering, and the urgent call for stronger protections against gambling harm. Platforms like Kalshi and Robinhood introduced ways to bet on political outcomes, igniting a debate over whether gambling on elections could erode trust in democracy. While these markets often outperformed traditional polling in accuracy, they raised ethical concerns about the risks of manipulation and the commercialization of the democratic process.
Sports betting scandals rocked the industry multiple times in 2024. High-profile cases, including lifetime bans for professional athletes like Jontay Porter and investigations into college players such as Temple University’s Hysier Miller, highlighted how the rapid expansion of betting has created vulnerabilities in maintaining fairness. Even off-field figures, like Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, made headlines with gambling-related misconduct. These stories underscore the challenges of regulating a growing sector while preserving the integrity of sports.
Adding to the year’s urgency, advocacy for addressing gambling addiction has reached new heights. Calls for stricter advertising regulations, particularly to protect young people, and expanded federal funding for treatment programs reflect the public’s growing concern about gambling’s societal impact. Collectively, these issues reveal a pressing need for thoughtful governance as gambling becomes increasingly embedded in everyday life.
2025
In 2025, I believe the focus will shift to player protection amid the continued growth of online casino and sports betting. A critical development will be the adoption of advanced technology, such as AI, to detect problematic gambling behaviors early and offer intervention strategies. While these tools could revolutionize player protection, they will also raise critical questions about privacy and ethical data use, creating a key challenge for the industry to navigate.
Financial literacy and transparency will also take center stage. Gambling’s link to financial stress — such as debt and hidden costs — will drive initiatives to educate players, particularly younger audiences, on managing their money and recognizing addictive or even predatory features. At the same time, efforts to demystify gambling mechanics in adjacent categories, such as loot boxes in video games, will help consumers understand and mitigate risks often disguised as entertainment.
Perhaps most significantly, the integration of gambling disorder treatment strategies into healthcare systems will accelerate. Increased training for medical professionals, coupled with easier access to treatment, will help vulnerable populations like veterans and students manage the unique pressures they face. In 2025, the narrative will evolve from expanding gambling markets to ensuring that growth is paired with robust safeguards, fostering a culture of responsible and sustainable play.
Jennifer Shatley, executive director of Responsible Online Gaming Association
2024
In 2024, we saw an unprecedented number of elections, with countries around the globe casting votes for new leaders. At the same time, we saw an explosion in online prediction markets that allowed players to bet on the outcomes of various elections, especially here in the United States. The odds from these prediction markets were widely covered by news outlets and discussed across social media, which undoubtedly led to many Americans using these online markets for the first time. It’s essential to understand that unlike legal online sports betting or iGaming, there is little oversight on these markets, and they are currently overseen by a federal regulator with no prior experience in these markets.
Our industry must acknowledge the substantial growth and interest in these markets and ensure that as they continue to expand, adequate consumer safeguards are in place. The responsible gaming principles we apply to traditional forms of gaming should therefore also apply here. To do this effectively, we will need to lean on the expertise of state-level regulators to ensure players have access to the appropriate tools and resources. At the Responsible Online Gaming Association, we emphasize advancing evidence-based responsible gaming best practices regardless of the betting market, which we believe will be essential to the industry’s ability to respond to challenges posed by emerging markets.
2025
The biggest story in 2025 and beyond is how fast operators will adapt and implement technology. Live betting continues to gain popularity, and it requires operators to optimize uptime. BetMGM has made major enhancements and remains in relentless pursuit of providing the best player experience. The year ahead will bring the next phase of unlocking Nevada and showcasing an omnichannel experience like no other.
In 2025, we will see unmatched levels of collective action and collaboration around responsible gaming from operators and the broader online industry. As the online gaming space expands rapidly, operators are taking the lead around advancing responsible gaming practices, much like I saw while working with traditional casinos. The overall principles for promoting responsible gaming are fundamentally the same, regardless of the gaming vertical, and the industry is well-equipped to meet the moment and demonstrate its commitment to responsible gaming. In this vein, the Responsible Online Gaming Association’s independent data clearinghouse, where members can gain a more holistic RG-related view of a player, is expected to launch in 2025. This unprecedented industry collaboration, which will take the form of a national shared self-exclusion list across all ROGA members, will revolutionize how operators track and support at-risk players across platforms and represents an exciting step forward in collective action to promote and enhance responsible gaming efforts.
Kelly Brooks, FairPlay Media Chief Product Officer
2024
The affiliate space in the US is under a major overhaul. 2024 paved the way with a goal of establishing a more sustainable long-term growth strategy via support for revenue share, retention and loyalty versus upfront payments and “less-than-a-second” interactions with users. The “giants” are re-establishing business models where technology, data and personalization will drive efficiencies, improved LTVs and overall user loyalty. Quality will outshine quantity and this can only be done by user experience and a share-of-wallet approach.
2025
2025 will be the year of focused and personalized acquisition strategies. Organizations that have not yet invested in high quality engagement, including automated and effective next-level segmentation strategies, will fall behind. Unique-journeys-per-user are no longer a nicety, but a requirement. This propels technologies into the hands of diverse and desired audiences that will ultimately commit to an offering. The role of AI is constantly evolving. It will be reinstated as a content generation opportunity, with Google being kinder to those who use the technology in a thoughtful way, that ensures quality output. The North American market will continue to mature, and we will look to the legacy territories, such as the UK, to re-establish approaches. Additionally, Latam, the new golden child, will play a significant role in how organizations will “pivot” to capture significant market share.
Howard Stutz, The Nevada Independent Senior Reporter
2024
My focus is on Las Vegas. Two events that took place set the stage for the Strip’s next chapter. In April, the Rat Pack-era Tropicana was closed. The low-rise portions of the resort were demolished while the two hotel towers were imploded in August, clearing the 35-acre site for a 33,000-capacity Major League Baseball stadium that will house the relocated Oakland Athletics while Bally’s Corp is planning a hotel-casino development.
In July, The Mirage was closed and will be converted over the next few years into Hard Rock Las Vegas. In 1989, the opening of The Mirage kicked off four decades of development on the Strip. It’s fitting the site helps start the Strip’s next chapter.
2025
The biggest story nationally in 2025 will be how three of the largest states handle potential gaming expansion
- Will New York get its act together and approve three full casino resorts for the New York City area? Which companies will get those licenses?
- Will California’s tribal gaming community and the nation’s sport betting operators find a solution to approve sports betting in the state?
- Will the intense lobbying efforts of Las Vegas Sands Corp., finally push the Texas Legislature into approving casinos in some the state’s largest cities? Will sports betting be part of the package?
Lawrence Shen, CFA, Advantage Partners Consulting Managing Director
2024
One significant development I find is how most operators, tribal or commercial, standalone or corporate, have become very nimble and cautious about capital spending, especially on expansions. Everyone is still finding the most efficient and highest-returning ways to deploy capital after the COVID years. Some casinos have over-expanded right after COVID to meet the pent-up demand, and now they are seeking options to fill their casinos and hotels. Lending costs have also been the highest since the Great Financial Crisis, which makes operators very cautious as well. I have seen more phased expansion and improvement plans compared to high dollar amount projects in recent years. Overall, I believe it is a prudent thing to be nimble, and to move forward in smaller steps after the previous steps have been validated.
2025
I believe the same nimble approach to development and capital deployment will continue in 2025. Besides that, it is hard to not mention the increasing presence of AI-driven processes in the gaming industry now. While some products are not as awesome as the companies claim they are, they are undeniably getting better and being accepted on a wider scale. Some operators, including some tribes, are more open to try new products and processes than others. The adoption of AI-process is also being adopted overseas, in the online gaming environment, in anti-money laundering efforts, and fraud detection. It might be acceptable to say that the AI adoption in brick-and-mortar casino operations might be lagging the adoption in the other areas mentioned above.
Marco Bianchi, BC Ventures Co-Founder and SVP Operations
2024
Gaming media had a coming of age, emerging as a more mature and viable channel for our industry to thrive, way past the traditional affiliate sites. It has long been known that a vibrant, endemic media landscape is key for mass consumption verticals to reach their audience, find their champions, and develop their offerings. The entertainment industry has sophisticated entertainment media; Travel has highly specialized travel media; Sports has multimillion-dollar sports media. The time has come for the gaming industry to get the gaming media it deserves, with a premium on entertainment value.
Among the telltale signs of Gaming media going mainstream, we saw leading online casino brand BetMGM engage a top slots streamer as official ambassador, whereby they sponsored a new RMG (real money gaming) dedicated media offering hosted on YouTube. Brian Christopher, who passed a world-record one billion gaming video views in 2024, has been credited for creating “the other streaming platform” which has opened up our industry to new targeted B2C audience opportunities.
Of equal importance in the B2B realm, we saw significant growth globally and consolidation with the announced CDC Gaming and IAG merger. The trend is towards higher quality, bigger scale, more polished forms of Gaming media that combine audience affinity, brand safety and advertising compliance across key markets.
2025
Gaming media diversification will be a fundamental shift. Scaled formats and technologies like OTT (over the top) distribution, CTV (connected television) and FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) channels, will allow our industry to begin seeing in-target, addressable audiences that are true to Gaming. This changes the dynamic for marketers who have been hamstrung by the too-general casino games / gambling “interest targeting” categories offered by social media platforms.
This is exemplified best by successful sports network SportsGrid launching a new Casino channel in 2025. In this pioneering move, SportsGrid understands their capabilities as a BETwork. Players of all kinds, whether they are sports bettors or casino gamers, crave top-quality media that has the ability to guide and entertain them along the way.
It is telling that the NEXT Summit NYC 2025 will host a session titled “The Gatekeepers: How Social Media Channels Control iGaming Advertising” which I have been invited to join alongside Google and TikTok. Social platforms have long controlled who can advertise in the Gaming industry but often deny responsibility for what is promoted. Casino marketers facing similar challenges are ready for more diverse forms of media, built for Gaming.
Charlie Skinner, Marker Trax President
I’m incredibly proud of how Marker Trax has grown and evolved this year. We elevated our underwriting capabilities, enhanced reporting, and data analytics, and completed a complex rebrand of our B2C product, Moolah Play. These achievements have laid a strong foundation for future success and are a testament to the dedication of our talented team and the incredible support of our partners.
As we look ahead, we’re excited to introduce Moolah Play Digital in 2025, expanding our product offerings to include sports and iGaming.
Deana Scott, Raving CEO
2024
I think the hardest challenge is always the turnover of executive leaders, and that tends to really impact organizations as a whole. It ends up stopping a lot of decisions or changing directions that, over time, becomes very expensive as work can’t get done. Just the recruitment process for a new executive leader can take several months.
From Raving’s business perspective, it impacts us directly, but the bigger impact is to organizations. When you think about 50% turnover rate and then you have a significant turnover at the executive staff level, it all rolls downhill and makes it more difficult for the organization to continue to move forward, to operate efficiently, and to stay on top of competitive demands. This isn’t a new problem. Especially as more seasoned executive leaders are starting to retire more and not return to the market, there’s a lot of transition going on at that level.
2025
I think properties are really struggling with what are the next big gaming initiatives and how will they roll out in terms of the physical space and the technology need. And so right now, properties are struggling with what does sports betting look like? What will the gaming floor needs be? What are the technology needs for preparing the organization for the next three to five years? There’s a lot of discussion and unknowns around sports betting and online, on-prem, cybersecurity – it’s the intersection between these new gaming potential opportunities and security and legalities.
Steve Ruddock, gambling industry analyst and consultant
2024
There’s a lot to choose from, but I’d select the birth of election betting in the US as the most significant development in 2024. It didn’t come out of nowhere, but it certainly went from zero to 100 in the blink of an eye after prediction market site Kalshi queried the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to allow a single election market: Which party will control Congress after the 2024 elections?
Kalshi’s request was denied, it sued, and the CFTC lost the case (which is still under appeal). The proverbial floodgates were instantly opened, with Kalshi and others offering dozens of election betting markets.
It’s far from over, as the appeal is still pending, and Congress, which has been very skeptical of election betting markets, could also weigh in, but toothpaste rarely goes back in the tube.
2025
Keep a close eye on Rep. Paul Tonko’s SAFE Bet Act.
The legislation is being dismissed out of hand due to Congressional dysfunction and gambling historically being a state-level matter. Still, I would point to the growing number of people sounding alarm bells about mobile betting (most recently Andrew Yang), the high-profile scandals and athlete harassment concerns, and the in-your-face nature of sports betting that has been grating on the general public since 2018.
As written, the industry is safe from the SAFE Bet Act, but I expect discussion and amendments in 2025. Whether that leads to passage is a different matter. Still, the bill’s mere presence can cause headaches by stalling legalization efforts or causing already legal jurisdictions to align regulations with the proposal.
Bronwen Gregg, Insight Global Director Sales Enablement, External Events & Partnerships
2024
The emergence and evolution of AI was definitely the buzzword topic in 2024! Almost every Insight Global customer has asked about staffing or services in this space. I’ve attended over a dozen large industry conferences this year, and almost all thought leadership topics focused on AI, and even the least tech-savvy consumers have been getting excited about what AI can make possible.
2025
I would predict one of the top stories in 2025 will be the implementation of new company and legislative policies around technology modernization, especially within cloud, data, and AI, to enhance best practices in cyber security, fraud detection and prevention, etc. I’m excited to witness this next step in innovation, and I’m proud that Insight Global’s services can support that advancement.
Josh Duffy, slot influencer
2024
The “Rise and Fall” of Dragon Train couldn’t seem to parallel the success of Chappell Roan’s 6-time Grammy nominated debut album. However, the controversy surrounding Light n Wonder’s short-lived release has been 2024’s biggest fodder within the gaming industry due to its peculiar legal issues. To the possibility of Dragon Train being resurrected, I say “Good luck, babe!”
2025
It has become clear that all game manufacturers are fully committed to reinventing the wheel with spin-offs and introducing more pot-style games as we move into 2025. And a big cloud of confusion has been cast with Dragon Train’s unique hold & spin jackpot mechanic now being found in titles such as the AGS doppelganger Lion Cash. Brands are borrowing instead of building a unique footprint, which begs the question “Where’s the ingenuity?”
