When scarcity turns items into status symbols, mystery mechanics become one of the most effective ways to monetise them. But most crazes fade. The difference is utility: items you can price, trade, stake and cash out. Counter-Strike shows what happens when that utility takes hold. The free-to-play shooter lets players buy, sell and trade cosmetic weapon skins in a market now worth US$5.7 billion. You'd assume gamers drive that number. Much of it comes from gamblers, traders and speculators more interested in price action than headshots.

Same Game Parlays (SGPs) allow bettors to combine multiple outcomes within a single match, offering lottery-style payout potential. For operators, they solve a critical problem: rising costs squeeze margins on traditional betting, but SGPs routinely deliver margins above 20%. The appeal to bettors and structural margin advantage have made them the most important product innovation in modern sports betting.

Profit in wagering is common; scale is the true differentiator. This month we spotlight Bernard Marantelli - one of the few who can industrialise edge. Across White Swan Data, Colossus Bets, Colossus Fantasy, and most recently iBankroll, his career has been a systematic search for scalable edge.

This month we examine Japan's wagering paradox: how the world's third-largest economy became one of the world's largest sources of unregulated betting revenue, why generational change makes the status quo unsustainable, and where the opportunity lies for those positioned to help Japan modernise its wagering market.

Kalshi and Polymarket ramp up their challenge against traditional sports betting. However, they are also creating opportunities for wagering operators and technology suppliers prepared to capture new users as their demands grow more sophisticated.

In mature wagering markets, regulation serves three fundamental purposes: protecting consumers, maintaining market integrity, and generating sustainable tax revenue. In principle, these aims are aligned. In practice, they can come into conflict.

Entrenched brick-and-mortar casino interests and legislative inertia have slowed the spread of iGaming in the United States. In that vacuum, sweepstakes casinos have flourished, becoming America’s fastest-growing wagering vertical.

This month, we flip the lens - from bettor to layer - and profile Ben Keith, the charismatic founder of Star Sports, one of the UK’s biggest and most respected independent bookmakers.

What separates extraordinary betting professionals from the average punter? In our exclusive webinar, we gained unprecedented access to the strategic thinking of Tom Dry, one of the world's elite tennis bettors.

January 1, 2025, marked a watershed moment for Brazil’s betting industry. After years of operating in a grey market dominated by offshore operators and loosely regulated local outfits, the country now has a clear regulatory framework which has a zero-tolerance approach to unlicensed betting. Far from a routine policy update, Brazil is poised to become one of the largest regulated betting economies, with revenues forecast to reach $6.3 billion by 2038.