Wazdan is going to the regulated market of Canada through St8
Wazdan increased their North America footprint and extend St8 cooperation to Canada’s regulated market of Ontario. Due to the agreement, the aggregator has access to the best content from the acclaimed games producer’s popular slots portfolio. St8 will be releasing a number of top-performing games in light of this partnership.
Business Development Manager at St8 David Fall was delighted to comment on the partnership and extend into Ontario:
“The cooperation has already shown great success, so extending to Ontario is a fantastic step forward. Wazdan delivers top-performing content with original functionalities so we were thrilled to add the most popular titles from its best performing slots portfolio to our offering in the local market.”
Chief Commercial Officer at Wazdan Andrzej Hyla commented:
“It is a great next step. Wazdan delivers user-friendly games, emphasizing customer satisfaction. St8’s product is the ideal way to reach our players so we are looking forward to extending our successes even further.”
North America is an enormous priority for Wazdan. They were first certified by AGCO (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario) in May 2022 and followed with two key partnerships; St8 and Reevo, and finally withPlay North. Furthermore, recently Wazdan had games launched through FanDuel (ON and MI) via Light & Wonder and key US partnerships with Caesars Digital and Fanatics Casino, providing content in NJ, MI and PA states. The deal further solidifies Wazdan’s position within regulated markets.
The Netherlands might ban gambling until the age of 24
It remains highly unclear how gambling reforms will develop in the Netherlands. The debate was reignited when a local council member, Meryam Sümer, announced her ambitious, strict, proposal. While prior proposals intended to increase the online slots age from 18 to 21, Sümer wants the minimum age for all products to be raised to 24.
Sümer insists that it is “vital to introduce measures immediately” as youngsters face a major debt crisis. In Enschede, where Sümer is employed as a local council member, one out of five young people is currently indebted. Last year, the city recorded 12,145 debt reports, with around 960 of them threatened with repossession of their home. Easy credit, “buy now, pay later” options and online gambling are the primary culprits according to Sümer.
Raising the age threshold to 24 would make the Netherlands stand out across Europe. Nevertheless, countries such as Belgium, Greece and Lithuania allow gambling to people aged 21 and above, and in the case of casinos and their online games, ages 25 and 21 in Malta and Georgia respectively.
Earlier, the Netherlands gambling authority (KSA) has expressed that setting higher age limits might shift young people towards illegal online sites. Because of this politicians in the Netherlands are considering whether to opt for a step-by-step or uniform age limit of 21.
The Netherlands has already put in place a ban on general gambling ads and targeting underage players. A recent study from a university demonstrated that 11.2% of gambling ads analyzed on Meta targeted 18 to 23-year-olds, and this was most prominent with land-based gambling firms. The researchers suggested Meta’s default setting and suggested strong pre-authorization for all online advertising.
Earlier reports from the Dutch regulator, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), showed steady player numbers for late 2025. However, strict new protection rules are unintentionally pushing high-stakes activity toward the black market.
Playtech targets massive growth in the Americas
Playtech is anticipating significant expansion during this year’s FIFA World Cup and expects to continue the progress that it saw in the first four months of the year. This year’s tournament is taking place in the USA, Canada and Mexico, the field has been expanded from 32 to 48 nations, with the number of games increasing from 64 to 104 and gamblers predicted to more than double the $35bn that they staked during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The games present a great opportunity for Mexican operator Caliente Interactive, in which Playtech holds a 30.8% stake and CEO Mor Weizer predicted the games would solidify Caliente’s market dominance.
Playtech stated on 20 May that it has enjoyed good growth in The Americas in the year, and particularly over 2025 where the business saw increases in both the USA and Latin America, which have been carried through to the first part of 2026. US investments are now contributing significantly to profits.
Conversely, the chief executive stated that it must be conservative over European markets owing to continuing head winds and for example the UK nearly doubling their remote gaming duty to 40%. Playtech are still confident over their outlook.
