As headline sponsors of the Sustainable Gambling Zone at both ICE Barcelona and iGB L!VE London, Gamecheck has emerged as the leading voice in the fight against fake games completing close to half a million random checks since January.  Ahead of iGB L!VE 2026, Gamecheck founder James Elliott reflects on the company’s rapid growth, the impact of AI, emerging market opportunities, key trends that are shaping the industry and why trust, verification and authenticity are the critical pillars underpinning sustainable growth.

Gamecheck is the first organisation to sponsor the Sustainable Gambling Zone at both ICE Barcelona and iGB L!VE London – what was your experience in January and what are you hoping for in July? 

The 2026 edition brought together a record number of industry professionals from many nations, and as the Headline Sponsor of the Sustainable Gambling Zone, we were at the centre of those conversations from day one. 

What impressed us most was how quickly people understood the problem we're solving. Operators, regulators, game providers - they all came to the pod with real questions. The response was extremely positive because we're solving a real problem that operators face daily. 

ICE is where you plant the flag; iGB L!VE is where you deepen the relationships. The more targeted environment of iGB L!VE offers an opportunity to reach relevant audiences for more focused, product-centred conversations, and that suits us perfectly at this stage. 

We know what the market needs; we've spent months validating it. Now we want to get into the detail with the people who are ready to act. 

How would you describe the progress that you’ve experienced in the six months since ICE Barcelona 2026? 

Honestly, it's been a busy six months. The visibility from ICE translated directly into commercial conversations, and several of those have since turned into live partnerships. 

The numbers tell their own story. We've now completed over 450,000 random checks, processed more than 85,000 verification requests, and detected 8,500 fake games across the platforms we monitor. We've verified over 67,000 brands, and the Gamecheck app has 197,000+ users, with players in markets like the UK and Brazil actively using it to check casinos before they play. 

Beyond that, the Gamecheck SEAL is gaining traction as a recognised hallmark. The ambition is for it to evolve into an industry standard - comparable to responsible gambling certifications or ISO compliance frameworks, because game authenticity is now emerging as a comparable structural issue to those. 

How has the market responded to the threat of fake games – and is that threat increasing? 

The market's awareness has shifted considerably, which is a positive sign, even if the underlying problem is getting worse, not better. When we started, we'd often have to explain what fake games actually were. That's happening less and less now. Operators understand the reputational risk; regulators are increasingly asking about verification; and players are more savvy than they used to be. 

As for whether the threat is increasing, the online gambling industry is projected to reach $151.9 billion by 2028. That rapid expansion has led to a surge in fake games spreading across the internet. 

The bigger the market, the more attractive it becomes to bad actors. UK gamblers alone are betting an estimated £2.7 billion a year on black-market websites, and a report commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council revealed 27 million visits to unregulated sites in 2019. Those numbers have only moved in one direction since. 

Also, a mid-sized online casino in Eastern Europe unknowingly hosted fake versions of popular slot games. Player complaints increased, social media accusations went viral, and within three months, daily active users dropped by 28%. And unfortunately, that's not a hypothetical scenario. It's happening right now to operators who don't have the tools to check. The cost of inaction is very real. 

To what extent is AI transforming the industry and how are you adopting AI-driven innovations in your business? 

AI is genuinely transforming the industry, and I'd separate it into two distinct tracks. 

On one hand, AI is being used operationally - for personalisation, fraud detection, customer support, and risk management. These are efficiency gains that most serious operators are already exploring. 

On the other hand, AI is creating a new set of integrity challenges. Deepfake promotions, AI-generated fake game assets, and increasingly sophisticated cloning tools all make the fake game problem harder to detect through traditional means. 

For Gamecheck, AI plays a role in our monitoring and detection capabilities. The scale of the iGaming market - thousands of operators, tens of thousands of games - means human-only verification isn't scalable. We use automated monitoring to flag anomalies and prioritise where human review is needed. 

That said, what makes the Gamecheck SEAL difficult to forge is the combination of continuous monitoring, blockchain-backed verification, and provider-confirmed validation. 

Apart from AI in your opinion what other key trends are currently shaping the industry? 

A few things stand out. Regulation is probably the most significant structural force right now. New markets are opening up (Brazil being the obvious one), while established markets are tightening requirements around fairness, affordability, and player protection. That creates both opportunity and compliance pressure at the same time, and operators are having to move fast on both fronts. 

Personalisation is becoming a real differentiator. Players expect experiences tailored to them - game recommendations, responsible gambling nudges, loyalty mechanics - and the operators 

investing in that are seeing it pay off in retention. The technology to do this properly exists now; the gap is usually in execution. 

Payments and financial access are also reshaping the market in ways that don't always get enough attention. The expansion of local payment methods, crypto options, and instant withdrawal capabilities is directly influencing where players choose to play. In emerging markets, especially, solving the payment problem often unlocks the market. 

And then there's trust - which is where we spend most of our time. Players are more informed than they've ever been. They read reviews, they check forums, they notice when something feels off. The operators building long-term businesses understand that trust is the product 

What do you anticipate will be the key talking points at iGB L!VE both in terms of the opportunities and the challenges facing the industry? 

On the opportunity side, Brazil's regulated market is going to dominate a lot of conversations. It's a FIFA World Cup year, the 2026 theme is "All In", with a specific focus on sports betting alongside casino and affiliates, so the timing is perfect. There's also real appetite around AI-driven affiliate strategies, player acquisition in regulated markets, and how technology can turn compliance into a competitive advantage rather than just a cost. 

On the challenge side, the black market is still the elephant in the room. Fake games, unlicensed operators, and manipulated content are eroding trust in iGaming at a time when the industry is fighting hard for regulatory credibility. 

The Sustainable Gambling Zone at iGB L!VE will showcase innovative tools and best practices related to player health and sustainability, and I expect verification and authentication to be a bigger part of that conversation than ever before. Consolidation brings challenges too: integration complexity, cultural alignment, maintaining player trust through transitions. 

The 2025 edition of iGB L!VE attracted representatives from 149 nations – a figure only bettered by ICE Barcelona: how important is iGB L!VE’s international profile and what emerging markets would you identify as having the most growth potential? 

The international profile matters enormously, especially for a company like Gamecheck, where the fake game problem is genuinely global. The markets most at risk are often those with the least regulatory oversight, which tends to correlate with fast-growing, newer markets. 

Latin America - Brazil and Mexico, especially - is the headline growth story right now. Africa is the one to watch longer term - the continent has moved from "interesting market" to a genuine strategic priority for the industry. Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East also have real potential, though the regulatory picture there is less predictable and timelines are harder to plan around. 

What all these markets have in common is that they're expanding rapidly, often ahead of their regulatory frameworks. That's exactly where fake games thrive - and exactly where Gamecheck's value is most tangible. 

How important is iGB L!VE as the mid-year meeting point for the industry and what message would you give to industry professionals who may still be considering attending the event? 

For anyone still on the fence: the industry's calendar has two anchor points, and this is one of them. Miss ICE or miss iGB L!VE and you'll spend the rest of the year catching up on conversations everyone else is already acting on. For us, it's not optional. It's where we continue the work that ICE started. 

Gamecheck independently verifies online casino games and helps players identify authentic content through its free mobile app. For further information on becoming Gamecheck verified contact sales@gamecheck.com