[Ad] How gambling companies are using AI to gain a competitive edge
The modern gambling business runs on decisions made in seconds, a price move during a live match, a slot lobby reshuffle, or a deposit that either looks normal or lands with a thud.
Across operators and suppliers, AI is increasingly the machinery behind those calls. The advantage is rarely a single model; it is a stack of systems that changes what customers see and what compliance teams notice across thousands of accounts at once.
Today’s Highlights:
- How recommendation engines and personalisation are reshaping casino and sportsbook front ends
- Where AI shows up in pricing, trading, and exposure management in live markets
- How player protection systems use behavioural signals to trigger interventions at scale
- Why fraud, KYC, and deepfakes have pushed identity checks toward more automation
- How regulators are framing AI governance, and why explainability affects competition
Personalisation has become part of the product
Personalisation used to mean broad segments and scheduled campaigns. Machine learning enables continuous scoring: an account’s likelihood to churn, respond to a message, or switch products can be recalculated as behaviour changes.
That logic travels through the interface. A casino lobby is often treated as a ranked list rather than a fixed grid, shaped by clicks, session timing, device type, and how quickly someone abandons a game.
The commercial value sits in small things, fewer dead ends, better matching between players and products, and faster testing of what a brand chooses to put front and centre. The same mechanics also sit close to debates about persuasion and vulnerability.
Sports trading increasingly relies on models for pace and coverage
On the sportsbook side, AI sits close to probability. Predictive models absorb pre-match data and live feeds, update expectations, and help trading desks manage event volume that would be difficult to cover manually.
In in-play betting, timing becomes the differentiator. Automation can reduce errors and help limit exposure when prices drift or when unusual betting patterns cluster around a single market.
Safer gambling tools are marketed as real-time systems
A growing share of AI investment is described through customer protection. Some operators frame the same approach as a way to spot changes in casino play across established UK slot games and newer titles, then trigger a review when patterns shift.
Entain’s ARC programme is presented as a background system, and in an ARC leaflet, the company says it “works behind the scenes using advanced artificial intelligence” to learn and identify risks in player behaviour so it can intervene before a problem develops.
Scale sits at the centre of that argument. iGaming Business reported on 9 July 2024 that Entain recorded 8.7 million ARC interventions in 2023, up 98% from the prior year, suggesting how automated triggers can operate far beyond the reach of manual review teams.
Flutter has highlighted similar thinking at Sportsbet, where a Real Time Intervention tool monitors deposit behaviour. In a Flutter insight published 20 November 2025, Sportsbet’s Sarah McWhirter said, “It’s about intervening meaningfully, in the moment,” and added, “Traditional tools often act after the fact.”
Enforcement cases turn thresholds into evidence
Public enforcement can make the abstract concrete. On 17 December 2025, the UK Gambling Commission announced a £2 million settlement with four entities trading as Paddy Power and Betfair after an investigation found social responsibility failures relating to customer interaction.
In its statement, the Commission described instances where spending velocity and changing betting patterns were not flagged, or were not acted on until the next day. One customer staked £86,000 over 16 days and lost £6,000, another placed more than 300 bets totalling £20,000 in a single session lasting more than seven hours.
Fraud, KYC, and deepfakes are reshaping identity checks
AI is also deployed defensively. Remote onboarding and fast payments expose operators to stolen identities, synthetic profiles, account takeovers, and bonus abuse, risks that can scale as quickly as acquisition campaigns.
The UK Gambling Commission’s emerging money laundering and terrorist financing risks bulletin from April 2025 is presented as a trigger for operators to review risk assessments and controls. Industry coverage of the bulletin has highlighted AI-related bypass tactics, including deepfakes used in due diligence attempts.
Biometric Update reported in April 2025 that deepfake usage and fake IDs were making it easier to bypass basic verification, a trend that has pushed parts of the sector toward more robust, AI-powered identity and deepfake detection tools.
Regulators are publishing their own stance on AI
Regulators are not treating AI as a side issue. On 5 January 2026, the UK Gambling Commission published a page outlining its approach to artificial intelligence, linked to its corporate strategy for 2024 to 2027, and described how it uses data science techniques to understand the gambling market and consumer behaviour better.
For operators, that posture signals where scrutiny may land. Faster models can be an advantage, but they also raise questions about governance, documentation, and human oversight, particularly when automated systems influence risk decisions or customer interaction.
In competitive terms, explainability is increasingly part of the offering. Being able to show how a model behaves, what it is optimising for, and how staff can intervene, can matter as much as raw performance.
Closing Thoughts…
AI is now embedded in the loops that decide what customers see, how risk is priced, and when intervention happens. The competitive edge is real and becoming more visible in day-to-day operations.
At the same time, the advantage is increasingly paired with accountability. As regulators publish their own AI approach and enforcement cases highlight late action, the companies that pull ahead are often those that can both move quickly and explain why the system made the call.
