Phil Pearson: iGaming Industry 2025 in Review
NEXT.io Podcast18 Des 2025

Phil Pearson: iGaming Industry 2025 in Review

🎙 NEXT.io Podcast #256 with Phil Pearson, iGaming Consultant.


Another year. Another cycle of hype, pressure, pivots, and hard lessons.


In this episode of the NEXT.io Podcast, Phil Pearson joins Pierre Lindh to unpack what really happened across iGaming in the past 12 months beyond the headlines.


Together, they explore the widening gap between innovation headlines and real progress, the pressure leaders are facing behind the scenes, the growing importance of focus over scale, and why many companies are quietly reassessing their priorities.


It’s a grounded conversation about what moved the needle, what didn’t, and what lessons are worth carrying into the year ahead.


⏰ Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

00:41 - Sponsor messages

02:04 - Welcome Phil Pearson

04:06 – Yolo’s move into regulation: why it matters

06:38 - Personal reset: health, sabbatical & perspective

11:55 - Biggest industry stories of the year

14:19 - Charity, Dar Bjorn & responsibility in iGaming

16:17 - Investigative journalism

33:27 - Game Studio Awards: overview

33:33 - Best studio of the year

39:29 - Best newcomer studio

40:39 - Worst studio of the year

44:01 - Most underwhelming game releases

49:56 - Live game of the year

51:21 - RNG game of the year

52:36 - Best industry freebies & swag

57:23 - Grey products explained

58:12 - Sweepstakes, prediction markets & loopholes

01:12:56 - The defining trend of 2026: grey products

01:30:02 - Events review: what worked, what didn’t

01:49:00 - Final outlook: where the industry is heading


🔔 SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/409DefE06IKPhZzhDIDpH3?si=bf60dedab34e45bc


Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-io-podcast/id1515442333


CONNECT WITH NEXT.IO

✩ Website - https://next.io/


This episode of NEXT.io is brought to you by:

Pragmatic Solutions – Leading iGaming platform technology.

https://pragmatic.solutions/


Pragmatic Play – Industry-leading content provider.

https://www.pragmaticplay.com/en/


Sponsored by:

Creedroomz - https://www.creedroomz.com/

Episoder(468)

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🧐 Steve Birch - I am currently concluding my 14th year serving the teams at SBG and feel very grateful for the journey we have had. SBG has been an accelerator for my career and I have the privilege to work with an awesome team of passionate people. Having joined as an analyst I have subsequently worked in Insights, Programme Management, Marketing and leadership roles before being appointed in the role as CEO in 2020. The team that I originally joined of 350 people is now over 1500 and Sky Bet and Sky Vegas are the most popular Betting and Gaming brands in the UK. But most importantly as we have grown we have managed to maintain our people's first culture, lack of hierarchies and drive to make a difference. This had led to being named in the Times top places to work as well as a very positive Glassdoor profile. This is absolutely a priority for me as we continue to grow and if you would like to contribute to our next stage of growth then please do reach out.

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From establishing his first venture capital firm in 2017, Tim Heath continues to draw upon two decades of experience within the iGaming and emerging technology industries. He was an early adopter of Bitcoin in 2013 and is also the founder and CEO of the Coingaming Group, which operates the leading, globally recognised crypto gaming brands, Bitcasino.io and Sportsbet.io. He orchestrated the Sportsbet.io principal sponsorship of the English Premier League team Watford FC, which included placing a Bitcoin logo on their shirt sleeve which was seen by billions of people during the 2019/20 EPL Season. Tim specialises in transforming ideas into successful businesses and with over $200m+ assets under management has a keen interest in Fintech and Blockchain focused disruptive ventures. His latest investment is in an app called coins.io, which is a decentralised wallet, utilising the lightning network and sitting on top of a layer of connected banks and super nodes around the world to take crypto to the masses without them even realising.

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