Wild Traces

What is Wild Traces?

In a press release on Friday, Ladbrokes and Coral owner Entain urged the government to “close the loophole without delay” in response to a Department for Culture, Media and Sport consultation on the matter.

The second consultation, which ran from 15 July to 9 September, followed an initial review in February.

But Entain warned the current timeline, which would enforce the ban by August 2027, was not timely enough, allowing unlicensed operators to sponsor Premier League clubs for another full season.

What is Wild Traces?

Spectrum found that BitCasino.com and Stake.com were knowingly offering its games in these banned markets, which were specifically prohibited within their contracts with the supplier.

These sites were found to be connected to Evolution clients, B2B aggregators Hub 88 and Babylon.

“Our investigation revealed certain clients had allowed for Evolution’s game content to be provided on their online gaming websites in clear violation of their contracts, which expressly prohibited such game play in specified regions,” the report states.

What is Wild Traces?

The blurring line between financial investing and gambling has been accelerated by the rise of prediction markets—exchanges offering event contracts that are federally regulated as financial derivatives. U.S. News found that over 40% of active sports bettors now also participate in sports prediction markets.

Financial advisors continue to urge consumers to view sports wagering strictly as entertainment and to only risk funds they can afford to lose.

Research from Stanford University published in April concluded that sports bettors remain “overoptimistic,” generally expecting to break even despite losing an average of 7.5 cents on every dollar wagered.