IAGA SUMMIT BELFAST GREY MARKET EXPOSURE YIELD SEC


Continued M&A activity and market consolidation in the industry and the expansion of new US markets places the foreign activities of operators and suppliers under the microscope, highlighting the need for a robust approach to the legal and regulatory risks presented by grey market gaming.


An expert in this field as anyone can testify having watched his presentations to gaming industry audiences around the world, Yield Sec’s Ismail Vali will present the latest findings on illegal market activity at the IAGA Summit in June. G3 took the opportuntiy to quiz Ismail ahead of his speaking date.


Ismail, what is Yield Sec and why did you found the company?


At Yield Sec we identify, qualify and quantify crime, so that it is acknowledged, understood and actioned against. Our military-grade platform scours the internet for relevant betting and gaming keywords and phrases, then analyses the content to classify illegal or legal groups. AI, machine learning and expert human intervention ranks and values the threats to individual stakeholders and the ecosystem.


We provide our data, insight and recommendation services to a wide range of legal stakeholders including government agencies, regulators, law enforcement, legal and licensed operators, suppliers, media partners and affiliates across the online betting, gaming, and lottery industries to help them combat illegal gambling.. We understand that each of these stakeholders has a unique set of needs and challenges, and we tailor our solutions accordingly to ensure that we are providing the most effective support possible.


Betting, gaming and lottery require effective ecosystems. We simply do not have that today. Our perception is that legalisation and regulation will channelise activity towards the legal, licensed industry, but the reality is each jurisdiction has two industries present. One is legal, compliant and contributing to the community and the other, an illegal, unlicensed one that steals revenue and taxes, and harms consumers with impunity.


My academic background is in Law and I worked in iGaming from the early 2000s. Te idea for Yield Sec occurred to me as I witnessed operators, regulators and governments struggling to realise regulated ecosystem success and sustainability. We needed a single source of truth across numbers, data and reality in each marketplace.


Te idea of a ‘level playing field’ is but a hope without a platform like Yield Sec to optimise and protect all legal stakeholders and their marketplace missions.


You’ve described legal versus illegal gambling activity as an iceberg. Do you ever see that diagram flipping - with more legal than illegal activity taking place - and if so, how do we get there?


P56 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS


Ismail Vali Founder, CEO & President, Yield Sec


Ismail Vali is a strategic marketing and product specialist fuelled by commercial discipline, creative ideas, curiosity for what makes players play, and dissatisfaction with the status quo. Over his professional experience, Ismail has a proven track record of commercial and creative success across consulting and senior marketing roles, including as Head of Development for Ladbrokes, and Chief Marketing Officer for ParadisePoker, SportingBet and PokerStars – all of which were taken to global leadership by the teams and initiatives Ismail led during his management.


A pioneer of promotional schemes and marketing solutions, Ismail is known for his commercially-disciplined creative output and holds a US Patent for game and prize methods that serves as the foundation for the A GAME ABOVE business and led Ismail to found the award-winning marketing campaigns company in 2019.


Ismail is the inventor and founder of Yield Sec – the world’s first effective tool to monitor, police and enforce the licensed marketplace for betting & gaming by removing criminal black-market threats to revenue, taxation and player and audience protection.


“In every regulated


marketplace, we suffer from a duality dilemma - with one legal industry and one illegal one. Yield Sec exists to move us away from what I call


‘iceberg marketplaces’ where the presence of predatory illegal operators is unknown. The questions of who, how and to what extent are all addressed by Yield Sec’s


monitoring and surveillance. In an ideal scenario, we want a ‘mountain marketplace’, where legal activity is the majority of what you see as a consumer or audience member.”


In every regulated marketplace, we suffer from a duality dilemma - with one legal industry and one illegal one. Yield Sec exists to move us away from what I call ‘iceberg marketplaces’ where the presence of predatory illegal operators is unknown. Te questions of who, how and to what extent are all addressed by Yield Sec’s monitoring and surveillance. In an ideal scenario, we want a ‘mountain marketplace’, where legal activity is the majority of what you see as a consumer or audience member.


To get there we must accept that existing measures, such as payment blocking, IP-bans, DNS-range filters, URL seizures do not work. We have many single responses to the threat of illegal gambling but little understanding of why these measures are ineffective. Illegal gambling describes itself as something else to anyone who might be looking to spoil its access to marketplaces that it has no legal right to exist in.


To shift towards majority legal gambling activity we must take a multi-faceted approach that addresses both the supply and demand sides of the market. Yield Sec was built for the unique future of each individual jurisdiction and whatever regime the lawmakers in that state or nation decided.


On the supply side, it is important to continue efforts to regulate and license online betting, gaming, and lottery operations, creating a clear legal framework for these activities and replacing de facto criminal control of online gambling. At the same time, it is important to address the demand side of the market - including efforts to reduce the social, economic and legal factors that contribute to illegal gambling activity, such as unforeseen regulatory dynamics. For example, criminal operators flock to self-exclusion schemes and create ‘vulnerability vacuums’ in the marketplace for the benefit of ‘qualified’ but at-risk audiences who lack access to legal alternatives.


Another key factor in shifting the balance is the use of advanced technologies and data analytics, such as those used in the military AI, machine learning and tech stack of Yield Sec, to help support the actions of regulator and law enforcement to monitor and regulate the market. Ongoing and consistent surveillance helps to identify and disrupt illegal operators, as well as to ensure that legal operators are complying with regulations and operating in a responsible and ethical manner.


Overall, achieving a shift towards more legal gambling activity will require a sustained and collaborative effort all legal stakeholders. By working together and adopting a multi-faceted approach, we can create safe, responsible and sustainable marketplaces that contribute to our commerce and community and do not fund crime.


What do you expect Yield Sec to achieve by revealing such massive illegal market activity? Are the early results and reactions what you expected?


By shining a light on illegal operators and activities, we hope to encourage governments, regulators, operators and law enforcement,


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