Key points:
- Yield Sec CEO labelled all providers of illegal gambling as essentially 'criminals,' saying he receives regular death threats for the type of things his company has said
- CEO refers to "Great Illegal Gambling Robbery," with as much as 73% of online gambling being illegal
Yield Sec CEO Ismail Vali pulled no punches in an early conference panel at ICE Barcelona 2025.
Discussing the work Yield Sec does with analysing online gambling, Vali said there is no such thing as a grey market, just "legal vs illegal" betting.
A variety of factors have increased the rate of illegal gambling in recent years, according to Vali, such as the rise of crypto betting and customers using illegal sports streams.
Illegal operators target these streams with adverts, although Vali believes the consumer cannot be blamed as they are not to know when an offering is illegal or not.
Vali's speech consistently offered confrontational facts, suggesting the gaming industry is largely losing huge volumes (in the trillions) to illegal companies.
And this straight-talking approach makes Vali the subject of regular death threats, according to the CEO.
Good to know: This is the first ICE to be held in Barcelona, after moving from London
Tracing back the history of illegal gambling, the told the audience: "We never kicked out the crime at the start of the online business."
This paved the way for a concept he labels the "Great Illegal Gambling Robbery," with illegal operators offering unbeatable prices to attract bettors as they pay no taxes or costs for responsible gambling practices.
While Yield Sec believes as much as 73% of the gambling market is illegal, compared to 27% legal, he closed with a message that there is hope when it comes to moving gambling towards overall legality.
He concluded: "It's time to kick the shadow of crime out of the industry."
