SOFTSWISS report: 52% of industry professionals name AI top 2027 trend

SOFTSWISS released its 2027 iGaming Trends Report on 29 September 2026. The report finds that AI is moving from pilots into production.

SOFTSWISS CBDO Olga Resiga argued that compliance should be built into products rather than added afterwards.

What happened

The findings are based on responses from more than 500 industry professionals, 65 interviews with experts, an analysis of almost half a million media headlines and figures from H2 Gambling Capital, iGaming Business reported. BGaming, FinteqHub, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and WorldGaming were among the contributors. Gambling Insider said the fifth annual edition was previewed at an invite-only media event near Lisbon during SBC Summit week.

AI. According to the report, 52% of respondents named AI the leading macrotrend for 2027. The report puts adoption of AI among betting and gaming companies worldwide at 85%, and the industry's AI maturity score at 45 out of 100. Cubeia was cited as an example of a developer that recently replaced its whole back end and front end with code written by Claude. The report advises:

• starting with low-risk use cases;
• keeping production data safeguarded internally;
• instrumenting models rigorously from the outset;
• scaling to agentic AI with human oversight and circuit breakers for critical decisions.

The report also notes reports that, in investigations, chatbots suggested offshore casino brands that hold no licence.

Regulation. According to the report, continuous supervision has now displaced manual audits of compliance. It calls the result a "market-wide compliance layer", which combines automated systems for detection and enforcement, deposit limits that apply across operators, and national registries for identity and self-exclusion.

Tax. The report points to Malta narrowing VAT exemptions for gambling from October 2026 and to an increase in the UK's Remote Gaming Duty to 40% from April.

Payments. Around 82% of players remain faithful to brands whose payments work smoothly, the report claims, while almost seven in 10 leave after repeated failures.

At the Lisbon event, Robin Harrison of WorldGaming referred to what had happened in Brazil. SOFTSWISS CBDO Olga Resiga said market size alone is a poor guide.

Why it matters

On AI, operators moving from pilots to production are likely to need to check data handling, model monitoring and human sign-off for critical decisions, which the report sets out as the sequence to follow. Affiliates and operators could also need to check how AI chatbots describe licensed and unlicensed brands, given the report's reference to chatbots recommending unlicensed offshore casinos.

Operators with exposure to Malta or the UK may need to review the effect of the VAT and Remote Gaming Duty changes the report cites on their operating models. The report says evolving tax rules are disrupting those models.

What's next

Gambling Insider reported that Flutter Entertainment has said it is reviewing its options in Brazil, including a potential appeal.