{"id":16036,"date":"2026-01-13T13:07:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=16036"},"modified":"2026-04-19T10:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T13:06:23","slug":"african-igaming-alliance-gears-up-for-ice-barcelona-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/african-igaming-alliance-gears-up-for-ice-barcelona-2026","title":{"rendered":"African iGaming Alliance gears up for ICE Barcelona 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Peter Kesitilwe, CEO of AiA, said the Alliance’s participation in ICE Barcelona signifies Africa’s transition from policy-taker to policy-shaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Botswana.- The African iGaming Alliance (AiA)<\/strong> is poised to leverage the expertise from the upcoming International Casino Exhibition (ICE)<\/strong> to drive growth in the African gambling market. According to the organisation, ICE’s forum will provide valuable insights from established markets, which can inform Africa’s ongoing regulatory development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 edition of ICE is set to take place from January 19-21 <\/strong>at Fira Barcelona Gran Via <\/strong>in Barcelona, Spain<\/strong>. The event, organised by Clarion Gaming<\/strong>, stands as the world’s leading B2B trade show for the gaming and betting industry, drawing operators, suppliers, regulators, technology providers and professionals for business development, product showcases, networking and policy discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year’s World Gaming Forum roundtable <\/strong>will centre on the theme “Controlling the Cost of Compliance”<\/strong>. <\/strong>This session will explore how poorly aligned regulatory and tax frameworks can undermine consumer protection, create market imbalances and encourage players to seek out unregulated offshore options. Insights from established markets are expected to offer guidance for regions still developing their frameworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AiA, a pan-African organisation representing online betting and gaming operators in more than 20 jurisdictions<\/strong>, will take an active part in this discussion. Peter Kesitilwe<\/strong>, CEO of AiA, said that AiA’s participation in ICE Barcelona signifies Africa’s transition from policy-taker to policy-shaper. The move enables the sharing of emerging-market insights while collaborating globally on integrity, protection and economic balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kesitilwe added: \u201cFor African markets, the lesson is clear: compliance must be effective, proportionate and sustainable. Over-regulation or poorly designed tax regimes risk entrenching illegal operators and weakening state revenues, a challenge Africa is actively trying to avoid as it formalises and expands regulated online gaming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Kesitilwe has recently been appointed<\/a> to Clarion Gaming’s Regulatory Advisory Board<\/strong>, joining other senior regulators, policymakers and experts to facilitate discussions on regulatory issues in the gaming industry.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> African iGaming Alliance becomes BiG Africa Summit 2026 supporting partner<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Kesitilwe, CEO of AiA, said the Alliance’s participation in ICE Barcelona signifies Africa’s transition from policy-taker to policy-shaper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":11337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The African iGaming Alliance (AiA) will participate in ICE Barcelona 2026, aiming to leverage insights from established markets to inform Africa's evolving regulatory frameworks and drive market growth. AiA CEO Peter Kesitilwe emphasized Africa's shift from policy-taker to policy-shaper, advocating for effective, proportionate, and sustainable compliance to formalize and expand regulated online gaming across over 20 African jurisdictions. Kesitilwe's appointment to Clarion Gaming's Regulatory Advisory Board further underscores this strategic engagement.","focusai_entities":"Peter Kesitilwe, African iGaming Alliance (AiA), Clarion Gaming, ICE (International Casino Exhibition), World Gaming Forum, BiG Africa Summit","focusai_location":"Botswana, Barcelona, Spain, Africa","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Africa's Regulatory Influence","query":"What specific policy recommendations or governance frameworks is the African iGaming Alliance proposing to transition Africa from a \"policy-taker\" to a \"policy-shaper\" in global iGaming?"},{"label":"Compliance Cost Impact","query":"How do current or proposed regulatory and tax frameworks in key African jurisdictions contribute to or mitigate the \"Cost of Compliance,\" and what are the quantifiable impacts on market formalization and state revenue generation?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60014,60021],"tags":[6261],"class_list":["post-16036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-igaming-news","tag-clarion-gaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16036"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16047,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16036\/revisions\/16047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}