Yolo Group has undertaken a major shift for its business that will now focus entirely on operating in regulated markets.

Tim Heath, Founder of Yolo Group and General Partner of the venture fund of Yolo Investments, explained via a post on Substack that the firm no longer sees grey market activity as sustainable.

“In other words, you cannot be white and grey; you have to pick a side,” he said, citing the widespread growth of the regulated white industry, but also the apprehension manny regulators in these markets have towards companies which try to operate in both.

Yolo Group has built itself up as a major player in crypto gaming via Sportsbet.io and Bitcasino.io pioneering brands in crypto gaming. The firm believes that now is the time to take its product-type live in more regulated markets, starting with ones it is already active in.

“Crypto is no longer niche,” Heath explained. “Regulators and financial institutions are finally recognising the transformative role it plays. Players everywhere expect speed, accessibility and inclusion as standard. What was once radical is now becoming mainstream.”

This process will see Sportsbet.io and Bitcasino.io merge under the new unified brand of Yolo.com. Th will function as a ‘single regulated brand’ suggesting a potential winding down of the individual Curaçao licences of Sportsbet.io and BitCasino.io in the future.

In its home market of Estonia, Yolo will maintain its Tallinn Bombay Casino, but has informed local media of structural changes to scale-down the headcount of its operations.

“This provides a clear narrative and sharper focus in licensed, regulated markets — where we firmly believe the future of gaming lies,” the Founder added. “We have spent the past three years monitoring and preparing for the potential of this strategic shift.”

Yolo will then target market launches for its new regulated-only brand in Canada, Sweden and Finland – the latter of which is expected to launch a new regulated market in 2027, with broad political support.

MiCA provides a new dawn in Europe

The regulation that has got all crypto stakeholders talking in Europe right now is Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), adopted by the EU parliament in April 2023 and applied in December 2024.

MiCA has created a unified framework for blockchain, digital ledger technology (DLT) and cryptocurrencies across the EU. It got a lot of attention from crypto exchanges and other stakeholders, understandably, during its initial development and adoption, but has also clearly been getting attention from gaming.

At the SBC Summit in Lisbon last week, Jesper Svensson, CEO of Betsson Group, noted the rise of crypto casinos driven by consumer demand. He and others are confident that gaming regulators will catch up within the dynamics of the MiCA framework.

“We are seeing regulation happening now, we have the MICA regulation in Europe for crypto,” he said. “it’s not standing still, and this gives some opportunities for companies, like our company, to tap into these areas.”

Yolo Group too is confident in MiCA. Tim Heath explained that the group’s target is MiCA complaint markets, seemingly viewing these as the best places to experiment with a regulated crypto betting platform.

“The next stage will connect land-based excellence with digital innovation: from seamless wallet experiences across physical and online play, to MiCA-compliant cryptocurrency payments in regulated land-based and online casinos.”

Yolo closing in on UAE

Another notable target market for Yolo is the UAE. This is nothing new, with the company having had its eyes on the emerging Middle Eastern market for some time, at least since summer 2024 from what senior executives at the firm have told SBC.

The UAE is emerging as a regulated gaming market in a region where gambling is generally heavily clamped down on for religious and cultural reasons. The country established the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) in 2023, followed by the UAE Lottery in 2024.

According to Heath, Yolo Group is now close to securing its UAE ambitions, though these ambitions will be B2B and not B2C – therefore we cannot expect a Yolo.com, Sportsbet.io or BitCasino.com launch in the tightly controlled UAE market any time soon, if ever.

“We are in the final stages of being awarded two GCGRA B2B Vendor licenses,” Heath said.

This may be part of a more long-term play for Yolo Group, with various industry observers believing that the UAE is positioning itself to become a regional hub for the gaming industry in the Middle East and Asia, similar to Malta and Gibraltar in Europe.

The country’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist earlier this year has helped solidify regulatory certainty, while it has also been engaged in an extensive campaign against illegal operators.

Kevin Mullally, CEO at GCGRA, told attendees at the SBC Summit last week that the regulator has shut down 6,000 illegal betting sites targeting the country so far, asserting that the “UAE is going to redefine what gaming means for the rest of the world.”