Hot Star

About Hot Star

Van Bruggen revealed the cabinet was in the process of developing legislation to introduce DNS blocking for illegal sites, with a consultation due for early 2027.

Members flagged the growing issue of illegal gambling sites’ advertising appearing across social media, an issue the sector in Netherlands has sought to tackle directly through legal action against Meta.

Speaking on behalf of the government, Van Bruggen said: “Meta, especially as one of the parties, but also Google, is really open to this conversation.”

How to play Hot Star

For free-to-play, that process can begin before the customer has committed money. “It’s about building muscle memory, providing achievable incentives to players and gamification,” Wilson explains. By lowering the barrier to participation, a free-to-play game can provide an accessible first interaction with an operator, while repeated play builds familiarity and creates a reason to return.

The format, however, cannot simply be copied and pasted from one market to the next. “We’ve found that the more localised the offering, the better,” Wilson says. “We’re talking about building anything from sumo wrestling to Love Island, as well as the headline sports. Ice cage fighting has been a popular one in a certain market for us.”

It is an eclectic list, but that’s kind of the point. Relevance can mean a global sporting event in one market and a far more niche (see ice cage fighting) obsession in another. Splash Tech’s job is to find the experience that fits the audience, rather than expecting the audience to fit the product.

How to play Hot Star

SunBet also utilises Bede Gaming’s platform in its other two markets of South Africa and Botswana, the latter of which it entered in 2024.

At Sun International’s Capital Markets Day, the company also revealed it was assessing expansion opportunities in Zambia, Kenya and Ghana.

The company recently launched a new user interface for SunBet in both South Africa and Botswana, and Bengtsson said there was more to come.