Yolo Group secures two UAE gaming vendor licences
Yolo Group subsidiaries Hub88 Holdings and Live Online Gaming Services have been granted gaming-related vendor licenses from the United Arab Emirates’ General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority.
Online Gaming Services’ Live88 will be the first online live casino studio to be licensed in the UAE.
The news comes just over two weeks after Yolo Group confirmed plans to close its gray market online gambling brands, Sportsbet.io and Bitcasino.io, as it entered the final stages of securing the two UAE vendor licenses.
The licenses permit the group to supply business-to-business igaming content to the regulated market in the country. UAE is the first regulated jurisdiction in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, which Yolo Group has identified as a key target for its future strategy and expansion.
The licensing milestone aligns with Yolo Group’s pivot to service exclusively licensed, regulated jurisdictions.
Yolo Group Founder Tim Heath said, “Obtaining these licenses in the UAE is more than a regulatory achievement, it is a statement of intent. Yolo Group is committed to building the future of gaming on trust, transparency, and world-class innovation. The UAE is setting the stage for what modern, regulated gaming should look like, and we are proud to be part of that journey”.
The UAE introduced its initial legal gaming framework in August last year. The General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority, established by Federal Law through a Decree and based in Abu Dhabi, controls all commercial gaming activities in the UAE.
Yolo Group said in a statement that it would continue to “harness technology to reimagine the future of gaming”. The group built much of its multibillion-dollar success in unregulated markets, pioneering development in the crypto space.
Alongside developing one-wallet technology to be used across its online and land-based platforms, the group plans to introduce crypto payments in its land-based casino, Bombay Club, in Tallinn, Estonia.
The crypto payments will be compliant with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA. The business’s development and testing will remain in Estonia before the group scales across the Gulf Cooperation Council region.
The UAE General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
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The Backstory
Why this pivot matters now
Yolo Group’s vendor approvals in the United Arab Emirates cap a fast, public shift from crypto-fueled gray markets to regulated B2B distribution — a strategy the company telegraphed weeks earlier when it said it would shutter long-running consumer brands Sportsbet.io and Bitcasino.io. In announcing that move, Yolo framed the trade-off bluntly: regulators in markets it wants to enter will not tolerate a split identity. The company said it will consolidate around a single regulated brand at Yolo.com and run it off its licensed Bombay Casino in Tallinn to create a “seamless digital arm.” That rationale set expectations for a UAE landing and clarified why job cuts would follow across the B2C unit, Yolo Entertainment. The UAE approvals for subsidiaries Hub88 Holdings and Live Online Gaming Services, which will launch the first licensed online live casino studio in the country, give the pivot an early proof point and an anchor in a region Yolo has identified as a core growth target.
In its own coverage, Complete iGaming reported that Yolo Group secured two UAE gaming vendor licenses as the country builds out its new regulatory architecture. The UAE’s General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority, created by federal decree and based in Abu Dhabi, is responsible for all commercial gaming. Yolo’s licenses allow it to supply B2B igaming content into a market in formation, where the GCGRA has signaled it wants global standards for integrity, technology and responsible practices. Founder Tim Heath cast the approvals as a strategic statement: Yolo wants to align with jurisdictions setting clear rules and is positioning trust and transparency as core to its next chapter.
The pivot is not just about geography; it also reorders Yolo’s product roadmap. The company plans to introduce MiCA-compliant crypto payments at its Tallinn casino, develop a one-wallet system spanning online and land-based play, and scale those features across Gulf markets once proved in Estonia. The sequencing underscores a change in risk appetite. Rather than building in the gray and exporting later, Yolo is building to the spec of regulators it views as gateways to long-term scale.
The turning point: closing legacy brands
Yolo’s decision to shut its flagship crypto casinos was the hinge. In late September, the company said it was in the final stages of UAE licensing and would exit unregulated operations that had driven much of its growth. Complete iGaming detailed the move in coverage of Yolo closing gray market brands to pursue UAE licenses, noting the job impacts and the plan to unify under Yolo.com. Heath’s Substack post, which laid out the choice in stark terms, is available here: Yolo Group: The Next Chapter. Industry analysts called the decision a watershed for crypto gambling, where operators have long straddled regulated and unregulated segments. Eilers & Krejcik’s Alun Bowden labeled it a “seismic shift” in a LinkedIn post reacting to the announcement.
The internal logic is straightforward. If top-tier regulators see gray market exposure as incompatible with local approvals, operators that want distribution in those markets must pick a lane. Yolo’s bet is that the next decade in gaming will be written by firms that pass regulators’ smell tests on compliance culture, payments transparency and player protections, then turn that footing into product advantage. The UAE’s willingness to craft a centralized, tech-forward regime — and its collaboration with U.S. enforcement experts — made it a natural place for Yolo to make that stand.
A new regulator flexes, and peers line up
Yolo is not alone in reading the UAE as a cornerstone market. Scientific Games said it was licensed by the GCGRA to supply lottery products, highlighting the country’s remit over lottery, internet gaming, sports wagering and land-based facilities. That development, detailed in Scientific Games’ UAE vendor license, signals interest from legacy suppliers with deep compliance pedigrees. Finnish supplier Fennica Gaming followed with its own approval to provide games as a service in the country’s regulated framework, described in Fennica Gaming granted UAE license. The early mix of lottery infrastructure and digital content firms suggests the GCGRA is building a balanced vendor slate to support multiple verticals as operators are licensed.
The authority’s structure is a key part of the appeal. Established in 2023, it is tasked with “world-class” operations and “efficient regulation,” and it signed a memorandum with New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement. That partnership imports decades of U.S. regulatory practice and investigations muscle, a signal that the UAE intends to police licensing and ongoing conduct with rigor. For suppliers, that increases initial compliance costs but offers predictability and potential regional spillover as other Gulf states watch and borrow frameworks.
Global signals: carrot and stick for compliance
The UAE’s buildout aligns with a wider pattern: regulators are tightening standards while channeling innovation through licensed pathways. In North America, smaller B2B studios are clearing state hurdles to access growth markets rather than skirting them. Edinburgh-based Incentive Games framed its provisional Michigan gaming license as a proof of controls and a wedge into new partnerships for real-money games. That posture mirrors Yolo’s rebrand toward regulated channels, though on a different scale.
Conversely, Asia is offering warnings about what happens when compliance breaks. In the Philippines, Evolution’s local partner One Visaya Gaming lost a license over know-your-customer lapses, knocking the supplier’s shares and forcing closure of the partner’s consumer site. Complete iGaming covered the ripple effects in Evolution shares fall after Philippine partner loses license. PAGCOR allowed the studio’s separate venue license to stand, but the episode underscores a core theme of 2024 and 2025: KYC and AML controls are table stakes, and failure contaminates both B2C and B2B economics. For UAE-focused vendors, that is a cautionary tale in a jurisdiction that has explicitly prioritized integrity and enforcement links.
The stakes for Yolo and the market
For Yolo, the near-term stakes are executional. It must stand up the Live88 studio under UAE oversight, scale a compliant B2B pipeline through Hub88, and deliver on payments and wallet innovations that satisfy MiCA in Europe and anticipate Gulf regulators’ crypto views. The company has said development and testing will remain in Estonia before expansion across the GCC, a sequencing that should shorten feedback loops while regulators iterate rules. The endgame is a cleaner balance sheet of licenses, higher-quality revenue and a moat around payment flexibility in regulated settings.
For the UAE, each vendor approval is a building block. Scientific Games’ lottery systems, Fennica’s content, and Yolo’s live and aggregation capabilities fill out an ecosystem that can support operators when the market opens more fully. The GCGRA’s early moves — asserting federal control, tying up with New Jersey, and granting diverse vendor licenses — suggest a playbook that could make the country a regional hub. If that happens, first movers with approvals and infrastructure in place will have leverage.
The broader industry is watching for a demonstration effect. If the UAE’s framework proves workable and commercially attractive, suppliers still straddling gray markets will face sharper incentives to choose compliance-first models. Yolo’s retreat from legacy brands, and the speed with which it converted that choice into licenses, offers a blueprint. The flipside is clear too: regulators from Manila to Michigan are tightening screws, and missteps carry market and market-cap costs. In that environment, the calculus behind Yolo’s pivot looks less like a gamble and more like a bet on where the center of gravity in global gaming is moving.
