Beter gains regulatory approval in North Carolina and launches Setka Cup tournaments
Sports wagering provider Beter has secured approval to launch in North Carolina, its sixth US state, enabling it to launch Setka Cup table tennis tournaments in the state.
Beter received approval from North Carolina’s gambling regulator, the North Carolina State Lottery Commission.
Beter Chief Executive Gal Ehrlich said, “In 2026, Beter has ambitious plans for the US market, where we are already seeing high demand for our fast-betting content across all states we have gone live in over the last couple of months.”
Operators in the state will now be able to offer Setka Cup table tennis tournaments on their platforms, and it is already available with Beters’ longstanding partner Bet365.
It is expected to launch with other operators in the future.
Beter Chief Legal Officer Valeriia Tarchynska said, “Securing approval to launch in North Carolina is another testament to our commitment to meeting the standards set in regulated markets across the world, including the US. Beter is now approved in several US states, with many more on our roadmap, including Ohio, Kentucky, Arizona, and others. As demand for 24/7 content grows drastically, we are dedicated to meeting it in as many regulated US states as possible.”
In December, Beter announced it had partnered with sportsbook provider Meridianbet, which holds licenses across Latin America, Europe, and Africa, to integrate its esports and sports content into the sportsbook’s platform.
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The Backstory
A fast-betting foothold in the U.S.
Beter’s regulatory clearance in North Carolina lands at the intersection of two forces shaping U.S. sports wagering: the scramble by content suppliers to fill 24/7 betting windows and the state-by-state grind of licensing approvals. The company’s Setka Cup table tennis format, designed for constant, quick-turn markets, is already live with a major operator and positioned to expand as more sportsbooks in the state integrate the feed. The approval underscores how the U.S. market is rewarding suppliers that can deliver continuous, integrity-monitored events and adapt to local rules without slowing expansion.
North Carolina is the company’s latest stop on a U.S. tour that began earlier this year. The trajectory shows a methodical effort to seed fast-betting content across regulated jurisdictions, then layer in esports and additional sports as regulators become familiar with Beter’s monitoring and data standards. The stakes extend beyond one product launch: with operators chasing higher engagement between tentpole events, inventory that converts during off-peak hours and midweek daytime slots is increasingly prized.
This push also highlights how state approvals compound. Each license can signal to the next regulator that a supplier’s integrity controls and data quality meet expectations, accelerating subsequent reviews. For Beter, the bet is that consistency across compliance, streaming, and pricing will translate into multi-state momentum—and first-mover advantages in categories like table tennis and third-party esports tournaments where incumbency matters.
New Jersey opened the door
Beter’s U.S. debut started in New Jersey, where vendor registration from the Division of Gaming Enforcement allowed the company to roll out real-time data and live streams to licensed operators. The initial authorization centered on the Setka Cup, with matches going live on a top-tier sportsbook’s state site. That early entry was described as a milestone, signaling confidence that the company’s fast-betting model could compete in a market where product velocity and uptime are table stakes. For details, see Beter expands into the US with New Jersey regulatory approval.
New Jersey’s nod mattered beyond its borders. The state is a benchmark for technical, integrity, and reporting standards. Clearing that bar provided proof of concept for Beter’s data operations, stream latency, and anti-corruption controls. It also gave sportsbook partners a regulated setting to test conversion and retention around quick-cycle markets, informing how those operators might prioritize integration work in additional states.
The New Jersey ramp illustrated scale as strategy. Beter highlighted more than 11,000 monthly Setka Cup matches across global arenas and more than 30 betting markets per event, backed by an in-house integrity team. That volume and oversight mix is central to the fast-betting pitch: high-frequency events that are monitored closely enough to pass regulatory scrutiny while generating the sustained liquidity operators want.
Colorado widened the lane for esports
Colorado became Beter’s second U.S. approval, clearing the company via a Vendor Minor License to offer Setka Cup table tennis and, for the first time in the U.S., its ESportsBattle-branded esports tournaments. The debut of esports content in Colorado marked a strategic expansion from a single discipline to a portfolio play aimed at broadening handle and engagement windows. The move built on the New Jersey foundation while diversifying the content slate. For more, see Beter approved as vendor in Colorado.
Colorado is among the country’s more innovation-friendly sports betting environments, and approval there signaled regulatory comfort with Beter’s event integrity, player oversight, and market-making methodologies in esports. With roughly 700,000 annual events across sports and esports, the company’s pitch to operators emphasizes a unified data and trading stack that can support continuous wagering across formats. That positioning is relevant as books calibrate how much shelf space to allocate to third-party esports at a time when official-league content remains uneven.
The Colorado authorization also served as a practical test for cross-sell dynamics: whether bettors drawn to fast table tennis markets would migrate to simulated or virtual-adjacent competitions and vice versa. Early learnings from that cross-pollination likely informed partner roadmaps and gave regulators a view into consumption patterns that can shape future approvals.
Distribution muscle via Meridianbet
While U.S. licenses are the headline, Beter has been bolstering international distribution that can feed back into its credibility with American regulators and operators. A partnership with Meridianbet unlocked reach across 18 licensed jurisdictions in Europe, Africa, and Latin America, including Peru, bringing ESportsBattle and Setka Cup to a diverse set of markets. That deal signaled that demand for fast-betting content is not strictly a U.S. phenomenon. Read more in Beter partners with Meridianbet in Peru and Europe.
Global exposure does more than add volume. It produces data on market behavior, bet mix, and risk patterns that can be recycled into trading models. It also demonstrates operational resilience—stream uptime, officiating consistency, match scheduling—that U.S. regulators scrutinize. As more states consider esports and niche sports approvals, a proven international compliance record can shorten the runway.
For operators, the Meridianbet tie-up underscores a key distribution truth: content suppliers that arrive with both scale and a history of regulated deployments can reduce integration time and perceived risk. That calculus can accelerate go-lives once state approvals land, ensuring suppliers capture momentum rather than waiting through prolonged technical rollouts.
Signals from adjacent markets
Beter’s state-by-state progress is unfolding alongside a broader redefinition of “sports entertainment” under U.S. oversight. Daily fantasy sports operator PrizePicks recently secured National Futures Association approval under a subsidiary to act as a futures commission merchant for prediction markets regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The move—framed as a compliance-forward path into regulated predictions—highlights how adjacent products are navigating federal oversight regimes distinct from state-by-state sports betting. See PrizePicks gains National Futures Association approval.
While Beter’s business is routed through gaming regulators, the PrizePicks development shows investor and operator interest in new, high-frequency formats that monetize fan attention outside traditional game windows. That creates competitive pressure on sportsbooks to broaden menus and on suppliers to deliver content that fits short-session behavior, without compromising integrity.
Beyond the U.S., regulatory debate is intensifying in World Cup host nations. In Mexico, operators and suppliers are urging the government to update a 1947-era law ahead of the 2026 tournament, warning that outdated rules could drive activity to the gray market during a month that typically compresses a year’s worth of betting into weeks. The stakes are laid out in Mexican operators call for regulatory overhaul ahead of FIFA World Cup 26. For U.S.-focused suppliers, that conversation matters because cross-border demand and promotional activity will spike as the event approaches, testing the durability of compliance frameworks and the capacity of content feeds.
What to watch next
North Carolina’s approval fits a pattern: establish credibility in a gold-standard state, expand to a tech-forward jurisdiction open to esports, then add populous or strategically positioned markets. Beter has telegraphed further applications, and its ability to convert those into quick integrations will show whether fast-betting inventory can move the needle on operator KPIs like engagement and hold without raising integrity red flags.
Key indicators will include the breadth of sportsbook adoption beyond early partners, the pace of esports approvals in additional states, and how regulators view supplier-run tournaments compared with league-sanctioned events. With the 2026 World Cup on the horizon and predictions markets testing alternative compliance lanes, suppliers that balance speed with governance are likely to gain ground. North Carolina’s green light suggests that, for now, the U.S. is open to fast-betting formats that can prove they are both always on and above board.
