Gambling is a big business.

Internet gambling startups get a new event

Internet gambling is hot, from esports betting to online gambling. That’s why the industry is getting a new event dubbed the iGaming Entrepreneur Conference.

Michael Caselli, the lead for the conference and founder of iGaming Business magazine, told GamesBeat that the event is geared toward startups and venture capitalists who want to meet each other for investments. The conference takes place on November 9 in London at Dexter House, and it is designed to draw investors and entrepreneurs in the $400 billion gambling business, as well as new offshoots such as the $3.4 billion social-casino game business.

“It’s about anything to do with betting,” Caselli said. “We’ve opening up the definition of igaming (Internet gambling) to include products that land-based casinos can incorporate now to increase their revenue. That ranges from esports to skill-based games to social casino and sports betting.”

In the past, Caselli has staged events for igaming and social gaming in places like New York and London. This new London conference is geared to the companies that want to take profits from the gambling sector and invest it in new digital businesses, some of which are based on gambling and some that aren’t.

The United Kingdom made its laws on Internet gambling more strict in the past year, and that has sparked more interest among mainstream investors, Caselli said. Qualified investors can get into the iGaming Entrepreneur event for free.

“There are a lot of venture capital meetups, but this is the only one for the igaming sector,” Caselli said. “We want to bring together companies and investors that might not otherwise find each other.”

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.