Arcader

About Arcader

Former Scientific Games veteran Chris Armes was appointed as the new executive VP of Gaming Technologies in early August. Armes is set to take up his new role in the autumn of 2026, leading Veikkaus’ technology organisation from its Helsinki headquarters. 

In July last year, Veikkaus iGaming EVP Jarkko Nordlund told iGB: “The competition will be fierce when the market opens, so we must be very competitive. Our aim is to challenge the mentality of our current position, so we need to secure market leadership.” 

According to its interim report for the first half of 2026, released this week, Veikkaus reported a 1% yearly increase in sales revenue of €471.3 million ($546.8 million).

About Arcader

The report also cites brands targeting a specifically banned vertical or product within a jurisdiction as driving black market activity. While markets across Europe have many examples, one such flagged in the report is that iGaming remains illegal for licensed operators in France.

“The largest black market operators have scaled to create recognisable brands with traffic that can compare to domestically licensed operators,” the report’s authors wrote. “The top group of sites by common owner has a 12% share of traffic, while the largest single brand has 10%.”

Beyond offering crypto payment solutions, a number of black market operators are licensed in “light touch” offshore jurisidictions which use opaque offshore operating structures to help to obscure company ownership and make local enforcement against these companies complex, the report noted.

How to play Arcader

I would be lying if I said it’s going to be easy to accept this transition and to refocus my efforts elsewhere. However, I am eternally grateful for having been given this excellent opportunity and have enjoyed every aspect of being involved in the Calvin Ayre organization. What is coming next may still not be defined, but that’s what is going to make the next chapter exciting; it can bring essentially anything and everything. What I know, regardless of what happens next, is that I will continue to be who I am and will continue to provide the same level of professionalism and integrity that have brought me this far, and which are paramount for everyone involved with Calvin Ayre. I thank everyone at the organization for their undeniable commitment to excellence and thank all of our supporters and readers for allowing us to share with them our experiences and knowledge. 

If anyone wants to reach out to me, I can always be found on LinkedIn.

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