Podcast: Jack Crabtree on fake games and the scale of supplier revenue leakage

The latest episode of the iGaming Business podcast brings in Jack Crabtree, head of sales at GameCheck, to examine the growing threat posed by counterfeit and manipulated slot games. Hosts Robin Harrison and Ed Birkin speak with Crabtree about how the company identifies these games and what their spread means for legitimate suppliers.

GameCheck’s technology is designed to spot fake or altered slots operating on unlicensed and grey market sites. For operators that stick to genuine content, the firm offers the SEAL, an independent authenticity badge. Crabtree notes that adoption of the SEAL has been especially strong in less regulated jurisdictions such as Turkey.

Brazil has emerged as the most significant monitoring hotspot, with more than 6,800 fake games detected in that market alone. Crabtree attributes this to Brazil’s rapid growth, which has created fertile conditions for rogue operators. The business serves both operators and suppliers, though it has recently moved away from a purely revenue-protection model for suppliers toward what Crabtree describes as a more sustainable approach.

Data compiled with H2 Gambling Capital currently counts 8,500 detected fake games worldwide, although Crabtree suspects the true total is considerably higher. The problem is most acute in grey and unregulated markets. Research carried out with BetBlocker produced another notable finding: most sites absent from its blocklist turned out to be running fake games.

Crabtree holds a specific estimate for how much revenue is leaking from the industry as a result, though listeners will have to tune in to hear that number. He also revisits remarks from Evolution’s CEO, who has called game cloning one of the single largest sources of revenue leakage for the company. Each cloned instance effectively reduces RTP to zero because Evolution earns nothing from it.

With studios already squeezed by tightening margins and a crowded content pipeline, the episode asks whether fake games are the next issue the industry cannot afford to ignore. It closes with an unfiltered exchange that nearly didn’t make the edit, including one host’s confession that he prefers Thundercats to He-Man.