When it comes to compliance, iGaming operators are well-versed in customer due diligence. For the last decade, the focus on customer DD has been relentless. Know your customer has become a key part of operations, with identity and affordability checks becoming an everyday part of compliance.
While customer due diligence has continued to mature, supplier due diligence has been quietly neglected, and for many businesses, it has become a massive blind spot. It is often treated as a box-ticking exercise, a one-off formality completed at onboarding and rarely revisited. However, what is often just seen as a technicality can be a huge regulatory risk, and it’s one that is increasingly becoming a problem across the industry.
An Unseen Risk
For many iGaming companies, suppliers are the unseen mechanics that keep them moving forward. They provide the software, data, marketing solutions, or payment solutions that allow them to function so successfully. The background nature of these relationships can often lead to them becoming something that operators overlook when it comes to regulatory requirements.
If a supplier has not been verified correctly, a business can find itself exposed very quickly. It is no longer enough for a business to assume that a supplier is legitimate because they are well-known, or that they did their due diligence check years ago. In an industry as fast-moving as iGaming, licensing requirements and regulations evolve. What was compliant in 2021 may not meet standards in 2025.
As such, supplier verification needs to become an ongoing process. Regulators are increasingly expecting operators to monitor their partners to ensure they are in good standing. Relying on information gathered a few years ago is a dangerous gamble. One lapse in oversight can be extremely costly, and with regulators, ignorance and oversight are not going to be a very strong defence.
There are many instances where an operator or company has been stung by a compliance failure due to a lapse by one of their partners, resulting in significant financial and reputational impacts.
This is particularly the case with black markets, with the UKGC clamping down on this area, having released clear guidelines to try to shore up the situation and ensure operators know the lay of the land.
How Automation Can Save the Day
So, how does supplier due diligence end up being overlooked, time and time again? One of the biggest challenges is that it is an extremely time-consuming and costly process. Managing large volumes of corporate documents, financial statements, identification, and background checks, and keeping these updated, is no easy task, with large teams required to deal with the sheer volume of paperwork. On top of this, maintaining rigorous standards throughout the process is also a challenge.
Like many other processes right now, though, technology can help overcome many of these challenges. As regulations become more complex and the volume of suppliers increases, automation becomes increasingly essential. Tools like eyeDP, which streamline document review and analysis, can save both time and resources. Using these in tandem with human oversight is particularly effective.
The pressure and volume of the workload can often lead to people making individual mistakes. As many companies have discovered in recent years, these can be incredibly costly.
Allowing technology to lighten this load can be incredibly effective. Advanced identity verification systems and AI-powered document analysis have transformed the speed and accuracy of due diligence. They allow compliance teams to handle high volumes of checks while maintaining consistency and quality.
An Ongoing Process
One thing that is becoming increasingly clear in iGaming is that supplier due diligence can no longer be treated as a mere formality or a background task. With regulators constantly tightening their grip on operator activities, operators should take a proactive approach to due diligence, regularly reviewing their partners.
The message is clear: due diligence doesn’t end once a partnership begins. The companies that are going to succeed are the ones that take accountability for this process and continuously monitor their relationships. Thanks to the rise of AI technology, this process is now becoming much simpler, with humans able to work alongside the tech to ensure that their businesses remain ahead of the game.
