In the KSA Annual Report 2025, published on 20 April 2026, the Dutch regulator provides a comprehensive look at a year that fundamentally altered the local iGaming landscape. The data confirms that the era of rapid expansion has ended, replaced by a phase of stagnation and stabilisation driven by aggressive regulatory intervention.
In the report, titled “Protecting Against Gambling Harm”, the KSA emphasises that its mandate has evolved. The focus is no longer merely on monitoring financial losses but on a broadened view of gambling harm that accounts for damage to mental health, personal relationships, and social well-being.
Key Financials: A Market in Correction
The 2025 data confirms that the Dutch legal gambling market has reached a definitive plateau.
- Market Contraction: The legal gambling market shrank by 18.5% in 2025 compared to the previous year.
- Stabilised GGR: Monthly Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) has levelled off at approximately €100 million.
- The Tax Impact: The KSA noted that the 2025 tax hike (to 34.2%) and the upcoming 2026 hike (to 37.8%) have created a challenging financial environment for licensed providers, potentially impacting the appeal of legal offerings.
Broadening the View: The 2025 Protection Strategy
The KSA’s 2025 focus wasn’t just on operators but on the entire ecosystem. The report highlights that the regulator broadened its view by:
- Interpreting Duty of Care: Moving away from passive monitoring toward identifying bad practices in affordability checks. This was a central theme in the KSA’s updated duty of care guidance.
- Empowering Third Parties: The recent Cruks simplification for administrators is the direct result of the 2025 strategy to involve social and financial professionals in player safety.
- Combatting the Black Market: Despite 91% of players using legal sites, the report warns that the monetary channelisation remains a concern, with 50% of wagers still flowing to unlicensed sites.
Zero Tolerance: Enforcement and Sanctions
The report makes it clear that the KSA’s patience with compliance failures has run out. In 2025, the regulator moved toward a zero-tolerance model.
- Increased Sanctions: The KSA issued significant fines for duty of care lapses. A primary example is the major binding instruction for Unibet issued in early 2026 based on 2025 findings.
- Focus on Young Adults: Players aged 18–24 remain a high-risk demographic, accounting for 22% of all accounts. This concern was previously highlighted in the KSA’s specific research into underage gambling.
- Match-Fixing Trends: In a new development, the report identified a rise in athletes betting on their own competitions, leading to 12 potential match-fixing alerts in 2025.
- Harm Prevention Funding: To combat these trends, the regulator has continued to funnel resources into safety, including new gambling harm prevention funding.
Contextualizing with Global Safety Standards
The KSA’s 2025 results align with the broader industry movement toward responsible growth. As highlighted in our analysis of the ANJ France action plans, European regulators are no longer satisfied with operators simply having tools; they demand that those tools be effective. This sentiment was echoed in the Google Ads Safety Report 2025, which showed a record number of gambling ad removals to protect vulnerable audiences.
What It Means for 2026
For the iGaming B2B sector, the 2025 Annual Report is a roadmap for what to expect for the rest of 2026. As the market enters its first wave of licence renewals in late 2026, the KSA has signalled that a clean track record regarding duty of care will be the most valuable asset an operator can hold.
The report concludes that while the legal market may be smaller, it must be safer. The KSA’s message is clear: if the industry cannot protect its players, the regulator will continue to broaden its powers and intervention until it can.