MGA 2025 Report: B2B Licences Overtake B2C as Malta’s Gaming Licensing Model Shifts to Supply

Fewer players walked into Malta’s casinos, but each spent more than ever before. Online active accounts fell from 39.7 million to 13.8 million. B2B supply licences overtook B2C for the first time on record. And the Authority transferred €69.23 million to the Government of Malta. The MGA’s 2025 Annual Report reads calm on the surface and tells a very different story underneath.

For most of the past two decades, the Malta Gaming Authority licence carried a single, well-understood value proposition: regulated access to the European market from one trusted jurisdiction. The MGA 2025 Annual Report signals the end of that era, and it does so not with a policy announcement but with a line in a table. For the first time, B2B critical-supply licences outnumber B2C gaming-service licences. Headline output remains strong and the economic contribution continues to climb, yet the structure beneath those figures has shifted decisively, moving Malta from a market-access hub toward a supply-and-infrastructure one. What follows is the complete picture, sector by sector.

The Licence Flip: 171 B2B Against 131 B2C

This is the story that reframes everything else. B2B critical-supply licences reached 171 at year-end while B2C gaming-service licences fell to 131, continuing a steady slide from 155 in 2023, and the total licensed base contracted to 302 companies holding 311 licences. The shift reflects wider changes in European gaming regulation and Malta’s evolving role as a jurisdiction of establishment. As more European countries force operators to hold their own local licences under point-of-consumption rules, a single Maltese B2C licence no longer opens the continent the way it once did. Against that backdrop, Malta’s licensed base has increasingly shifted toward B2B gaming supply, including the platforms and services supporting regulated operators. The report links the sustained growth of B2B licensing to the framework introduced through the 2018 reform and to efforts to improve licensing efficiency and international alignment. Recognition Notices provide another mechanism for maintaining links with internationally licensed activity. Chairperson Ryan C. Pace pointed to exactly this trajectory, noting that Malta’s role as a hub for international B2B gaming businesses continues to strengthen, and that the jurisdiction’s position depends on remaining stable enough to command confidence while staying adaptable enough to stay relevant.

€1.42bn GVA: The Economy Still Leans on Gaming

The headline economics held firm even as the composition shifted, and the core figures make the point cleanly:

• €1,422 million in Gross Value Added, roughly 6.3% of national output and up 3.5% on the year, with spillover pushing total impact to around 8.2%
• ~19,150 people employed directly or indirectly across the sector, about 6.5% of Malta’s workforce
• 15,039 employed within licensed operators, a 4.8% year-on-year rise
• €82.4 million collected in compliance contributions, licence fees, levies and consumption tax

Taken together, these confirm a jurisdiction re-sorting its foundations rather than one in retreat.

39.7m to 13.8m Accounts: The Scary Number That Isn’t

The most alarming line in the report is also the most misleading if read in isolation. Online active player accounts fell from 39.7 million in 2024 to just 13.8 million in 2025, a drop that looks like demand evaporating, but the Malta Gaming Authority attributes it to evolving licensing strategies, regulatory changes across multiple jurisdictions and unusual shifts affecting certain operators or markets rather than a straightforward collapse in demand. Online compliance contributions fell to €38.2 million, with the MGA attributing the gradual decline in recent years to a licensed base containing more B2B authorisations and fewer B2C licences, which carry different contribution structures and rates. The underlying activity mix stayed consistent, with casino games driving 78.9% of online revenue and football alone accounting for 76.9% of betting revenue.

Casinos: Fewer Players, Far Bigger Wallets

Land-based gaming produced the year’s sharpest paradox and one of its better stories. Casino visits fell 4.8% to 846,848 and new registrations dropped, both dented by refurbishment work at two casinos, yet casino gaming revenue rose 17.9% over the year. The explanation is spend: average revenue per visit hit a record €84.0, up a striking 22.4%, meaning fewer people came through the doors but each spent considerably more, while junket play climbed to 2,125 players and lifted that segment to 13.7% of casino revenue. Casino compliance contributions reached €21.6 million across Malta’s four licensed casinos, which together employed 583 staff, and elsewhere in the physical sector commercial bingo rebounded hard with revenue up 97.7% after a closed hall reopened, all overseen through 7,903 inspections.

National Lottery Scales to 309 Outlets

National Lottery plc, operating under concession since July 2022, expanded its network to 309 approved outlets across Malta and Gozo and now runs 746 gaming devices including 391 sports-betting terminals. The operator contributed over €21.5 million in compliance contributions and a further €635,818 to the Social Causes Fund, while growing its workforce to 275 full-time employees, cementing its role as one of the larger single contributors within the land-based base.

Enforcement and AML: Deeper Reviews, a New MFSA Alliance

Regulatory bite stayed firm but became more targeted, and the year’s key actions break down as follows:

• 45 enforcement actions carrying €81,120 in penalties, plus 35 cease-and-desist letters to unauthorised operators
• €162,520 in total administrative fines and settlements imposed on licensees
• 21 AML/CFT examinations initiated and 21 concluded jointly with the FIAU, deliberately broader in scope
• A new Memorandum of Understanding with the MFSA, formalising closer cooperation and information-sharing
• 280 suspicious betting reports feeding 66 investigations worldwide into sports competition manipulation, alongside 1,266 criminal probity assessments and 109 URLs reviewed, 42 carrying fraudulent references to the Authority

The pattern suggests a more targeted, risk-based approach, with regulatory resources increasingly directed toward areas requiring deeper supervisory attention. It maps directly onto the philosophy CEO Charles Mizzi set out for the year, that effective regulation is not about doing more but about doing what matters and doing it well, supported by a risk-based model that directs attention where it carries the greatest regulatory impact.

Player Protection: A New Self-Assessment Tool Lands

Player-facing volumes stayed heavy throughout the year. The Authority received 3,643 requests for assistance and resolved 3,718 including spill-over cases, land-based self-exclusion requests rose 8.3% to 1,831, and online self-exclusion sign-ups approached 940,000 with operator-imposed exclusions exceeding one million, the vast majority indefinite and precautionary. The clearest preventive advance was the launch of an anonymous Self-Assessment Tool built on the Problem Gambling Severity Index, complemented by continued oversight of player funds through 1,757 Monthly Player Funds Reports.

ESG and the Bottom Line: Pay Gap Near Zero, €69m to Government

The ESG disclosures mixed genuine progress with honest gaps, as the gender pay gap closed to -0.58% from 14.15% in 2023, donations rose to 2.40% of operating revenue, and the Authority delivered close to 7,000 training hours while again securing NCPE Equality Mark certification, even as it openly acknowledged the absence of Paris-aligned emissions targets and any cybersecurity certification. Financially the picture was commanding: operating revenue reached €84.28 million against €14.26 million in expenditure, producing a €70.88 million surplus of which €69.23 million was transferred to the Government of Malta, with auditor Grant Thornton issuing a clean opinion on the accounts.

What to Watch Into 2026

The direction of travel is now set and legible. B2B appears positioned to absorb more of the load if B2C licensing continues to contract under point-of-consumption pressure, land-based revenue looks set to lean further on spend-per-visit rather than footfall, and the online contribution mix looks set to tilt deeper toward supply, all while the MGA openly courts a larger role in B2B, adaptive regulatory instruments and international functions. Malta spent 2025 proving a quiet thesis, that a mature jurisdiction can stop growing its licence count and still emerge stronger provided it concentrates on the right thing, and whether that growing B2B concentration ultimately strengthens Malta’s resilience or creates new strategic dependencies is the single question the next few years will answer.

Source : Malta Gaming Authority