Lava Lock

About Lava Lock

Prediction market operators are on legal losing streaks, confirming that Beynon is onto something when he says the regulatory environment is the biggest risk facing the industry.

“We continue to view regulation as the largest risk to prediction markets,” says the analyst. “While industry growth remains robust, adverse legal outcomes could materially impact sports contract availability and long-term adoption.”

Amid a string of losses in federal appellate courts, it appears increasingly prediction markets are angling to take their cases to the U.S. Supreme Court, banking that the high court will allow them to continue offering sports event contracts free of state gambling regulations.

About Lava Lock

In an April interview with iGB, Sher reflected on the challenges of regulatory uncertainty in Mexico

“Right now we are working based on a framework of laws which you cannot even call regulation, from 1947,” Sher said. “So it’s very hard to work long-term and to give long-term commitments. While the future is unclear in terms of regulation, we saw what happened in other countries in LatAm when they changed the regulation every other month.

“In Mexico, I think we are stable, we know how to deal with this market. Of course, we will be very happy if in the future, a proper regulatory framework will be introduced and not the way that we are working right now.”  

What is Lava Lock?

The win completely changed his relationship with gambling. In Madsen’s words: “That jackpot was really the beginning of my gambling addiction.”  It was an addiction that was propelled by a constant exposure to illegal sites, he explains.

The cycle eventually became extreme.

“At one point, I had only a few thousand euros left to gamble with, but then I won €180,000 in a single day. The next day I lost it all again,” he says.