Ice Mania

About Ice Mania

Former Scientific Games veteran Chris Armes was appointed as the new executive VP of Gaming Technologies in early August. Armes is set to take up his new role in the autumn of 2026, leading Veikkaus’ technology organisation from its Helsinki headquarters. 

In July last year, Veikkaus iGaming EVP Jarkko Nordlund told iGB: “The competition will be fierce when the market opens, so we must be very competitive. Our aim is to challenge the mentality of our current position, so we need to secure market leadership.” 

According to its interim report for the first half of 2026, released this week, Veikkaus reported a 1% yearly increase in sales revenue of €471.3 million ($546.8 million).

What is Ice Mania?

The $10 trillion forecast also implies significant growth in just five years from what previously stood as some of the most optimistic 2030 projections. In April, Bernstein estimated prediction market volume will ascend to $1 trillion by 2030 while Bank of America said prediction markets will eventually grow to $1.1 trillion in yearly turnover. A July report from Macquarie analyst Chad Beynon included a $1.5 trillion annual volume forecast by 2030.

If Bernstein’s $10 trillion prediction market turnover forecast is realized or exceeded, it’d likely prove significant in revenue terms because the research firm previously estimated that $1 trillion in yearly activity could generate as much as $10.8 billion in revenue for operators.

As has been widely documented, sports event contracts are currently the lifeblood of the prediction market industry, but Bernstein notes that won’t be the case on a permanent basis. In fact, the research firm estimates that sports derivatives’ share of industry volume will decline to 35% in 2035, indicating that the aforementioned volume increase will be led by other categories.

How to play Ice Mania

For Wilson, the bigger point is not who else may follow, but why operators need these tools in the first place. Splash Tech was built to help operators make existing content portfolios work harder, using free-to-play experiences and a supplier-agnostic jackpot engine to drive engagement, retention, cross-sell and lifetime value across casino, sportsbook and third-party content.

Jackpots and free-to-play may be very different propositions, but Wilson judges both against the same unromantic measure: whether they produce value for the operator.

For free-to-play, that process can begin before the customer has committed money. “It’s about building muscle memory, providing achievable incentives to players and gamification,” Wilson explains. By lowering the barrier to participation, a free-to-play game can provide an accessible first interaction with an operator, while repeated play builds familiarity and creates a reason to return.