Journey To The West

What is Journey To The West?

Kemorwale said Botswana needed to modernise oversight as the sector developed, including through a central electronic monitoring system and stronger enforcement capability. “Truth be told, this industry is evolving as the sun rises. You snooze, you lose,” Kemorwale said. He added that the Authority still relies on outside specialists for some technical regulatory work because domestic expertise is limited.

Illegal betting remained a central enforcement concern. In December 2025, the Gambling Authority and Financial Intelligence Agency were reported to be investigating eight foreign-based betting websites allegedly using local proxies to operate in Botswana.

Authorities were also reported to be working with communications and financial-sector bodies to restrict access to illegal platforms and disrupt associated payment channels.

About Journey To The West

Just like in the gambling industry, there are plenty of conferences and events revolving around Bitcoin SV, although they’re slightly tamer ;-).

CoinGeek Conferences – These are Calvin Ayre events, you can be sure to receive maximum information with minimal marketing pitches and a wee bit-o-fun thrown in. All of the conferences are recorded so you can watch all or just the topics that interest you. Here are a few conference videos that would be of interest to the gambling industry broken down by topic: iGaming, eSports, Marketing Technology, and Supply Chain Management. 

Bitcoin SV Webinars – The Bitcoin Association holds regular webinars of varied levels of information on topics of varied interests. They have primarily focused on building new solutions and offer those in attendance a good window into a few of the things that are possible.

What is Journey To The West?

This selection reflects a mix of both local and internationally-based operators. The list reflects operators that were previously active in the market, meaning so far no new operators have received an approval to operate.

Both LiveScore and Tombola, who were a part of the original 10 operators to receive a licence, exited the market in 2024. 

Compared to the 2021 licensing round, the KSA adopted a more granular and stringent approach to its licence renewal process. This was expected following new policy rules set out by the regulator in September 2025.