15 Samurai

How to play 15 Samurai

I’d like to thank our leader, Calvin Ayre, for giving me an opportunity to write about the gambling industry, but also for creating a platform that spoke to a different side of the industry, and wasn’t afraid to reveal uncomfortable truths when necessary. I’m excited to see what comes next in his campaign to wake the world up to the power of Bitcoin SV.

Bill Beatty, our Editor-in-Chief, was my guiding light. I learned to think of journalism, the gambling industry, and even life, in whole new ways thanks to him, and I’ll always count on him as one of my mentors.

But I couldn’t have accomplished half of what I did without all of my colleagues, past and present. Our talented team of writers, editors, web site development guys, production team, on screen reporters, Human Resources, Accountants, everyone. It took the whole team to make sure we put up the latest news and opinions every day, and everyone deserves their fair share of the credit.

What is 15 Samurai?

Data from the Rede em Jogo project, by CondadoLab at PUC-Rio, revealed that 84% of the betting operators most recommended on Instagram are illegal in Brazil.

The research, published by The Intercept Brasil on Monday, analysed more than 55,000 Instagram accounts and cross-referenced the results with the official list of authorised operators from the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA).

According to the survey, the problem arises when a user follows a single account related to betting. The platform’s recommendation system then starts showing other profiles in the same segment, including betting sites, influencers and specialised pages.

How to play 15 Samurai

Sunbet Botswana launched its online sports-betting platform in February 2025 and reported a 4,700% increase in sign-ups during its first month. As this was an operator-reported figure, the company did not publicly disclose the comparison baseline or absolute number of registrations.

The Authority said licensed operators accepted P150 million in wagers in March 2025, paid P135 million in winnings and generated P15 million in gross gambling revenue. It also estimated that only about 40% of Botswana’s estimated 550,000 active bettors were using licensed local operators, leaving a substantial share of demand with unregulated platforms.

By December 2025, Kemorwale said gambling revenue had exceeded P700m, and the Authority expected the industry to surpass P1 billion by the end of the 2026/27 financial year in March 2027.