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About Baba Yaga
That management also involves balancing margin and longevity. Wilson notes that Jackpot engines need to balance commercial performance with a sustainable and enjoyable player experience. Operators need enough control to manage contribution levels, drop mechanics and reward frequency, while ensuring the product remains engaging and fair for players over time.
“How do you balance that against not draining too much of the players’ funds and making sure that it has the stickiness, and that we’re not pushing players away, but encouraging them to come back?” he asks. “That really is the science.”
For Splash Tech, optimisation means protecting a safe and enjoyable experience while giving operators the opportunity to increase gross gaming revenue. “Getting that balance right is why we exist, really,” Wilson says.
What is Baba Yaga?
Sentencing for Lee, Lee and Hind is set for 23 October 2026 at Southwark Crown Court. Williams will be sentenced at a later date. The Gambling Commission has said trials for the remaining ten defendants will take place in September 2027 and January 2028.
The Commission launched its investigation into various reports of insider betting on the election date in June 2024 after Ladbrokes flagged a bet placed by Williams, who was recorded as a politically exposed person.
Further bets flagged by operators involved other politically sensitive individuals, including Metropolitan Police officers and political advisers. The Commission charged 15 people total in April 2025. Four have now pleaded guilty.
How to play Baba Yaga
Five years from now, Curwen expects the development landscape – and the studios operating within it – to look markedly different.
“I don’t think the successful studio of the future necessarily has hundreds of people,” he says. “It could be a relatively small group of extremely talented people with great ideas, strong brands and a very good understanding of players, supported by technology that does much of the heavy lifting.”
That would also shift the basis on which studios compete. If sophisticated development capabilities become accessible to a wider range of creators, scale alone becomes less of an advantage.