Top iGaming Licensing Consultants 2026: 10 Firms Compared

The short answer: the best iGaming licensing consultants in 2026 are WH Partners and CSB Group for Malta-led launches, IGA Group for the widest spread of jurisdictions and Harris Hagan for UK Gambling Commission applications. Dickinson Wright fits Ontario, Fast Offshore and LegalBison fit offshore licences such as Anjouan and Curaçao, and Global Gaming Solutions, Mattos Filho and 4H Agency each fit a narrower need.

A licensing consultant can save you months on an iGaming licence, or cost you the licence entirely. The good ones know the regulator’s process, file a complete application the first time and set up the company, bank accounts and compliance roles a regulator expects. The bad ones still sell Curaçao sub-licences that stopped existing in 2025, promise timelines the regulator does not offer and bury their fees inside the “licence cost”.

This guide compares ten firms, explains what a licensing consultant actually does, sets out regulator fees and timelines for eight jurisdictions in 2026 and gives you a checklist for spotting consultants to avoid. If you are still deciding where to license, start with our MGA licence guide and Curaçao licence guide. If you need a gambling lawyer for disputes, contracts or enforcement rather than a licence application, see our separate comparison of iGaming law firms.

Everything here comes from regulator fee schedules and notices, legal rankings (Chambers and Partners and Legal 500), firm websites and trade press, labelled where used. None of the firms paid to be included. None of them publishes real prices, which is itself a finding.

Top iGaming licensing consultants 2026 at a glance

Feature matrix: what each firm documents publicly

“Yes” means the firm documents the service or jurisdiction. “Partial” means limited or indirect. “Not stated” means we found no public documentation, which does not prove it is missing.

What does an iGaming licensing consultant do?

An iGaming licensing consultant gets your business through a regulator’s application process and keeps it compliant afterwards. In practice the work covers six jobs:

• Jurisdiction choice: matching the licence to the markets you want to reach, your budget and what your payment providers will accept.
• Corporate setup: forming the licensed company, registered office, local directors and the “substance” some regulators require.
• The application pack: business plan, ownership and source-of-funds evidence, AML/CFT and responsible gambling policies, terms and conditions, and technical documentation for the platform.
• Personal due diligence: fit-and-proper checks on shareholders, directors and key staff.
• Regulator liaison: answering the regulator’s questions through each review round until a decision.
• Post-licence compliance: Key Function holders, MLRO roles, regulatory reporting, audits and renewals.

Licensing consultant, corporate services provider or law firm?

The firms on this list fall into three types. Most operators use two of them together.

Who needs a gambling licence?

Any business offering real-money gambling to customers in a regulated market needs a licence from that market’s regulator. Many regulators also license B2B suppliers: Great Britain requires a gambling software licence for suppliers of gaming software, Malta issues B2B licences for critical gaming supply, and Curaçao has a separate B2B licence. Affiliates do not need a licence in Great Britain, but several US states require them to register or be licensed as vendors. A consultant should tell you, in writing, which licences your business model triggers in each target market.

How much does an iGaming licensing consultant cost in 2026?

None of the ten firms publishes its fees, so you cannot compare adviser prices directly. What you can do is split any quote into what the regulator charges and what the adviser charges, because only the regulator’s part is fixed. The table below uses regulator figures from primary or near-primary sources and labels every all-in estimate as a third-party figure. For a wider fee breakdown across 15 jurisdictions, see our guide to how much a gambling licence costs.

All-in estimates come from a July 2026 comparison by Track360, which is a software vendor and contradicts itself in places. Treat them as order-of-magnitude figures only.

Worked example: what you are really paying the adviser

Take a Curaçao B2C licence. The regulator’s first-year cost is €52,042 (€4,592 application plus €47,450 annual fee, plus small due diligence and domain fees not counted here). If an adviser quotes €60,000 all-in, the adviser’s share is about €8,000 plus whatever company formation, local director and bank introduction costs are included. If the same adviser quotes €90,000, ask what the extra €38,000 buys: substance services, a resident director for a year, AML policies, or simply margin.

Ask every shortlisted firm for an itemised quote with three lines: regulator fees, third-party costs (company formation, registered office, audits) and the adviser’s own fee. Firms that refuse to split them are hard to compare and harder to hold to account.

How this list was built

We started from the firms in the live Google results for “igaming licensing consultants” and “gambling license consultant” in the US and UK, plus firms ranked for gaming in Chambers and Partners. Those results mix in testing labs, general iGaming strategy consultancies and auto-generated company databases, and one popular consultant page still quotes pre-2024 Curaçao fees. We included only firms that advise on licences (not testing labs or software vendors), then graded each on five weighted criteria:

• Jurisdiction coverage (25%): licences the firm documents.
• Credentials (25%): Chambers or Legal 500 rankings, named senior people, regulator or operator background.
• Service breadth (20%): company formation, banking, Key Function and MLRO roles, ongoing compliance.
• Client evidence (20%): named clients, legal rankings and published case work.
• Pricing transparency (10%): published fees or timelines.

Grades are Strong (3), Documented (2) or Limited (1), weighted to a maximum score of 3.00.

How the ranking was decided

WH Partners and CSB Group tie. WH Partners ranks first on legal credentials; CSB Group is the better choice if you want one firm to handle licensing, company administration and outsourced Key Function roles.

The 10 best iGaming licensing consultants reviewed

1. WH Partners

WH Partners is a Malta law firm with offices in Ta’ Xbiex, Valletta, Rome, Bucharest, Warsaw, Katowice and Dubai. It grew out of WH Law, founded in 2006 by Olga Finkel, and became WH Partners in 2012.

• Best for: operators that want senior gaming lawyers on an MGA application and EU market entry.
• Credentials: Chambers Global 2026 ranks Olga Finkel and James Scicluna in Band 1 for Gaming and Gambling (Chambers).
• Services: licensing, corporate, tax, AML/CFT and regulatory advice.
• What clients say: its Chambers rankings rest on client interviews; named client lists are not published.
• Watch for: offshore licences such as Curaçao are not promoted on its site. Ask if you need them.

2. CSB Group

CSB Group, based in Swatar, Malta, is a corporate and advisory group with a dedicated iGaming practice.

• Best for: operators that want licensing, company formation, bank introductions and outsourced Key Function roles from one provider.
• Jurisdictions: Malta, UK, Isle of Man, Ontario, Curaçao, Anjouan and other EU markets.
• Services: MGA applications, company setup, Key Function holders, AML and compliance support.
• What clients say: its site carries a testimonial from GameArt (vendor-published). Michael J. Zammit of CSB Group received a “Hall of Game” industry award in 2025.
• Watch for: no fees or timelines are published. Ask for an itemised quote.

3. IGA Group

IGA Group (iGaming Advisors) has offices in Malta, Curaçao, Cyprus and Italy, and lists licensing work in 15 jurisdictions.

• Best for: operators planning several licences, for example Malta plus Sweden, Germany or Denmark, alongside an offshore licence.
• Jurisdictions: Malta, Curaçao, UK, Canada, Isle of Man, Kahnawake, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Romania, Estonia, Tuvalu and Nevis.
• Services: corporate, tax, accounting, banking and payments introductions, MLRO support and external AML audits.
• People: led by managing director Mario Fiorini, with a named head of licensing.
• What clients say: no named clients or independent reviews are published.
• Watch for: breadth is its strength; check the depth of experience in your specific target market.

4. Harris Hagan

Harris Hagan, founded in 2004 by Julian Harris and John Hagan, is a London law firm that works only on gambling.

• Best for: UKGC licence applications, reviews and enforcement. Our UKGC licence guide covers the requirements you will prepare with them.
• Credentials: Chambers UK 2026 Band 1 for Gaming, with four ranked lawyers (Chambers), and top tier in Legal 500.
• What clients say: its Chambers and Legal 500 rankings reflect client feedback; client names are confidential.
• Watch for: it does not sell offshore licence packages. Expect UK law firm hourly rates.

5. Dickinson Wright

Dickinson Wright is a North American law firm whose Toronto gaming team is led by Michael Lipton, a founding member and past president of the International Masters of Gaming Law.

• Best for: operators and suppliers entering Ontario or US states.
• Credentials: Lipton has been listed in Best Lawyers since 2008, according to his firm biography.
• What clients say: no named iGaming clients are published.
• Watch for: confirm recent AGCO registration work. Bennett Jones and Gowling WLG are alternatives with public Ontario iGaming guidance.

6. Fast Offshore

Fast Offshore, a trading name of Vanthorpe Advisors, has offered offshore company and licensing services since 1998.

• Best for: operators that want an offshore licence, company and bank accounts arranged together.
• Jurisdictions: Anjouan, Nevis, Kahnawake, Curaçao, Malta, Costa Rica and the Isle of Man.
• Track record: claims 2,500+ licences (self-reported). It has written that Anjouan applications can be processed in “a few business days” when the file is complete (Yogonet, Jan 2026).
• What clients say: no independent reviews were found.
• Watch for: no street address on its site and no published prices. Offshore licences such as Anjouan carry market-access limits; see our analysis of offshore betting legality.

7. Global Gaming Solutions

Global Gaming Solutions, based at the Isle of Man Business Park, was set up around 2023 by Mark O’Neill, who spent more than a decade working for operators. In 2025 its team launched a separate service, iGaming Licensing, for Anjouan, Nevis and Tobique licences (iGamingToday).

• Best for: operators wanting an Isle of Man base or a lower-cost offshore licence.
• What clients say: no named clients or prices are published.
• Watch for: a young firm; ask for references from completed licences.

8. LegalBison

LegalBison, a corporate services brand based in Warsaw, is one of the few firms that publishes its expected timelines.

• Best for: operators comparing offshore options before engaging.
• Published timelines: Curaçao from 5 months, Malta from 9 months, Anjouan from 2 months and Nevis from 1 month. Prices are on request.
• Jurisdictions: Curaçao, Malta, Anjouan, Isle of Man, Costa Rica, Nevis and Vanuatu.
• What clients say: no independent reviews were found.
• Watch for: its named staff are consulting managers rather than lawyers. Use a law firm for contested or complex applications.

9. Mattos Filho

Mattos Filho is a leading São Paulo law firm whose entertainment practice publishes regularly on Brazil’s betting framework.

• Best for: operators and suppliers with Brazilian exposure that need advice on the September 2026 ban and what comes next.
• What clients say: client names are not published.
• Watch for: Provisional Measure 1.394 banned fixed-odds betting with immediate effect, and licensed sites began going offline on 6 October 2026. The measure lapses unless Congress approves it, and industry groups have challenged it at the Supreme Court (STF). The work now is wind-down, contracts and monitoring Congress and the STF, not new authorisations. Machado Meyer and Pinheiro Neto are alternatives.

10. 4H Agency

4H Agency, founded in 2020 and led by CEO Ilya Machavariani, offers licensing and payments consulting with a focus on emerging European markets.

• Best for: operators targeting markets such as Ukraine or Romania.
• What clients say: “70+ clients” (self-claim); case titles mention Ukrainian and Romanian licences.
• Watch for: no jurisdiction list or prices are published.

Firms we considered and left out

• Amber Gaming (Isle of Man): surfaces in search results for licensing queries, but its website domain showed a parked page when we checked. Confirm the firm is active before engaging.
• EM Group (Curaçao): a large incumbent that faced whistleblower allegations in June 2025, which it denies (Curaçao Chronicle). No regulator action has been reported.
• Testing labs such as GLI and BMM: essential for certification, but not licensing advisers.
• General iGaming consultancies such as Spectrum Gaming Group and SCCG Management: strong on market research and strategy, but licence applications are not their core service.

2026 rule changes your consultant should already know

Our regulation news roundup tracks these changes month by month.

How to vet a licensing consultant

1. Check licences in the regulator’s own register. In February 2026 the Curaçao regulator warned about a site displaying a fake CGA seal. Never rely on a seal image.
2. Compare promised timelines with the regulator’s process. A consultant promising Curaçao in two or three weeks is ignoring the CGA’s review process, which runs in two phases of about eight weeks each. Published timelines also vary widely between advisers, so ask what assumptions sit behind each one.
3. Reject outdated pricing. Quotes for a “Curaçao sub-licence” or a €1,500 annual fee describe a system that no longer exists.
4. Ask for named, qualified people and a street address. Check bar admissions, Chambers or Legal 500 rankings and memberships such as IMGL.
5. Get an itemised quote separating regulator fees, third-party costs and the adviser’s fee.
6. Search adverse media for the firm and its directors.
7. Ask who fills the Key Function, director and MLRO roles, and who is liable if they fail.
8. Walk away from any “guaranteed licence”. Only the regulator can grant one.

Questions to ask before you sign

• How many licences have you obtained in my target jurisdiction in the last two years, and can I speak to one of those clients?
• What is your fee, and what is the regulator’s fee, line by line?
• Who will actually prepare and submit my application?
• What happens if the regulator asks for more information or rejects the application?
• Can you also introduce payment providers and banks, and set up my KYC and AML framework?

Next steps

Decide your target markets first, then shortlist one law firm and one corporate services provider for each licence. Ask both for itemised quotes and compare them against the regulator fees above. If you are launching a sportsbook, our sportsbook launch guide shows where licensing fits in the full timeline.