Play971 launches horse racing betting in the UAE as Momentum builds the country’s first licensed wagering stack

Play971’s June 2026 horse racing betting launch adds a regulated wagering layer to the UAE’s first licensed sports-wagering and iGaming platform. For PSPs, the interesting part is not just the front end: it is the payment, compliance and onboarding infrastructure being assembled around a market that had no local blueprint before the GCGRA framework.

1. Play971, the Abu Dhabi-based platform developed by Momentum, launched its iGaming proposition in the Emirate last November, as first reported by iGB, and added horse racing betting in June 2026. That makes it the UAE’s first licensed sports-wagering and iGaming platform.
2. The move matters because horse racing already has deep roots in the Gulf, but the UAE had until now lacked legal wagering. In practice, that means a familiar sport is now being paired with a regulated monetisation layer that has long existed in markets such as Britain and Australia.
3. The regulatory centre of gravity is the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA), which oversees the UAE’s emerging gaming framework. According to Philippa Bowland, commercial director for iGaming at Play971, the launch required building “an entirely new category of regulated entertainment” rather than simply localising an existing product.
4. Momentum says it worked closely with the regulator while building the platform and uses locally licensed payment providers, with gaming content independently tested and certified by Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), a GCGRA-approved certifier. For payment teams, that combination points to a market where provider selection is already part of the licensing and compliance story, not an afterthought.
5. Bowland said the challenge went beyond technology: “every decision, from regulatory compliance to player onboarding, payment infrastructure to content localisation, had to be constructed carefully from the ground up, in close alignment with the GCGRA’s framework.” That is the line PSPs should pay attention to, because it tells you where the friction sits.

Bowland also said education is part of the launch, because commercial gaming is a new and formally regulated category in the market. For operators and payment providers, that usually means more scrutiny on onboarding, clearer handling of customer flows, and less room for generic, copy-paste commercial setups.