Zeppelin

About Zeppelin

“Our role as a regulator is not to stand in the way of innovation, but to help create the certainty and confidence needed for innovation to flourish responsibly,” Mizzi said.

The charter does not create new regulatory obligations and was designed to complement legislation including the EU AI Act and GDPR.

Instead, it proposed a risk-based approach. It suggested lighter controls on use cases such as coding assistants, but strong checks on customer-facing functions, particularly those involving fraud and responsible gambling.

What is Zeppelin?

In January 2024, before locally licensed online operators were active, the Authority said it had recorded about 510,000 monthly cases of Botswanans participating in illegal online gambling.

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.

What is Zeppelin?

While the US and markets in Europe may have broadened discussions to encompass issues such as LGBTQ+ inclusion, she notes that priorities differ across Africa, where legal, cultural and social realities can vary between countries.

Looking ahead, industry leaders believe the next phase of DEI will be less about standalone initiatives and more about embedding inclusion into everyday business decisions.

Yaxley hopes DEI will become “a fundamental part of how organisations operate”, with technology and people analytics helping businesses to make fairer, evidence-based decisions on talent.