Spanish licences to be issued today
Full list not expected to be published on DGOJ site for another two weeks.
Few surprises are expected when licences for the Spanish egaming market are issued today, eGaming Review sources have suggested.
The General Directorate for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) will meet with representatives of applicants from 11am CET at the regulator’s headquarters to inform the 60+ operators of the success or failure of their applications.
However, according to communication this week from the DGOJ, a full list of licensees is unlikely to be published before 15 June. DGOJ general director Enrique Alejo was unavailable for comment when contacted by eGR this morning.
A lawyer close to the situation explained to eGR that “We won’t really know [until the 15th] if there has been some important rejection [but] I anticipate that there won’t be big surprises and that all the big players will be there.”
This week eGR reported that the opening of the dot.es market would not take place until next Tuesday, and it remains the case that those operators awarded a licence today will be permitted to continue serving Spanish customers from their dot.com sites until then.
This delay was believed to be instigated in order to allow successful applicants time to register a technical contact with the DGOJ’s databases and systems.
One operator who will have to wait a little longer than that is Sportingbet, whose Miapuesta brand has been inactive since 27 March following an injunction from land-based operator Codere. On Wednesday Sportingbet CEO Andy McIver told eGR that he expected a two-week delay before his company could have the injunction overturned in court.
Sportingbet is one of several operators to have settled back-tax claims with the Spanish Tax Authority in anticipation of receiving a licence. It has paid 17.2m, less than bwin.party’s 33m but more than the likes of Betfair and 888 who both faced bills of less than 10m. Ladbrokes has also settled for an undisclosed amount.