Exclusive: Bwin.party chasing Belgian licence
Operator applies for online and offline sports betting licences for its bwin brand.
Bwin.party is among the latest applicants looking to secure a licence for the newly regulated Belgian egaming market.
The Power 50 operator has applied for both online and offline sports betting licences, although it has not made a formal application for any other vertical.
The application appears to mark a change of approach from the end of last year, when the operator’s objections to the Belgian law and its supposed non-compliance with EU legislation left it at risk of being included on a 100-site blacklist set to be drawn up before the end of 2012.
Sports betting licences will be awarded in the months following the Belgian Gaming Commission’s publication of its casino whitelist in February, with head of the commission’s regulatory unit Peter Naessens telling eGaming Review he expected a list of betting licensees to emerge in March.
eGR has also learned that Media group La Dernière Heure has applied for a licence in partnership with betting operator Sagevas, following similar moves from media groups in Spain in December.
However both Ladbrokes and StanleyBet, despite their strong land-based betting presences in the EU member state, have merely expressed an interest in applying for an online licence, rather than launching a formal application. Ladbrokes’ presence has been boosted by an agreement with Pari-Mutuel Urbain, signed in August.
“bwin has applied for both a land-based and an online betting licence at the same time, but will need the land-based licence approved first,” Naessens explained.
“La Dernière Heure has also applied, as have a few smaller local operators,” he added, while confirming that Ladbrokes and StanleyBet – as “two of the most important land-based [betting] operators” – have shown an interest in taking their operations online in Belgium but are both yet to actually apply for the relevant licence and therefore “will not have first-mover advantage.”
Earlier this year eGR learned that Unibet had also hinted at supplementing its newly acquired French licences with Belgian accreditation, although it too is yet to submit its application to the BGC.
Separate whitelists and blacklists are set to be created for each vertical, ensuring information is exchanged between the BGC and financial institution with regards to transactions involving operators continuing to provide a dot.com offering to Belgian players.
However Naessens confirmed that a dot.com poker or casino offering would represent an obstacle to any operator securing a dot.be betting licence, saying: “If they keep offering dot.com poker they could lose their betting licence – they would need to close down their dot.com room.
“If an operator shows enough transparency and a willingness to be regulated in Belgium, as mentioned in our Gambling Act, we will see what we can do with regards to their application. But if they have the intention to modify our act I do not think it can happen,” he added.
A spokesman for bwin.party declined to comment.