Betfair, 888 and PokerStars among latest Romanian licensees

Betfair, 888, PokerStars, Playtech, GVC and Unibet were among a number of firms awarded Romanian operating licences by the country’s National Office for Gaming this week, as foreign entry into the newly-regulated Romanian market begins to pick up pace.

Early concerns that May’s amendment to the country’s Gambling Act, which requires licence applicants to pay a 20% back tax on revenues derived from Romania since 26 December 2010, might dissuade operators appear to be unfounded.

Among those re-entering Romania is 888, which reported it had paid €3.1m (£2.3m) in back taxes to the country. The firm also plans to launch in the Denmark next week.

“Thanks to the hard work of our team and the regulators involved, we are excited to offer our entertaining, secure and trusted gaming brands to players from Romania and Denmark,” Itai Frieberger, 888 COO, said.

The €3.1m in back tax payment 888 said it was paying for a licence reflects its relative size in Romania versus the €0.9m GVC said it had paid to see its Sportingbet brand launch in the country and the €7.9m payment from bwin.party.

However, bwin.party was not included on the updated list of Romania licensees despite using last week’s H1 results to say it would be re-entering Romania during H2.

Of those on the list, eGaming Review had revealed earlier this summer that Betfair and Unibet were applying for a licence and they are joined by Playtech, which will operate its Winner brand in the country, and Amaya, which will operate both the PokerStars and Full Tilt brands, while Fortuna and Superbet were also issued licences.

But not all operators appear to believe a licence is worth the back tax cost. Both William Hill and Ladbrokes withdrew from Romania earlier this year and are notable absentees on the list of new licensees.

NetBet, Stanleybet and WM Interactive were among the first to gain licences in Romania with the total number of licensees now at 13.