Exclusive: Spanish licences to be issued by 31 March
Licences expected to awarded next month.
Online gaming licences in Spain will be awarded by 31 March, deputy general director of the Spanish gambling commission Juan Carlos Alfonso Rubio has confirmed to eGaming Review.
The opening of the market was delayed by six months in January in order to give the regulator enough time to review and approve licence applications, with a deadline of 30 June for licences to be issued. According to Rubio, however the licences are now expected to be awarded two months ahead of schedule.
The delay was implemented to allow operators additional time to ensure their systems were compliant with technical regulations, following the election of the new Spanish government El Partido Popular in November last year. It came in spite of Rubio meeting every deadline in the run-up to the proposed opening of the market on 1 January, necessitated by a lack of resources to review the 600kg of paperwork submitted.
Pedro Lopez, lawyer with MartinAndino Abogados told eGaming Review he expected licences to be issued by April at the latest: “To put it simply, what we are expecting is that while the regulator is still evaluating all the licences, as far as we know from our direct experience, they have already started to analyse the last applications submitted. What we are expecting (and this is still unsure) is that the licences will be granted during March or April at the latest,” Lopez explained.
However, Rubio said licences would be issued before Spain’s Easter holidays. Easter celebrations in Spain begin a week ahead of the actual date “ Easter Sunday falls on 8 April this year “ so the licenced operators should be announced by the end of March.
eGaming Review revealed in November that 16 European and 14 local operators had submitted applications, including bwin.party, Ladbrokes, Paf, William Hill, Betfair and 888, with a total of 59 companies applying. Rubio revealed that the majority of applicants are likely to be awarded a licence, with only three companies expected to be rejected.
Regulators are required to decide on applications within six months of their submission, meaning those operators who applied in November were always likely to receive a response comfortably ahead of the June deadline, but the regulator appears keen to ensure that all approved operators can go live simultaneously upon the market opening.