Poll: Will regulator's resignation lead to further Spanish delays?
Could Alfonso's sudden departure see the market opening pushed back even further?
Juan Carlos Alfonso Rubio, deputy general director for the Spanish regulatory authority, last week resigned from his role with immediate effect, throwing the opening of the Spanish egaming market into further disarray.
The market opening has already been delayed by up to six months following the newly-elected government El Partido Popular’s concerns over the number of applications to be verified by the regulator, with an estimated 600kg of paperwork to be sifted through.
Despite this setback, however Alfonso told eGaming Review in January that licences were likely to be awarded by 31 March, with 80% of operators handed pre-approvals for Spanish licences earlier this month. But following his sudden departure this is now in doubt with a source close to the matter telling eGR: “This now creates a situation of uncertainty that we could do without in the run-up to regulating the market.”
Having already delayed the opening of the market, El Partido Popular could decide to push the opening back even further, in order to ensure the licensing process is properly carried out once a replacement regulator has been found. Laura Minguitos has taken on the role on a temporary basis, but will stand aside once a permanent candidate has been confirmed in the role.
The situation has been further complicated by a series of court cases brought against operators including Sportingbet by Spanish business Codere. A Madrid court recently ruled in favour of Codere, issuing Sportingbet with a cease and desist order, preventing the operator from using any dot.es and miapuesta.es domain names, from advertising in Spain and from contacting Spanish customers.
With a number of European operators having run unlicensed operations for several years, El Partido Popular may decide to rework legislation to give Spanish companies a competitive advantage in the market and bring further legal action against companies like Sportingbet.
President of Jdigital Sacha Michaud, however believes that the legislative process is so far advanced that the departure will not cause more than a few weeks’ delays to the opening: “I would have thought that [his departure] would have slowed down the process slightly, but the new director of gaming [Enrique Alejo] is hugely experienced in the private and public sectors, so I have absolute confidence that he will manage the process expertly,” Michaud explained.
“I think there may be a few weeks’ delay but a lot of the work has already been done, so I expect things to continue moving forward,” he added.
Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think.
Will Alfonso’s departure prompt El Partido Popular to delay the opening of the market again, or is its opening on or around March 31 unavoidable? To vote in this week’s poll, go to the right hand side of the page, or visit the eGaming Review’s Linkedin group.