Spanish market to open on 1 June, regulator confirms
Licences to be awarded ahead of 30 June deadline.
The Spanish General Directorate for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) has confirmed it will meet its revised deadline for the opening of the country’s online gambling market and award licences to successful operators on 1 June “ four weeks ahead of the proposed date.
The original date for the opening of the market had been set for 30 December last year, however this was before the newly-elected El Partido Popular government introduced a last-minute amendment which saw the deadline extended to 30 June with more than 300 applications submitted from 62 operators.
The resignation of deputy general director of the DTOG Juan Carlos Alfonso Rubio in March this year was expected to delay the opening of the market even further, with lawyer Cristina Romero de Alba of Loyra Abogados telling eGaming Review that the 30 June deadline was unlikely to be met due to a 15-day notice period for operators to prepare their systems to go live.
“That date [15 June] was set because the new infringements and sanctions regime that will replace the current one enters into force on the first of July and the administration told the applicants that they would give a 15 day notice prior to the granting of the licenses,” Romero de Alba explained.
Alfonso Rubio’s departure was followed by the replacement of deputy general director of gaming management Miguel Ordozgoiti with Jaime Lorenzo, responsible for technical compliance, before Carlos Hernandez Riera was announced as the new deputy general director of DGOJ early in April.
At the time DGOJ’s general director Enrique Alejo pledged to ensure the June deadlines were met.
This contrasted Alfonso Rubio’s claims in January that the licences would be issued by 31 March. This was followed by the announcement that around 80% of operators had secured pre-approval for licences in March, which was later denied by the Alejo, who joined the Spanish regulator in January this year.