Bodog UK granted online licence
7/15/2011
Bodog has received a UK remote sports betting licence from the Gambling Commission 24 hours after the government announced plans to revamp the country’s licensing and tax regimes and will open a dot.co.uk site in three months.
The operator has three other licences in Antigua (Bodog Europe), the Philippines (Bodog88) to cater for Asian customers and Kahnawake (dot.eu), its former dot.com operation whose domain was changed following the Black Friday indictments in April.
Patrik Selin (pictured), CEO of Bodog Europe and new CEO of Bodog UK, said it would take “at least” three months for its servers to be installed in a secure location in the UK and for the remaining infrastructure, including the hiring of 100 new staff, to be put in place before the fully licensed site goes live.
Asked when the site would begin to make a profit Selin refused to go into specifics but said: “We have taken a long-term view on the UK. It is the largest regulated market in the world today and we want to be part of that. The decision was not taken on market share. The key thing is to develop trust with the UK customer. This is one of the most important things for the industry.”
Bodog will only be able to offer UK customers sports betting and casino games, while poker remains off limits until it receives the appropriate licence. The company will now pay 15% gross profits tax in line with current regulations. Selin said he would look to add further casino suppliers, in addition to current supplier CTXM, to the UK site in the coming months.
Bodog.co.uk will continue to operate and offer UK customers services under its Antigua licence until it switches over to its UK licence in three months time. All non UK players will then be blocked from the site.
“Now we are licensed we can do lots more deals with lots more companies, you can suddenly do a lot more with media companies, you can advertise more freely and there can be more co-operation with media.
“We are going to do a couple of big things that will surprise people once we do these deals. We are in negotiations [with media companies] at the moment,” he added.
The Gambling Commission also approved and issued Bodog UK with a non-remote sports betting licence as well as a remote gambling software licence with Selin adding that he would look to open a small number of flagship retail outlets at the end of 2012. The entire application process took a year, according to the former head of Ongame, with the official application sent to the Commission in January and approval received yesterday.
Yesterday, John Penrose, Minister responsible for gambling policy and regulation, announced that all on and offshore operators selling services into the UK would, in future, have to obtain a licence from the Gambling Commission if they wish to continue offering online gaming to UK customers. No detail, however, was given as to when this would come into force, the fees and taxation format and levels of taxation that would be involved, as well as which jurisdictions would be affected.
The new proposals would effectively mean the end of the White List as it stands, however Penrose added that the Gambling Commission would ensure that regulatory good practice is recognised so that overseas based businesses in “trusted jurisdictions”, such as the white listed countries, would have much “lighter touch approach and, for example, will not have to duplicate regulatory work.”
No official statement has been made as yet, however it is widely understood that Antigua will not be part of those “trusted jurisdictions”.
