Sportech wins Dutch Tote contract
London-listed provider given exclusive licence through 30 June 2022
Sportech has been selected to run the Netherlands tote horseracing product for the next five years.
The new licence will run from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2022 and follows an open tender process that started in November last year.
Sportech is already the incumbent provider, but the licence was put out for bidding following a court ruling in 2016 that the original licence award was non-transparent and violated EU law.
Sportech will be allowed to offer an online version of the product – although remote gaming is still being regulated – as long as the online version replicates the offline offer.
In related news, the Dutch regulator announced this week that the CJEU’s ruling in the Unibet vs Hungary case did not affect the Netherlands.
The CJEU said Hungary’s licensing framework was non-compliant with EU laws that protect freedom to provide services, as operators needed to have been established in Hungary for 10 years before getting a licence.
The EGBA said the ruling would have wider ramifications on other European countries, but the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) said this week the case was irrelevant to Dutch gaming enforcement policy.
Kansspelautoriteit said fines imposed on illegal operators have been challenged in the past and had “always passed the test” so it would continue enforcing its current policy.
One senior lawyer at an international gaming company told EGR the ruling would travel much better to Poland, where the government has granted itself a monopoly on casino games, which would likely also be non-compliant with EU law should it be challenged.