Betsson rebrands Dutch facing online casino brands
Malta-based operator renames its Oranje and Kroon casinos after 2018 Dutch financial penalty
Betsson is to rebrand its Oranje Casino and Kroon Casino online sites to place itself in the “best possible position” for the forthcoming licensing and regulation of the Dutch online gambling market.
As part of the rebrand, Oranje Casino will now be known as Loyal Casino, while Kroon Casino will now operate under the Casino Winner label.
A spokesperson for Betsson said the change from Kroon Casino into Casino Winner was a good opportunity to take the brand into more markets.
Aside from the name change and the logo, the operator has not made any other changes with the site or the product.
The existing krooncasino.com domain is redirecting players to its Casino Winner site, while the Oranje Casino rebrand is expected to be completed next month. Betsson first acquired both sites in 2014 from fellow Malta-licensed firm Oranje and Kroon.
In August, Betsson received a €300k fine from the Dutch regulator (KSA) for offering online gambling on these sites without a licence.
The operator was identified under the so-called prioritisation criteria, which allows the KSA to investigate operators offering gambling in the Dutch language, using Dutch facing symbols or brand names and sites operating with a .nl domain name.
Last month Betsson lost its appeal against the ruling, despite its assertion that it should not have been fined because its operations complied with applicable laws and regulations “in the absence of an EU-compliant gambling legislation in the Netherlands”.
However, Betsson has said it was willing to escalate the appeal to the European Court of Justice if necessary.
In February, the Dutch government agreed passage of the Remote Gaming Bill, which provides for the licensing and regulation of online gambling in the Netherlands for the first time.
A key constituent of this agreement was that previously sanctioned operators be subjected to a two-year “cooling off” period before they could potentially apply for a Dutch licence, placing operators like Betsson at a potential disadvantage going forward.