The online casino brand known as LeoVegas has been providing its gambling services to multiple locations for a few years now. Yet, never before has it taken steps towards breaking into the Spanish market. Well, all that is about to change, as the brand is making plans to enter into the regulated online casino and sports betting sector early next year.
It was on Thursday last week that the CEO of LeoVegas, Gustaf Hagman, made the announcement about his company submitting an application to provide online gambling to Spain. He said that LeoVegas is seeking out licenses from the Dirección de Ordenación del Jugo (DGOJ) – Spain’s regulatory body. However, because there is no telling how long this could take, Mr Hagman simply said that his hopes were for entry into the Spanish market “in the first quarter” of the New Year.
The CEO went on to state that he was very happy with the brand’s ability to easily and “effectively adopt” its business to any and all regulated market, regardless of the language and the regulations within that market. He also mentioned that the Spanish language is actually used by around 470 million people all over the world. Therefore, with the launch of the Spanish-language version of LeoVegas, Mr Hagman looks to accommodate various different countries.
Online Gambling Licensing in Spain
It’s not the first international licence that LeoVegas has received. Recently, the site was granted a Swedish gambling licence, which falls in line with its collection of licences from Italy, Denmark, Malta, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Yet, LeoVegas also made an announcement to its investors a couple of months back, which stated the increased compliance costs in the various regulated markets that it operates in have been having adverse effects on its own growth. This led to shares in the brand dramatically falling.
Of course, this isn’t the only online gambling site that has been making moves internationally. The online poker platform Winamax – which bases itself out of France – launched its own Spanish operation in July of this year. However, it hasn’t yet spoken of any plans to start offering sports betting to the jurisdiction. However, it has spent time advertising for Spanish-speaking sports traders, although this is as far as it has got with proceedings.
It’s not all positive news though, because the SKS365 Group had to surrender its Spanish licence from the flagship brand Planetwin365. The Austrian operator was allowed to provide the country with online casino and gambling services when it was given a licence to do so in 2015. The site was launched the year after. Yet, on June 30 this year, Planetwin365 was closed down there and it was announced that the DGOJ had granted the brand’s request to cease operating there. No reason was given as to why this was the outcome reached.
