Dutch regulator de Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has granted an online gambling licence to a 12th operator – Zebetting and Gaming, which operates the Zebet brand.
Zebetting and Gaming will be permitted to offer bets on sports and horse racing at the Zebet.nl and Zeturf.nl websites.
It becomes only the 12th operator to be permitted to launch online in the Netherlands. When the Dutch online market opened on 1 October – after a number of delays – only ten operators were permitted to launch.
These initial licensees included Bet365, Tombola, Play North, Dutch land-based operator Holland Casino and state lottery Nederlandse Loterij with its Toto Online brand.
The Janshen Hahnraths Group with FPO Nederland, Italy-based Betent, Belgian brand Bingoal, NSUS Malta, which runs the GGPoker.eu brand and sports media and betting business LiveScore Malta also secured licences.
Soon after the market launch, JOI Gaming, a division of Dutch land-based casino operator JVH Gaming & Entertainment Group, became the 11th licensee, after JVH had been one of the more surprising omissions from the initial licence list.
Yesterday (16 February), JVH was granted two more licences, allowing it to operate additional websites.
At the time of the market opening, KSA chairman Rene Jansen said he expected more operators to launch, with a number of licence applications pending.
The newly regulated Dutch market has been notable in its approach to unlicensed operators. Any operator that could accept bets from Dutch customers – even if it did not target them specifically – would not be permitted to receive a licence until it had blocked access from the Netherlands for two years.As a result of this rule, a number of high-profile operators, including Entain, Kindred Group, 888, Betsson, Leovegas and Casumo, announced that they would block all Dutch customers.
