SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
bet365 is set to take the Bulgarian national gambling regulator to court appealing its restriction to operate in the country.
Industry legal news source Gambling Compliance details that a bet365’s appeal against Bulgaria’s State Commission on Gambling (SCG) was heard yesterday by the Administrative Court of Sofia, with a further hearing scheduled for 5 May.
SCG governance had granted bet365 an online betting licence in August 2015, but would later rescind its decision before official certificates could be awarded.
On withdrawing bet365’s licence, SCG stated that it had found the betting operator to have violated several provisions relating to Bulgarian gambling laws.
To date SCG has only permitted a total of fifteen online gambling licences, the commissions restrictive online gambling framework has been criticised by numerous industry stakeholders, who claim that business conditions have been made to favour national operators.
bet365 has confirmed that it has begun its legal challenge to overturn the Bulgarian issuance of licenses but did not comment further.
The hearing sees bet365 add a further Eastern European legal challenge to its existing Romanian licence appeal which last year saw the company revoked of its interim licence by Romania’s gambling commission despite paying back its requested back taxes.
