SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Netherlands has the potential to become Europe’s next breakout market for igaming and sports betting, according to EveryMatrix.
The technology supplier has published its ‘Gaming Market Report’ for the country – which will officially launch its regulated online gambling marketplace on 1 October under the mandate of the Kamer approved ‘Remote Gambling Act’ (KOA Act).
Maintaining a population of 17 million (81% adult), with 95% internet penetration, EveryMatrix outlined the strong market foundations of the soon-to-be regulated marketplace.
Providing a market overview from regulated and independent sources, the Netherlands already registers as a growth market.
Previous reports published by Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) projected that the market’s “regulated and unregulated online gambling revenues will reach €1.1 billion by 2024”.
On KSA’s projection, EveryMatrix highlighted the agency’s regulatory objective to “grow licensed operators to 80% for the next three years”.
Beyond market projections, EveryMatrix pointed to the growth achieved by state-owned gambling operator Holland Casino, which registered gross gaming revenues of €729 million (+11%) pre-Covid, servicing 1.2 million customers (+10%) during 2019.
Further positives are drawn to research undertaken by onlinecasinoground.nl, which estimated that in 2020 Dutch ‘online gambling spend per capita’ was €182 – above that of established markets such as Germany (€172).
A positive response from online gambling businesses to the KSA licensing approach sees EveryMatrix envision a ‘multi-operator future for the Netherlands’. So far, 28 KOA applications have been registered.
The Netherlands will be a fresh European marketplace as its KOA regime enforces a ‘cooling period’ to ensure that no licensed operator can utilise historic data to target consumers.
However, ahead of the market’s launch, EveryMatrix highlighted the steps taken to safeguard the market – in which licensed operators will be required to connect customer databases with a centralised CRUKS player registry monitoring transactions.
Further requirements demand that licensed operators undertake mandatory age and player ID checks as part of KSA compliance procedures. In addition, all online casino operators must ensure that they integrate KSA ‘CDB monitoring tool’ should they provide online casino services.
Despite the tough technical dynamics, EveryMatrix praised the KSA efforts in transitioning Dutch online gambling from being a monopoly owned market to a level-playing field from October.
