The executive of Melilla has announced a major coup as Bolsa Madrid gambling group Codere SA, has confirmed that it will transfer its online betting division Codere Apuestas to the Spanish autonomous city, which seeks to become a new strategic hub for the European online gambling industry.
Codere Apuestas becomes the first online betting firm to migrate strategic units to Melilla (population 78,000), a Spanish autonomous city of 5 square miles, bordering Morocco at the tip of North Africa.
Speaking to Spanish industry news source InfoPlay ES, Melilla Vice President Daniel Conesa has revealed that the autonomous City’s executive has been speaking to five European operators, attracted to the region for its low taxation policy and strategic placement.
Closing 2018, Codere governance stated that it was reviewing its operational frameworks, seeking to reduce corporate tax liabilities, with news sources reporting of a likely corporate expansion within Malta.
Confirming Codere Apuestas as first the industry tenant of Melilla, Daniel Conesa stated that the legacy Spanish bookmaker ‘could well be the calling card for further gambling operators to come to the city’.
The executives of Melilla and Spanish autonomous city counterpart Ceuta have made little secret that they are eyeing Gibraltar movements closely, as the British overseas territory anticipates likely Brexit impacts.
Online gambling leadership and industry analysts have previously highlighted that a Gibraltar Remote Gambling License may become limited in scope post-Brexit, as the EU member states could deem Gibraltar regulatory provisions as ineligible with European Union business laws.
Furthermore, in January 2017 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) clarified that Gibraltar would hold no ‘special status’ as the overseas territory’ would be treated as an entity of the United Kingdom which had chosen to limit its access to the European common market.