SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) – the Netherlands gambling authority – has granted an online gambling licence to JOI Gaming Limited, which will become the 11th licensed incumbent of the KOA Regime.
JOI Gaming serves as the online gambling unit of JVH Gaming & Entertainment Group – the operator of 85 land-based Jack’s, Flamingo and Flash casino properties across the Netherlands.
The KOA licence has been granted for the online gambling domain of Jacks.nl, which will house the ‘Jack’s Casino’ and ‘Jack’s Sports’ offerings.
JOI Gaming’s sportsbook provisions will be powered by Kambi Plc, which sealed its supplier partnership at the beginning of the year.
Securing its KOA Licence, JOI Gaming joins the domestic trio of state-owned casino operator Holland Casino, ToTo Online, the digital unit of Dutch lottery Nederlandse Loterij, and Dutch arcade group FPO Netherlands as a KSA licensed operator.
As it stands, the KOA Regime’s market is formed by the Dutch licences competing against the foreign incumbents of bet365, Tombola, LiveScore Group, BetEnt Italia, PlayNorth Malta, GGPoker and Benelux bingo operator Bingoal BV.
The launch of the KOA regime on 1 October saw a number of high-profile operators excluded from the first phase of licensing, including Kindred Group, Entain, 888, Betsson and LeoVegas.
Prior to launch, KSA had stated that it had anticipated granting approximately 28 licences for the launch of the Netherlands regulated online gambling regime.
However, days before KOA opening, KSA Chairman René Jansen disclosed that only 10 licences would be sanctioned, as a number applicants had failed to comply with the regulators pre-market ‘cooling-off’ command.
For the next licensing window, scheduled for April 2022, all KOA applicants are required to fully comply with KSA cooling-off demands, terminating all engagements with Dutch consumers.
Adhering to KSA’s command, Kindred and Entain disclosed that they had stopped all Dutch player services entirely, at a respective cost of approximately £12 million and £5 million per month, whilst they await their KOA judgement.
