SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
1XBET has vehemently denied reports that its Curaçao licence has been suspended and that its business remains active in Russia.
The Cyprus-headquartered betting group issued a statement denying claims made by Josimarfootball.com, which stated that 1XBET’s Curaçao business had been declared bankrupt by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.
In its response, 1XBET branded the Josimar football blog as a “small activist website featuring inaccurate information”.
Last year, Josimar began reporting on troubles related to 1XBET’s Curaçao licence. Allegations made against the company stated that it had been declared bankrupt for refusing to pay players of the Representation of Victims of Online Gaming (SBGOK) winnings of 1.6m Netherlands Antilles Guilders (roughly €830,000).
1XBET has responded that its Curaçao licence is one of many international licences with which the company operates.
Its statement read: “1XBET has encountered no issues concerning its Curaçao licence, which remains in place and with which it is fully compliant, and everything is business as usual.
“1XBET and its franchises have always fulfilled their obligations to customers and partners in full.”
Media outlets reporting on 1XBET affairs were urged “to carefully check the facts and avoid relying on unsubstantiated rumour and baseless speculation”.
Josimar’s coverage of 1XBET was deemed to be “filled with factual inaccuracies” and consisting of “random statements with no basis in reality or fact”.
As such, it made clear that one of Josimar’s central allegations that 1xCorp, a Curaçao company that has been declared bankrupt, is the owner of 1XBET is “false”. It added that reports of 1XBET being declared bankrupt were in turn “complete nonsense”.
Josimar had also stated that 1XBET is a Russian Bookmaker. “This is false 1XBET is a global gambling brand, headquartered in Cyprus with operations across Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia, working via a franchise model. Its products and services are blocked in Russia and Belarus,” the operator said.
1XBET defended its franchise model which operates across multiple igaming jurisdictions. In the case of SBGOK player winnings, 1XBET responded that its franchise had identified “suspicious bets and/or irregular betting patterns either through manual or automated monitoring systems”.
“This is common practice within the gambling industry,” the statement continued. “In the event we believe winnings are not legitimate and terms and conditions have been broken, we reserve the right to withhold payment of winnings pending further investigation and will likely make requests for further information from the relevant account holders.
“In the event, our investigation concludes that there has been a breach of our terms and conditions, winnings are withheld, as per the terms of our contract. These contested winnings are what is being pursued in Curacao.”
Further allegations said that 1XBET faced similar troubles in Russia. The betting group is accused of facing a legal challenge from Moscow-based lawyers Parlan, which represents more than 200 customers who are seeking money owed from the company, “which has lost its licence to operate in Russia”.
The response stated: “1XBET cannot have lost its licence there, because it did not have it in the first place. The action relates to another bookmaking business in Russia, which is neither owned nor controlled by 1XBET.”
Click here to read 1XBET’s full statement
