SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Play’n GO has pulled off the latest in a series of expansion plans after securing the certification to provide its content to operators in the Portuguese market.
The company said that more expansion is “set to come” to follow a very successful 2018 and moves into both Sweden and the Philippines already this year.
The launch also coincides with the expansion of the company’s partnership with PokerStars Casino, one of the world’s largest online casinos, into the Portuguese market.
This means PokerStars Casino players in the country will instantly have access to the library of Play’n GO content, which includes popular titles such as Rise of Olympus and Sweet Alchemy, as well as the 2019 AskGamblers Slot of the Year winner Legacy of Egypt.
CEO Johan Törnqvist said: “We want as many people as possible to enjoy our games, and we also want our clients, both current and future, to be able to rely on us to have a presence wherever they seek to develop their operations.”
Despite calls from the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) this week urging the Portuguese gambling authorities to review the country’s tax rules for online gambling, the numbers have been trending in the right way since 2017.
For example, online casino gaming revenue last year jumped from €54.4m in 2017 to €73.2m, representing an increase of 34%.
However, as Portuguese media report that 75% of Portugal’s online gamblers are playing outside of Portugal’s regulated online gambling market, EGBA has described the current tax regime as discriminatory, because it “applies a more favourable tax for some operators, whilst others have to pay a much higher tax based on a broader tax base”.
It has to be said that this is more discriminatory for online sports betting, for which licensed operators are taxed at between 8% and 16% dependent on betting turnover.
By contrast, online casinos and online poker operators pay 15% on gross gaming revenue (GGR) up to €5 million, with a further 15% charge for revenues above the same figure.
