SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Netherlands Online Gambling Association (NOGA) has strengthened its international ties with its sister organisation, Portugal’s Associação Portuguesa de Apostas e Jogos Online (APAJO), with the aim of enhancing European harmonisation.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two regulators will see the partners cooperate closely on jointly promoting channelling and responsible participation in online gambling in both territories.
The partnership believes that the exchange of experience and information between the gambling regulators of different EU member states is ‘hugely beneficial,’ despite individual countries maintaining the right to regulate domestic gambling markets as they see fit, and as a consequence the continental gambling market has ‘not yet been harmonised.’
“We are excited about our new partnership with APAJO,” said Peter-Paul de Goeij, Managing Director of NOGA.
“The Portuguese market is comparable to the Dutch market but lies years ahead with the regulation of the online market. We intend to frequently exchange market information and learn from best practices.
“Our cooperation with APAJO will benefit us hugely in jointly developing the Dutch online gambling market with all local stakeholders. We are confident that this step will eventually also add to an organic regulatory growth towards harmonisation of gambling regulation in the EU.”
As a result of the strengthening of ties, the duo will exchange information and share advice on local best practices as a means of building ‘a healthy, reliable and secure online gambling market’ in the two countries.
“We very much welcome the initiative taken by NOGA to lift the so far unofficial exchange of data and facts to the next level and launch an institutionalized regular cooperation,” remarked Gabino Oliveira, President of APAJO.
“Although we see the social, economic and historical specificities of each EU Member State reflected in local gambling regulations, we are nonetheless all Europeans, and as such, there is an extensive common ground when it comes to online gambling-related topics like consumer protection, sports integrity, or advertising and data protection standards.”
This is NOGA’s second call for greater harmonisation between European online gambling regulators, following a similar agreement between the Dutch authority and Sweden’s Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS).
Announcing the agreement in October 2020, BOS and NOGA confirmed that the two would collaborate and mutually exchange information in order to develop sustainable and business friendly marketplaces, whilst also maintaining customer safeguards.
