CEEGC2016 Budapest
CEEGC 2016 Speaker profile – Gábor Helembai – Focus on Hungary – The future of the Hungarian online gambling market
The organizers are proud to announce that Gábor Helembai will be among the speakers of the “Focus on recent developments in Central Europe” panel at the CEEGC 2016 which will take place in Budapest on the 20th of September 2016.
A seminar type conference which is designed to encourage a Pan-European dialogue and create an in-depth report of the Central, Eastern and Northern European markets, with an additional Balkans gambling market overview allowing operators and suppliers to monetize the value of their reputations.
Gábor is a Senior Associate in the Corporate and Commercial teams in the Budapest office of Bird & Bird. He advises on both domestic and cross-border transactions and investments in various industries. He has a special sector focus on gaming/betting, advising major online and land-based operators, and slot machine manufacturers on regulatory matters. Gábor has represented clients in negotiating a concession agreement with the Hungarian State, assisted different clients from non-gaming industries in their gaming related matters (e.g. promotional games), and supported clients in transaction matters in the gaming sector.”
In a recent interview in our EEGReport Magazine, Gábor explained the current state of the Hungarian market. Below you will find a short preview of the interview, which you can read in full by accessing the online version of the magazine here.
EEGaming(Zoltan Tundik): The Hungarian online gambling sector has been subject to debate for quite some time now. What are the recent developments, and are foreign operators likely to be able to apply for licensing in the next few years?
Gábor Helembai: The Hungarian regulatory environment has not been a success story in recent years. Following some unexpected changes of the Act XXXIV of 1991 on the Organisation of Gambling (the “Gambling Act“), we have finally arrived at a relatively still period, which to be honest does not project a bright future for the regulated online gambling market in Hungary at present.
What makes the situation controversial is that the Hungarian licensing procedure remains a two-step system: a private (i.e. non-State owned) operator is awarded a concession right first by the Minister for National Economy, and once the gambling organiser has obtained such concession right, he/she may then apply for a licence for the actual operation from the Gambling Supervisory Department of the National Tax and Customs Authority (the “GSD“). The main concern is that the Minister for National Economy has discretionary power to decide on who should be awarded either a land-based casino, or an online casino concession right.
In practice, however, the Gambling Act does not stipulate that private operators are not allowed to enter the market and set up a business in Hungary, it is a fact that currently only Szerencsejáték Zrt., the 100% State-owned gambling organiser, is the one and only operator with an online gambling license in Hungary. In addition, presumably this is also the reason why only three concessionaires operate 8 (eight) casinos throughout the entire country. Taking into account the current state of affairs, we do not expect that such very exclusive club of concessionaires will expand in the near future.
The number of land-based concessionaires is also important for online business, as under a recently introduced requirement a remote gambling operator should first have a land based casino concession to be entitled to apply for an online casino concession (and an operation license afterwards). As a result of the above legal regulations and facts, there is not much opportunity left for potential online operators considering opening a business here, apart from finding a way to somehow co-operate with the land based casino concessionaires.
The Gambling Act does not regulate how the land-based casino concessionaires should offer online gambling services. Accordingly, in theory it is possible to “outsource” the operation to a third party, which opens up the possibility to online gambling operators to enter the Hungarian market by means of co-operation with the land-based casino concessionaire. Due to the lack of relevant regulation so far, the parties may agree on the terms and conditions relatively freely.
Last year, there were several rumours how land-based casino concessionaires – who are of course in a very privileged position – are planning to exploit the advantages they have, but a formal obstacle prevented all parties from proceeding with this matter: no implementation rules were adopted by the competent Ministry. Thus, the GSD literally could not assess and make a decision on any application. The problem were solved at the very end of 2015 when the Ministry for National Economy adopted and published secondary legislation, which provides detailed personal, financial and technical requirements for online casinos. Accordingly, we expect significant developments on the regulated market this year, and to soon find out what was happening behind the scenes last year.
EEGaming(Zoltan Tundik): Why are you always mentioning online casinos?
Gábor Helembai: Following a recent amendment to the Gambling Act, online betting has been monopolised by Szerencsejáték Zrt., the State gambling organiser company, while other competitors from the private sector are excluded from Hungary in this respect. This means that in practice only casino games may be offered legally to Hungarian customers via the Internet, of course which makes the Hungarian market even less attractive. We will see how much lobbying influence the concessionaires have, and whether the legislator would change this highly restrictive measurement in the near future.
EEGaming(Zoltan Tundik): As we know it’s all political, however there is huge interest coming from the operators. What is the size of the Hungarian market based on niches? Sports betting, casino, poker?
Gábor Helembai: Regarding the figures of the Hungarian online gambling market, we have only very limited information available, due to the fact that currently all of the remote gambling operators are operating illegally in Hungary, and therefore no recorded data is published. What can help us to orientate ourselves, is that it has turned out that Szerencsejáték Zrt. had a revenue of HUF 110 billion (approx. EUR 350 million) from sports betting in 2014, which includes both the online and the land based versions. Furthermore, from this amount online betting alone generated more than HUF 11 billion (approx. EUR 35 million), and this number has most probably been growing. Allegedly, this legal way of sports betting is only the smaller part of the entire market, but there is no available information on the actual figures, unlicensed operators’ data is not registered. Taking into account that Szerencsejáték Zrt. does not deal with online casino games, no indicative figures are available regarding the potential market size.
Be sure to save the date and secure your ticket to the CEEGC 2016 Budapest, which will be held on the 20th of September 2016 at the Hilton Westend City Budapest Hotel in order to hear the fresh and recent information Gábor Helembai is going to discuss. The “Focus on recent developments in Central Europe” panel is going to start 12:00 (Hungary local time).
The conference provides an efficient way of meeting new and prospect clients in the special networking session and sit down lunch.
Special reports and exclusive updates will be given by the top 20 speakers of the industry and the event is limited to 150 delegates to maximize the engagement among the peers.
The tickets can be purchased at an Early Bird rate of €200 by the end of July.
Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us on +40 735 559 234 or by mail on [email protected].
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN BUDAPEST!
For more details please visit the official website: www.ceegc.eu or book your tickets online www.ceegc.eu/2016/tickets/
Thursday, September 29 2016, Budapest – The organizers would like to thank each delegate for honoring them with their presence once again and promised they have published all the presentations that are available.
In their recent post you will find the Power Point presentations of the following speakers and panels:
Hot topics of the online gaming industry in the Balkans – Moderated by Rita Gyaraki(GamblingCompliance)
Mirjana Acimovic – President @ the first Serbian representative association of gaming industry JAKTA
Presentation of the online gaming market in Serbia. For further details, Ms. Mirjana Acimovic can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Stjepko Čordaš – CEO @ NSoft
Presentation of the online gaming market in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For further details, Mr. Stjepko Čordaš can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Odeta Nestor – President @ The National Office for Gambling in Romania
Presentation of the online gaming market in Romania – Updated legislation – Results. For further details, Ms. Odeta Nestoro can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Hot topics of the online gaming industry in Central Europe – Moderated by Gabor Helembai (Bird&Bird Law Office) – Panel was cancelled due to the unplanned break
Gabor Helembai – Senior Associate in the Corporate and Commercial team @ Knight Bird & Bird
Presentation of the online gaming market in Hungary – The future of the Hungarian online gambling market. For further details, Mr. Gabor Helembai can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
PowerPoint Presentation will be available shortly.
Jaka Repansek – Partner @ RePublis Slovenia
Presentation of the online gaming market in Slovenia – The online gambling industry of Slovenia and its opportunities. For further details, Mr. Jaka Repansek can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
PowerPoint Presentation will be available shortly.
Mirjana Acimovic – President @ the first Serbian representative association of gaming industry JAKTA
Presentation of the online gaming market in Croatia. For further details, Ms. Mirjana Acimovic can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
The SEO Arms Race – Artificial Intelligence competing with Artificial Intelligence – Presented by Paul Reilly (MediaSkunkWorks)
Paul Reilly – founder and CEO @ Media Skunk Works
For further details, Mr. Paul Reilly can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Upcoming Event Announcements – Moderated by Zoltan Tundik (EEGaming) – Panel was cancelled due to the unplanned break
Eman Pulis – Founder and CEO @ SiGMA, the Summit of iGaming in Malta
Invitation to SiGMA2016 and results of 2015 – For further details, Mr. Eman Pulis can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Ian Larcombe – Head of B2B Media Sales @ iGaming Business
Upcoming events by iGaming Business Events. For further details, Mr. Ian Larcombe can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Hot topics of the online gambling markets in Europe part 1 – Trends, vision and results – Moderated by Paul Davis(Counting House)
Ivan Kondilenko – CEO @ Casexe Limited
The effects of Bitcoin in the online gambling market. For further details, Mr. Ivan Kondilenko can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Tom Light – Vice President of Business Development @ SBTech
The impact/results of In-Play betting on Euro 2016 and the importance of being present in emerging markets. For further details, Mr. Tom Light can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Paul Davis – Managing Director @ Counting House (IOM) Ltd.
The effects of the Brexit on the online gambling industry in Europe. For further details, Mr. Paul Davis can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Hot topics of the online gambling markets in Europe part 2 – Tech and rising niches – Moderated by Paul Davis(Counting House)
Tal Itzhak Ron – Advocate and Notary @ Tal Ron, Drihem & Co. Law Firm
Forex and Binary Options companies in the EU. For further details, Mr. Tal Itzhak Ron can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Valéry Bollier – CEO @ OulalaGames Ltd
Daily Fantasy Sports in Europe. For further details, Mr. Valéry Bollier can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Stuart Trigwell – UK Sales Director @ Global Bet, Virtual Sports
Virtual Sports, what next? For further details, Mr. Stuart Trigwell can be contacted on the following e-mail address: [email protected]
The presentations can be viewed on the following link: https://ceegc.eu/announcements-press-releases/postevent-ceegc2016-powerpoint-presentations-part-1/
We hope to see you all next year as well in a two day conference which will gather +40 speakers and +250 delegates.
September 21st, 2016 | SBTech, the leading global provider of Sports Betting and iGaming platforms, has won the award for Best Sports Betting Provider at the first edition of the Central and Eastern Europe Gaming Conference, held in Budapest on September 20th.
In addition to this success, SBTech client NetBet took home the award for Best Online Sports Betting Operator. SBTech supports NetBet’s operations with a fully managed sportsbook, and their award therefore represents further confirmation of SBTech’s success in providing sports betting platforms and services.
Richard Carter, CEO of SBTech, commented: “We are absolutely delighted to have won the award for Best Betting Provider. The Central and Eastern European markets are vital in terms of realising our vision of providing software and services in every regulated market. The majority of our people are based in Sofia, Kiev and Plovdiv, and this award is testament to their talent, professionalism and deep knowledge of Eastern European markets. I’m certain that the CEEGC is going to become a key event in the global gaming industry calendar in the years ahead and I’m proud that we have been recognised for our achievements at the very first event.”
NetBet, powered by SBTech’s technology, has already achieved a position of dominance in the Romanian market and is growing rapidly in other CEE territories.
Alexandre Mangaud, CMO of NetBet said: “Our evolving relationship with SBTech is central to our strategy for growth. The company’s approach to everything from R&D to regulatory compliance is defined by inventiveness, flexibility and thoroughness. It was our very great pleasure to be awarded alongside our providers and I hope that these successes will be the first of many at the CEEG Awards.”
– Ends –
About SBTech:
SBTech is the industry-leading provider of Sports Betting solutions and services in regulated markets. The company’s complete Omni-channel offering includes an innovative, dynamic and customisable suite of fully managed solutions, specifically designed for top gaming operators, existing bookmakers and land-based networks. SBTech’s expertise in live betting has also been recognised at the2016 eGR Awards, winning the accolade of Best In-Play Betting Software.
Contact:
[email protected]
www.sbtech.com
CASEXE is proud to tell you that it has won two awards as part of the first ever Central and Eastern European Gaming Conference, which took place on September 20 in Budapest. At the event, CASEXE has been determined the best in “Casino Product Quality” and “Service/Price ratio” nominations, represented in the “Best online casino software provider” category.
We’ve also taken second place in the “Product support” and the third place in “Open business relations” categories.
As part of the CEEGC 2016 conference, Ivan Kondilenko, CEO at CASEXE, has made a presentation in the “Hot topics on the European gambling markets” section relating the issues of Bitcoin and online gambling interaction. Event guests had a chance to find out whether this “perfect couple” is really so great and what to expect from such trend.
Ivan Kondilenko enjoyed the theme event, saying that CEEGC 2016 has managed to gather interested gambling market players, including the leading providers, developers, owners of casinos and betting venues, in addition to representatives of regulation authorities from Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Ukraine etc.
“For us, it’s a great honour to win two awards in such significant category as “Best online casino software provider”. We are the only company to win in several nominations,” said the expert. Ivan also mentioned that CASEXE has been a Bronze Sponsor at CEEGC 2016 and thanked everyone who participated in the online voting process.
CASEXE expresses many thanks to all gambling industry experts who highly appreciated the provider’s operations. “We’ll keep on moving towards the set direction focused on high quality of software, as well as providing of the best service for gambling operators,” reported the company representatives.
By the way, CEEGC 2016 has been memorable for one incident that led to a 4 hour break. According to Ivan Kondilenko, it has become an icebreaker possibility to get to know all iGaming segment representatives, thus the conference participants discussed all the questions in store.
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