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CEEGC2016 Budapest

CEEGC 2016 Speaker profile – Jan Řehola – Focus on Czech Republic – New Gambling act. – Gambling reform – License application process

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The organizers are proud to announce that Jan Řehola will be among the speakers of the “Focus on recent developments in Eastern 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.

Jan will be the key speaker about “Focus on Czech Republic – New Gambling act. – Gambling reform – License application process” topic which is embeded in the “Focus on recent developments in Eastern Europe”.

Jan Řehola has over 6 years of experiences in gambling field, both from the public and private sector.
He is a master of Law from the Charles University in Prague.

Jan has been working for 4 years for the Ministry of Finance – Czech Gambling regulator, firstly as a Head of the Legal Unit and later as a Director of Gambling Department. In his work for the Czech Gambling regulator Jan was responsible for all gambling policy issues, including drafting of new legislation, issuing of gambling licences and cooperation with other European regulators as a member of European Commission Expert Group on Online Gambling.

Due to his background, he is well versed in all aspects of gambling operations.

Now he is a private consultant specialized in gambling and one of the founders of BetOnSkill Consulting, Ltd.
BetOnSkill Consulting, Ltd. is a private company specialised in providing a full service international gaming consultancy to all sectors of the gaming industry (legal consultancy, product development, licensing process, authorisation process). Its team is formed with very experienced people with rich experiences in gambling industry and practice from private and public sector. This helps their clients to operate successfully in the gaming field. BetOnSkill’s clients are mainly gambling companies pursuing licence in Central and Eastern European countries which are helped in the process of accreditation, certification, licensing and operation.

In a recent interview in our EEGReport Magazine, Jan explained the current state of the Czech market and the process of its liberalization starting from January 2017. 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 Czech Republic’s online gambling sector has been the debate for a long while now, what are the recent developments and is it likely to be enabled for foreign operators to apply for licensing in the next few years?

Jan Řehola: Gambling is a popular form of entertainment in the Czech Republic. According to official results of Czech gambling market for 2014 the whole market grew by 11,4 % over the previous year and similar numbers for upcoming years are predicted. Not surprisingly this grow is mainly driven by online gambling sector however nowadays only two types of online gambling are legal in the Czech Republic. Current gambling act, which is more than 25 years old, is considered to be out-of-date. This applies especially when it comes to online gambling regulation, which is absolutely insufficient and too restrictive for operators. At present, the Ministry of Finance issues online licenses only for sport betting and poker games operators. The first licenses were granted to five major domestic betting operators, SAZKA, Synot Tip, Chance, Tipsport and Fortuna in 2008 and since then, the number of licensees has increased and the revenue share from online betting has increased steadily.

This time, when general trend is moving gaming on internet the absence of online gambling regulation is absolutely the main weakest point of current legislation.
Another big issue is need to ensure compatibility with European law and principles of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The European Commission for a long time warmed the Czech Republic that current regulatory framework does not reflect the fundamental freedoms of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU and finally decided to launch infringement procedure in November 2013 together with Belgium, Cyprus, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. The main reason is the seat requirement breaching the freedom to movement of services. As the result of this requirement, foreign operators cannot ask for licence and are considered to be illegal. At the same time Czech Government is not able to effectively fight against operators that are established in other EEA countries and which are offerings its services to Czech customers.

Both above mentioned notes leave local operators wholy unable to compete with unlicensed operators who can offer Czech consumers a full range of gambling products.

So now we are in the situation, that both sides – regulator and licensed operators – welcome necessary changes and call for new complete regulatory framework that would enable them to offer all online products and set reasonable level of taxation. Ministry of Finance finally prepared draft of completely new gambling regulation represented mainly by Gambling act and Gambling tax act.

Drafts of these Acts were already approved by Government and now are discussed within the Parliament. Once new legislation is adopted the situation described is corrected. Online gambling will be for the first time explicitly regulated and EU/EEA based operators will be able to obtain a licence to offer online gaming in the Czech Republic. This opens the door for foreign operators to set up a business in the Czech Republic.

What we can see now is unanimous call for duly adoption of new Gambling act. Gambling reform is among top priority of two leading political parties (ANO and Social Democrats) so it can be assumed that act would be finally approved and published already during summer 2016. Since its publication in collection of laws license application process within the Ministry of Finance will be started. If this process goes smoothly as is planned by Czech Government new licences should be valid form January 1, 2017.

If we look more into detail of the text itself, it can be conclude that draft of new gambling act can be considered as modern gambling codex with only few peculiarities from gambling acts recently successfully adopted in Bulgaria or Denmark. Draft was already notified to the European Commission so no substantial changes to text can be expected with exemption of some minor changes that would reflect comments of European Commission and Malta within notification period.

I am quite optimistic and in accordance with Czech Government believe that draft will be finally approved in summer 2016 and first licenses would be issued before end of this year. The biggest open question is building up of monitoring system and preparation of secondary technical regulations. Government announced to open public tender for building up and implementation of central monitoring system but originally proposed time schedule was not reached. On the other hand actual wording of draft presumes that licensing procedure could be open regardless of whether the monitoring system will be ready or not.

EEGaming(Zoltan Tundik): The Czech love to gamble, how would you rate the percentage by niche (sports betting, casino, poker) and could you explain why is online gambling a huge piece of pie for taxes?

Jan Řehola: First of all it must be noted that by far most popular games of chance and biggest market share has so called “technical games” represented mainly by land based slots machines and VLT’s. Figures are not always easily comparable due to different definition among particular jurisdictions but without ambition to be 100% precise it can be conclude that sector of technical games in the Czech Republic when it comes to per capita spend is second biggest in the world after Australia. The Czech Republic is 10 million people country with 56 000 VLT’s in place not counting traditional slot machine. Very popular is also sport-betting, especially in its online form replace traditional brick and mortar betting stores. According to official statistics of the Ministry of Finance for 2014, the percentage rates on GGR are following:

  • Technical games (VLT’s and slots) – 58,7 %
  • Sport betting – online – 10,6 %, landbased 5,6 %
  • Casino games – 6,93 %
  • Poker games (online) – 7,8 %
  • Lotteries – 15,65 %

As I have mentioned, online gambling is not now regulated by gambling act and the only games that can be legally played online are sport betting and poker games. After adoption of new Gambling act huge transformation of the market share towards online products can be expected as we have already experienced this with sport betting after online sport-betting legalization in 2008.

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 Jan Řehola is going to discuss. The “Focus on recent developments in Eastern Europe” panel is going to start 10:00 AM(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/

CEEGC2016 Budapest

PostEvent – CEEGC2016 PowerPoint presentations part 1

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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.

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CEEGC2016 Budapest

SBTech Wins Best Sports Betting Provider CEEG Award

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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

 

 

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Casexe Press Releases

CASEXE wins two awards at CEEGC 2016!

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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.

400x400_ceegc-2016_22sept16“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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