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Spanish Regulator Opens New iGaming Licensing Window

Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), which literally means the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gaming, is the Spanish online gaming regulator. They have announced a new open window for the application of online gaming licenses in their official gazette. This is their third open window since 2011, following these two:

2011 – The start of the Spanish regulated gaming market. A total of 52 companies were granted licenses.

2014 – 10 new operators for general licenses and 6 others asking for additional licenses.

The licensing application window will be open for a year and it comes at a time of boom for online gaming in Spain. The launch of this licensing window is particularly relevant as multiple operators are preparing for the launch of online poker services, in anticipation of the European shared liquidity agreement between Italy, Spain, France and Portugal. Recently, PokerStars received the first shared EU liquidity license from French regulator ARJEL.

Spain’s regulated market has a ‘double licensing’ system which involved operators first having to obtain a general license and then a license for any particular game they will be offering (slots, poker, sports betting and other games/contests). Approximately 10 new operators are expected to get licenses during this window. Sacha Michaud, President of Jdigital, Spanish online gambling association said, “In this new window of licensing, we estimate that approximately 10 new operators will join in addition to the 52 that already exist in the Spanish market.”

Operators like Eurobet, Paddy Power and William Hill already have operations in France & Italy so they will be expected to expand to Spain in this window. Winamax is another company expected to apply for a license, already having operations in France and Italy.

For more updates and developments on this story, keep following GutshotMagazine.com!

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