Spain’s new gaming law moved a step closer today as it was officially published in the country’s State Gazette. It was thought that this step would be taken last week. The government officials needed time to get suitably intoxicated ahead of Barcelona’s coronation as the best team in the history of soccer though. Good news for the Spanish is that the law will now be enforced subject to approval from the European Commission.
Now that it’s been approved, decree laws covering will go through an approval process that lasts until September. As we outlined in an earlier article the market could then open up as early as December.
The only problem that might scupper the plans is an early general election and with Madrid already issuing its own license, it might not be as successful as it was once thought.
On the other side of the world, a company recently sold to Sportingbet may be about to invest. Centrebet founder Con Kafataris saw the sale completed just last week and may now be about to invest in the company that bought.
On the subject Kafataris told The Australian, “It does look like potentially a good investment for us but we haven’t worked that through. Obviously we need to take some advice in the areas of tax and so forth. We’d only be taking a smaller stake. We wouldn’t be going anywhere near the 60 per cent.”
It’s thought that the sale might give Sportingbet 33% of the Australian phone and Internet market and establish them as even more of a challenger to Tabcorp and other companies operating.
