Columbia’s gambling regulatory chief says he expects to issue online gambling licenses to four more operators in the coming weeks.
In a new interview with Yogonet, Juan Pérez Hidalgo, president of the Coljuegos regulatory body, says he expects “four other companies” will join Aquila Global Group’s Wplay.co and Corredor Empresarial’s Betplay.com.co in the ranks of locally licensed online gambling sites “in the coming weeks.”
Hildalgo (pictured) appeared confident enough in these applicants’ chances of approval that he was willing to identify three of them, including the little known Colbet, a new local firm which reportedly teamed up this spring with Malta-based sports betting technology provider Airplay on the Colbet.co website, which remains just a ‘close to takeoff’ splash page at present.
Hidalgo also fingered the Colombian branch of Spanish gaming operator Codere, as well as the Bogota-based E Total Gaming, which at present, like Colbet, has little more than a splash page domain to its name.
Hildalgo offered no guidance on the identity of the fourth operator in line to join Coljuegos’ honor roll, but the CEO of the Sportium joint venture of UK bookmakers Ladbrokes and Spanish gaming operator Cirsa claimed last month that his company’s Colombian application was at an “advanced stage” of the licensing process.
Hildalgo also declined to speculate on the performance to date of the country’s first licensee Wplay since its late-June launch. Hidalgo said the regulator had “not received any kind of news” regarding Wplay’s fortunes, only that the site was “operating totally normally.”
Hidalgo said Coljuegos wasn’t – at least, for the moment – putting any cap on the number of online licenses it plans to issue. Hidalgo claimed that 59% of the country’s population enjoys some form of gambling and that internet access is widespread, creating the conditions for Columbia to become “a first class market.”
