Earlier this year, the U.K. Gaming Commission (UKGC) became concerned that the Matchbook gambling exchange wasn’t doing its part to adhere to standing regulations. The gaming platform’s parent company, Triplebet Ltd., had its license suspended in February, with the UKGC later explaining that Triplebet had not followed through properly with anti-money-laundering and other procedures. Triplebet has reportedly made adjustments to its operations in order to appease the U.K.’s gaming regulator, and has now been approved to rebuild its presence in the country.
The UKGC began investigating Triplebet for questionable practices, ultimately deciding that it was not adequately monitoring its relationships with business partners and wasn’t performing required due diligence checks. According to Gambling Insider, the company took the steps ordered by the UKGC to correct the deficiencies, prompting the regulator to greenlight the relaunch. A spokesperson told the gaming media outlet, “This announcement marks the culmination of many months of hard work and investment across our entire business.”
A statement from the company adds, “We are extremely proud of the dedication and commitment of our staff during a very challenging economic period that has enabled Matchbook to once again offer a much improved exchange platform to U.K. residents as we continue to grow our market share and deliver an industry leading platform and liquidity pool for our customers. We’re pleased to announce that our license suspension has been lifted and we are working hard to get the site back up and running as soon as possible. We can’t wait to welcome you all back to Matchbook in the coming days.”
After the initial fallout, Matchbook’s CEO at the time, Mark Brosnan, resigned in May. That exit followed the company being fined about $967,000 (£740,000) a month earlier over its failure to play by the rules. Brosnan had been with the company for 16 years, and asserted that his departure was not related to the investigation or the license suspension in the U.K.
The UKGC had spanned over two years and some of the findings were troubling. In violation of the U.K.’s Gambling Act of 2005, Matchbook was discovered to have let gamblers make huge bets, with one gambling over $2.6 million in one day. Another was able to deposit and then withdraw an unspecified, but large, sum of money with no questions asked. Triplebet was also slammed for not being able to present supporting identity documents for its ten biggest spenders and for allowing one individual to lose $714,000 in the course of a single year.
