The Israel Sports Betting Board (ISBB) has launched its expanded online sports betting site at winner.co.il. The site is the result of the 10-year deal the state-owned ISBB inked in 2012 with two subsidiaries of French sports betting titan Française des Jeux – LVS Ltd. and Lotsys SAS – to upgrade its sports betting action for the country’s growing ranks of digital-savvy punters.
The Lotsys/LVS tandem supplied a customized version of their Advanced Betting Lottery Platform (ABP) that includes a sportsbook, transactional engine as well as a mobile site. ISBB chairman Zach Fishbein said the ABP “provides the foundation to sustain ISBB’s growth for the next decade” by offering a broader range of sports and markets.
The ISBB holds a monopoly on sports betting services within Israel, which is why the October 2012 bust of the Don-Bet illegal betting operation should have come as little surprise. The investigation of the Don-Bet credit betting operation – described at the time by Israeli authorities as the biggest illegal gambling network in the country’s history – took over a year and resulted in the arrests of 44 individuals. The betting ring had been in operation since 2009 and reportedly utilized 200 agents to accept wagers from 3k clients.
In November, Israeli authorities indicted 14 individuals connected with the site on charges of illegal gambling and money laundering. On Sunday, the Times of Israel reported that the indictments had been amended to include charges of tax evasion on unreported income of US $1.27b. The individuals charged include the ring’s four owners, nine associated bookies and one accomplice tasked with laundering the apparently hefty proceeds of all that illegal wagering.
