Romania has issued its first three full online gambling licences to NetBet, Winmasters and Stanleybet, all Malta-licensed operators having local land-based betting outlets in Romania. This comes after Romania’s gambling legislation was updated and subsequently entered into force in June of 2015, allowing offshore operators to apply for an online licence to offer betting and casino games.
These online gambling licences issued by the Romanian gambling regulator, ONJN, will be valid for a period of ten years.
The three operators were awarded a temporary online licence in June of last year, granting them a 12-month period to fully implement Romanian legislation.
Nineteen of these temporary licenses were issued last year before the new legislation entered into force, followed by the secondary legislation in February of 2016. Additionally, sixteen operators currently hold temporary licences which will expire between July 31, 2016 and July 31, 2017.
NetBet, also holding a UK licence, stated that its first 12 months in the Romanian online market were successful, continuing to hold that it had more customers signing up in the first quarter of the online launch than expected.
A spokesperson said that the 12-month period was good in terms of customer acquisition, stating that it managed to get a six digit number in terms of both casino and sports sign-ups, and added that NetBet is expecting to grow further in the next few years, even though competition will increase due to new licenses joining the market.
Christos Protopapas, director of operations at Winmasters, expressed the operator’s desire to continue to invest in the Romanian market, which it considers to be an extremely important one.
Operators over the past year have been trialling different ways to attract new customers through advertising, campaigns and the use of brand ambassadors. According to NetBet, use of affiliates is also on the rise and generates a significant part of new acquisitions, although it may be noted that Romania is one of the few countries requiring affiliates to be licensed to work with gambling operators.
More than a hundred and twenty B2B licences have been issued by the ONJN, including to software providers, payment processors and testing labs.
