Spanish Licenses Awarded

 The Spanish regulatory body for internet gambling had previously laid down the 1st of June as the day for giving out licenses and they have stuck to it. The market won’t officially open until the 6th of June but we now know what sites and firms will be present once it gets going.

The full name for the authority giving the go ahead for online casinos and gambling sites is the Spanish General Directorate for the Regulation of Gambling. The first batch of licenses to be issued covers some of the biggest names in the industry. For example, William Hill, PokerStars and Ladbrokes are all on the list of officially sanctioned site operators as had been widely expected.

Back Taxes Now Paid

Sportingbet was recently in the news as they had to pay the Spanish government €14 million in historic taxes to be considered for a license. This was worth it in the long run it seems, as they are now officially licensed to operate there.

Bwin.party digital entertainment is another approved firm. They will be able to give Spanish players access to roulette, poker, blackjack, sports betting and internet bingo. They have already announced that their sites will be at partypoker.es, bwin.es and bingues.es.

Another firm to get awarded a license to operate in Spain is 888 Holdings. Their CEO is Brian Mattingley and he said that the country is an “important market” for them which accounted for 5% of their overall 2011 revenue.

Making up the rest of the list of approved online gaming operators were Bet365, GTech G2, Cirsa and Codere.