Hello and welcome to the SBC News 90. Here’s some highlights from day two of Betting on Sports Europe Digital.

On the 1st of March, 2021, the licensing process for The Remote Gambling Act in the Netherlands will come into force. 

Dr Alan Littler, a gaming lawyer at Kalff Katz & Franssen explained the key regulatory features of the act in the Netherlands -Next step? panel stating that operators must be established in the EU/EEA, along with electronic means.

He added licences will be available for up to five years and the gambling taxation rate will fall to 29 per cent GGR with an additional levy of 1.75 per cent.

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Giancarlo Sergi, General Secretary, Global Lottery Monitoring System stated that the most effective way to combat match fixing is to ensure that players are educated on the subject matter and effective prevention measures are in place. 

Sergi highlighted his belief that the best way to eradicate match-fixing in tennis is through enhanced cooperation between regulatory bodies and preventative methods such as education programmes.

Fellow panelist Jonathan Gray, CEO of the Tennis Integrity Unit reinforced Sergi’s beliefs, adding: “Prevention is better than curing.”

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Paris Smith, CEO of Pinnacle, stated that the increase in traders becoming involved in esports has made it easier for her own company to provide ‘a stronger and more viable product’ to customers due to the increase in the quality of esports products.

Noting that: “ through the data providers and the data we, as operators, are getting just makes it a lot easier for us to provide a stronger and more viable product to our customers.”

Considering esports from a data rights perspective, Smith noted that the way in which data providers are packaging data is ‘getting better and better all the time’, both in terms of quality and quantity.