Denmark to open poker to global liquidity

Poker operators will be free to tap into international liquidity when the regulated Danish egaming market opens in 2011, however licences looks unlikely to be approved until March or April at the earliest, industry experts there have suggested.

Ladbrokes Nordic country manager for Denmark, Richardt Funch, told eGaming Review. “In terms of poker, it’s proposed operators can still keep international liquidity, unlike Italy and France, which makes it much easier for us to set up, and for the Danish consumer, it is going to be much more positive. I think the Danish Gambling Board saw early on in the process that running a ring-fenced poker network based on 5.5 million people would be very unattractive for Danish poker players.”

Funch added it was “very unlikely” the Danish government would issue its gambling bill on 1 January 2011, as originally planned. The standstill period for the notification the Danish government had to forward to the European Commission would not end until 11 October, meaning the application process could not be opened until then.

“Just imagine 20 or 30 operators applying for a licence. We are talking about a government that has only dealt with the monopoly licence in 50 years, so there will be a lot of due diligence work and legal requirements. It is unlikely we could make it before Christmas. We have received some of the technical requirements, but still don’t know all the details. So March or April is more likely.”

The Ladbrokes country manager did not rule out the possibility of legal challenges from operators to the decision of the Danish government to keep all betting on horse racing within the monopoly.

“When everything is in place, we will be looking at this in more detail, because for Ladbrokes and other operators, horses are important products. It was stated in the draft law and the gambling bill that was sent to the Commission that the arguments for keeping horses in the monopoly was to protect profit that home tracks are getting from horse race bets at present. It is a very special argument the government is using, and it will be something that all operators will look into.”

As the Danish government’s current proposal stands, lottery, bingo, scratchcards and keno will also stay with current monopoly incumbent Danske Spil.

Under the current draft framework, eGR understands operators will be able to apply for two licences, one permitting holders to offer sports betting (fixed, pool, spread) online and offline, the other to offer online casino (including poker, blackjack, roulette, slots, backgammon, whist, bridge) with a flat tax rate of 20% on gross win across all products.

The application fee will be €36,000 per licence, plus a dual licence application fee of €51,000 and an annual licence fee in the range of €7,000 to €200,000, based on gross win.

For more on the Danish regulated opening, see next month’s issue of eGaming Review.