32Red planning to launch in Italy next year
The casino operator has confirmed that it plans to enter the Italian market, but has not applied for Spanish or Danish licenses.
32Red is in the process of applying for an Italian license and aims to launch a website in the first half of 2012, CEO Ed Ware has revealed.
Ware described Italy as the “perfect” new market for 32Red, following the announcement that Italian regulatory body AAMS is to step up its crackdown on unlicensed operators by forcing financial institutions to provide details of transactions between blacklisted operators and players.
“Apart from the size of the Italian market and the opportunity for 32Red to advertise itself in a familiar way, key in our decision making has been the progressive stance taken by the regulator in respect of taking action to remove the threat of the black market damaging the over-arching objectives of a licensed regime,” he said.
Despite admitting that a policy of launching only in regulated markets “is the right play for [the] business,” Ware admitted that 32Red will not be applying for Spanish or Danish licenses, describing Spain as “an exciting market but not for us.” As the operator has no existing business in Denmark to protect, it is not prepared to attempt to enter either market at this stage.
32Red has already begun working with Microgaming to set up its technical platform in Italy, and according to Ware the operator is “very hopeful” of becoming active in H1 2012, should their license application be successful.