In the Netherlands, offering bets on horse races requires a totalisator licence. This is a legal monopoly with only one licence. The current totalisator licence expires on 30 June 2022. In the course of 2021, the Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa, Netherlands gambling authority) will initiate an open and transparent award procedure for the new licence, which will take effect from 1 July 2022 and run for 5 years.
The totalisator licence only allows betting on horse racing events and only through the parimutuel system (pool betting), so no fixed-odds betting or betting exchanges. The new licence is limited to the offline offering (through racecourses, betting shops, etc.). This is because the online offering is subject to the licensing system for remote gambling introduced in 2021 under the Remote Gambling Act (Wet kansspelen op afstand, Koa).
The licensee must contribute a proportion of the gross gambling proceeds to the horse racing industry. The level and form of this contribution will likely resemble that of the contribution from the proceeds of horse race gambling under the Remote Gambling Act.
Applications will initially be assessed against a set of eligibility and experience requirements, followed by a selection phase. Most of the requirements will probably be based on the licensing requirements under the Remote Gambling Act. Each applicant will be required to pay a fee of €32,000 for the processing of the application. This must be paid in advance. If the application is rejected, there will be no refund.
Interested?
The Ksa requests companies that may be interested in submitting a licence application to make this known. Please send an email with your name and contact details to info@kansspelautoriteit.nl. Please put ‘Interessemelding totalisator’ in the subject line to indicate your interest in the totalisator licence.
For the sake of completeness, please note that indicating your interest does not commit you to anything. This message is for information purposes only and no rights can be derived from it.