Betsson confirms termination of €27.5m Goldrun Casino acquisition agreement
The Swedish gambling operator’s re-entry to the Dutch gambling market is on hold once more.
Sweden.- Stockholm-listed Betsson AB has confirmed the termination of its deal to buy Goldrun Casino for €27.5m. It must pay a termination fee of €800,000, which it says will not have a material impact.
Betsson announced back in February 2024 that it would buy Goldrun Casino operator Holland Gaming Technology and its studio Holland Power Gaming BV in order to re-enter the Dutch online gambling market. However, a condition of the agreement was regulatory approval from the Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA). With approval still not granted within the timeframe in the agreement, the deal has been terminated.
Before the regulation of online gambling in the Netherlands in October 2021, Betsson ran Kroon Casino and Oranje Casino in the jurisdiction. It pulled these unlicensed offerings in 2021 to comply with the KSA’s requirements ahead of the regulated market launch and subsequently submitted an application for a licence under its own name. However, it withdrew its application in 2022 complaining for regulatory delays.
The acquisition of Holland Gaming seemed to offer a quicker and simpler means to re-enter the market since it already had a Dutch gambling licence granted in September 2022. The KSA has not revealed why approval of the acquisition remains pending, noting only that the process was incomplete.
Betsson says it will continue to study strategic opportunities in the Netherlands. However, it also faced a recent legal setback in the country when Rotterdam District Court ruled that the gambling operator must reimburse more than €500,000 that a player lost gambling on its unlicensed website in 2014, years before the Netherlands regulated online gambling.
Meanwhile, the Dutch gambling market continues to face more restrictions. A ban on gambling sponsorship in sports will come into force on July 1, and bill proposing new gambling reforms, possibly including a rise in the minimum age for online casino slots, is expected later this year. Gambling tax has already been hiked to 34.2 per cent and will rise to 37.8 per cent in 2026.
