KSA renews ZEbetting & Gaming Dutch totalisator licence

The Dutch gambling regulator has renewed ZEbetting & Gaming’s licence to run the Netherlands’ offline horse race betting totalisator monopoly for another five years.

The Netherlands. The Dutch gambling regulator de Kansspelautoriteit has renewed ZEbetting & Gaming’s licence to run the Netherlands’ horse race betting totalisator. The five-year licence to run offline horse racing betting runs from July 1 to June 30, 2027.

ZEbetting, which has held the Netherlands’ totalisator licence since 1998, will therefore continue to offer on-course wagering facilities at the national racetracks at Drafbaan Groningen, Drafcentrum Alkmaar, Renbaan Duindigt and Victoria Park Wolvega.

While the Netherlands has recently opened its gaming market, with a licensed online gambling market launching in October, the country maintains a monopoly on the offline horse race betting totalisator.

ZEbetting‘s current licence expires on June 30. The next licence will run from July 1 to June 30, 2027. Last month, ZEbetting also gained a Dutch online gambling licence.

The KSA opened a tender for the totalisator licence in on November 1, with the deadline at the end of that month. It has not said whether it received any other applications to rival ZEbetting & Gaming, which is part of France’s Zebet/ZeTurf.

In 2020, the Dutch Council of State instructed the KSA to check that its licensing processes for the totalisator were in line with European Union law after Kindred Group’s Trannel subsidiary mounted a legal challenge arguing that the process won by ZEbetting had discriminated against rival bidders.

Kindred argued that the KSA’s requirement for applicants to have a land-based presence in the Netherlands excluded many operators from the licensing process.