Following a previous Austria exit, the online gambling and sports betting company bet-at-home has now refused to fight back for its recently lost gambling operating licence in the UK.
Only a few days after the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced its decision to suspend the UK operating permit of bet-at-home, the company officially revealed that it would be leaving the country’s market for good. The move was made right before an upcoming review process that could have seen the gambling operator’s licence restored, which would have allowed bet-at-home to continue offering its services to local patrons.
The customers of bet-at-home’s online gambling platform have not been able to place bets for more than a week now, since July 6th. The company’s operating licence was suspended by the country’s gambling regulatory body on the next day, July 7th, and a few days later, the operator officially announced that it had decided to surrender the operating permit granted by the UKGC and permanently exit the British market.
New registrations to the gambling platform have already been disabled, so the operator will only have to deal with the customer base it had before the licence suspension.
As the online gambling company’s statement regarding its UK exit reads, bet-at-home customers will be given until 10:00 PM on September 30th to withdraw any money from their accounts. If a player is willing to make a withdrawal after this date, they will have the opportunity to contact the company’s representatives and directly request a refund. This option will be available for users until June 30th, 2023.
Online Gambling Company Faced Alleged Social Responsibility and AML Failures
On July 7th, the UK Gambling Commission announced that the operating permit of bet-at-home was suspended under section 118(2) of the 2005 Gambling Act following some suspicions of anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures.
The pending review was intended to be carried out under section 116 of the Gambling Act. Without a proper inquiry into the allegations faced by the company, no one can really confirm or disprove the alleged failures but the fact that bet-at-home refused to go through the aforementioned regulatory review, which could have brought its licence back, does not seem very well. Now, the company’s refusal to actually go through the planned regulatory review and potentially win its operating permit back and its decision to surrender the licence, will result in the review’s abortion.
The suspension of bet-at-home’s GB Affiliate program, which was the only marketing channel for the online gambling operator in the country, further indicates that the company’s exodus is happening quickly.
The operator’s decision to leave the UK is not the first bad news for bet-at-home. Only a couple of months ago, in May 2022, the company was forced to confirm it had been facing some operational challenges seeing its first-quarter revenue decline by about 50% amid further regulatory restrictions in a number of European countries, including the Netherlands and Germany. The company faced certain struggles in Austria, too, which forced it to leave the Austrian market, too, causing even more serious turbulence for bet-at-home.
- Author
Olivia Cole
