Betsson has officially terminated its agreement to acquire Holland Gaming Technology Ltd and Holland Power Gaming B.V., citing prolonged delays in regulatory approval from the Dutch Gambling Authority (KSA). The original deal, announced in February 2024 and valued at €27.5 million, was designed to facilitate Betsson’s return to the regulated Dutch iGaming market. However, with the KSA failing to deliver a decision by the agreed long-stop date, Betsson has opted to unwind the transaction and pursue other business avenues.

Strategic challenges in the Netherlands market:

As part of the termination, Holland Gaming Technology and Holland Power Gaming will revert to their original owners, and Betsson will be repaid €26.7 million after deduction of a break fee. The company confirmed that this reversal will not have any significant impact on its consolidated income statement.

According to Cision News, the acquisition had been intended to fast-track Betsson’s re-entry into the Netherlands by integrating a fully licensed Dutch operator. Holland Gaming Technology holds a B2C licence and operates platforms such as goldruncasino.nl and goldruncasino.com, while Holland Power Gaming supplies exclusive gaming content for the operator.

Betsson’s withdrawal from the deal represents a significant setback for its broader strategy to expand geographically within regulated markets. Previously, Betsson had exited the Dutch grey market in September 2021, just ahead of the country’s official regulated iGaming market launch, with the expectation of returning under new licensing conditions. The company had applied for its own Dutch licence but abandoned the process in July 2023, blaming “significant delays” and a lengthy, costly approval procedure.

By acquiring an already-licensed operator, Betsson hoped to circumvent these regulatory obstacles, but the failure to obtain timely approval from the KSA thwarted that plan.

Additional regulatory issues for Betsson Nordic:

Aside from its challenges in the Netherlands, Betsson Nordic Ltd was recently fined SEK 6.5 million (about €600,000) by the Swedish Gambling Authority, as stated on its website, for deficiencies in anti-money laundering (AML) efforts. The regulator found Betsson Nordic had failed to adequately verify customer funds origins, preventing the company from assessing money laundering risks properly. The fine relates to breaches that occurred before changes to the Gambling Act’s penalty fee calculations in June 2024, so the maximum sanction is capped at €1 million.

Betsson Nordic is licensed to provide commercial online gaming and betting services in Sweden, including through the platform betsson.com/sv.

Betsson’s regulatory difficulties in the Netherlands are not new. In March 2024, a Rotterdam District Court ordered Betsson to repay more than €500,000 to a player who lost funds gambling on Betsson-operated sites without Dutch licences, relating to activities dating back to 2014 before the market’s regulation.