online betting promotion in certain EU countries

[iso2009]

As many of you already know, each state in the EU has now (more or less) a specific legislation regarding betting and the promotion of online betting.

I want to try to diversify a bit so I thought about trying sites with content in Polish, Czech, Portuguese, French. These are pretty much closed markets for, say, bet365...

So I need somehow to promote local bookies, because, to be honest, the offshore ones do not convert much for me. I guess it's a matter of trust or maybe I am sending the wrong traffic. On top of that, the offshore bookies might get me into legal issues. But anyway, I was curious about the laws for gambling affiliates and, of course, if someone worked well with Unibet France, for example. Or with Betclic in Portugal.

I know some of these programs are not quite "the best", but my options are limited.

Particularly, I want to know if there's any local company registration required, or any annual fee you have to pay in order to be able to promote sports betting online (in the specific language). Or if the local bookies are willing to accept a multilingual site, which is a .com or .net.

I also have some Dutch traffic, even though I do not plan to make content in Dutch. But it could be interesting to know how one can access this market.

If anyone had any success, please share. Not looking for exact info, just your experience.

[dannyx]

France has probably the tightest gambling laws.

I can speak about Poland

1. One of the highest betting taxes on earth, 12% tax on the stake of each bet, plus if you win over €500 there is another big tax. Players split their bets into several bets so as not to win more than €500 in one bet

2. It doesn't matter what domain you have in which language. I know that some bookmakers agreed to cooperate without a company, but contracts had to be written down, but here I am not fully informed. However, I know that there are no fees for partners, the license is only for bookies.

3. There are about 20 "legal" bookmakers on the Polish market

4. The state blocks offshore sites. However, the system is full of holes and sites popular among Poles, such as 22bet and unibet, are blocked, but these companies are constantly doing mirror domains and they work. Pages like Mybookie, Betonline are not blocked.

5. At many bookmakers, a player lives for a year or two, then it disappears from your account

6. Including taxes, the real odds for a 50/50 event is about 1.55/1.55 which is a drama

7. There are some legitimate affiliate sites that advertise aggressively, buy ads on Google

8. In recent years, due to the large influx of Russian-speaking people from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus to Poland, several bookmakers have introduced Russian language on their sites alongside Polish.

9. Sports betting is very popular. Despite the development of the Internet, there is still a large number of stationary bookmaker points.

Personally, due to the competition, dramatically high taxes, which, apart from hitting the players, certainly also hit the partners, I would not undertake to promote legal bookmakers in Poland. If I had to promote something here, it would be offshore 22bet, unibet, because despite blocking, Poles are looking for mirror sites and use VPN.

[iso2009]

dannyx, great info! Thank you very much!

I do promote 22bet, but it doesn't convert well with Polish traffic on English website. I always thought it was a matter of trust (people tend to trust more the local bookies). Also, I checked 22bet via affiliate link with a PL VPN, it loads fine.

I am aware this is not the place for legal advice, but I wonder what would be the penalty for promoting offshore bookies - if there's such a penalty. I would like to travel safely in Poland

[dannyx]

As for penalties, I can only comment on what I know in practice.

I know of one service that has been promoting offshore sites for years, all the while doing it on a .pl domain.
They received a letter from the customs office about blocking the site and a summons to the office. That's where it ended.

The guys more than two years ago after that launched the same site on a .com domain and it is still running today. There are also sites where legal bookmakers are promoted and after logging in you have an offshore view and this is supposedly ok because it is not public advertising. But I don't know for sure, this is not a legal forum.

As the gambling law entered the tax office got the data of payments to the bookmaker, people who paid by wire transfer. Some people got summonses to the office and those who admitted got financial penalties and those who did not admit paid nothing, as cases in the courts ended in favor of the players.

hazardzik1 .net bukzaplac1 .com
Here are two sites that promote offshore. You can evaluate their traffic, whether it's worth it, etc.
Some legitimate sites, have very high traffic, so competition is high.

I don't remember how it is in the law exactly, but if you want I can find what in theory is threatened for promoting offshore bookmakers.

[iso2009]

I don't remember how it is in the law exactly, but if you want I can find what in theory is threatened for promoting offshore bookmakers.

Thanks a lot for the info! No need to dig further, unless you want to. Thanks very much!

I previously went to some authorised betting sites from Poland, and they all had this rule of "commission is paid for one year only" and they also stated that the period might be extended.

But the most important info: there's no annual fee for affiliates, unlike, say, Romania, where you must pay EUR 6000/year in order to be able to promote local bookies.

[dannyx]

Original
ART 110a KKS
Reklamowanie gier i zakładów wzajemnych wbrew przepisom ustawy


§ 1.

Kto, wbrew przepisom ustawy, zleca lub prowadzi reklamę lub promocję gier cylindrycznych, gier w karty, gier w kości, zakładów wzajemnych lub gier na automatach, umieszcza reklamę takich gier lub zakładów lub informuje o sponsorowaniu przez podmiot prowadzący działalność w zakresie takich gier lub zakładów,
podlega karze grzywny do 720 stawek dziennych.

§ 2.

Tej samej karze podlega kto czerpie korzyści z reklamy lub promocji gier cylindrycznych, gier w karty, gier w kości, zakładów wzajemnych lub gier na automatach zlecanych lub prowadzonych wbrew przepisom ustawy, z umieszczania reklamy wbrew przepisom ustawy albo informowania o sponsorowaniu przez podmiot prowadzący działalność w zakresie takich gier lub zakładów.

§ 3.

W wypadku mniejszej wagi, sprawca czynu zabronionego określonego w § 1 lub 2,
podlega karze grzywny za wykroczenie skarbowe.



Translate


Article 110a. KKS

Advertising games and sports betting in violation of the law
§ 1.
Whoever, in violation of the provisions of the Act, orders or conducts advertising or promotion of cylindrical games, card games, dice games, sports betting or slot machine games, places advertising of such games or betting or informs about sponsorship by an entity conducting activities in the field of such games or betting,
shall be subject to a fine of up to 720 daily rates.
§ 2.
The same penalty shall be imposed on anyone who profits from advertising or promoting cylindrical games, card games, dice games, sports betting or slot machine games commissioned or conducted in violation of this Act, from placing advertising in violation of this Act, or from informing of sponsorship by an entity conducting activities in the field of such games or betting.
§ 3.
In a case of lesser gravity, the perpetrator of the prohibited act specified in § 1 or 2,
shall be subject to a fine for a fiscal offense.




Separately there is a regulation for players and operators for the activity itself (not related to advertising) but this is probably not important.

[iso2009]

I guess 720 daily rates is somewhere in the range of €6 million?

Edit: it seems it depends on min/max daily rate, where the difference can be huge.

[dannyx]

the daily rate is from PLN 116.33 to PLN 46,533.33, i.e. from €30 to €11,000

Minimum penalty 10 daily rates Maximum 720

But I don't know about it, I found this information about daily rates on the internet.

I suspect it's just intimidation. Or rates for bookmakers, not partners.
However, this is not a legal forum, only opinion

https://hazard.mf.gov.pl/ here is a register of blocked websites in Poland, interestingly, despite thousands of blocked hpages, everygame.eu and other such websites are not blocked

You can always try on the legal market. I talked about the only negatives, but there are also positives. You can easily buy google ads and be in 1st place, we advertise on Youtube. There are two affiliate sites that do this from what I've seen.