The license of the leading Belgian betting company will be suspended for 24 hours on the 3rd of September. The Gaming Commission issued the sanction against the Belgian branch of Ladbrokes for offering unauthorized virtual betting to its clients in 2017 and 2018, La Dernière Heure, Het Laatste Nieuws and De Morgen dailies reported on Wednesday.
No in-agency or online bets may be placed on the 3rd of September with Ladbrokes in Belgium. The company’s 300 Belgian agencies, the roughly 100 bookstores linked to it and all Ladbrokes’ digital operations will be suspended for 24 hours on that day.
The sanction affects both Tiercé Ladbroke SA and Derby SA, the Belgian daughter company of Ladbrokes PLC.
Virtual sporting bets are bets in which the player wagers money on the result of an imaginary event. These were tolerated from 2012 to June 2017. However, Ladbrokes continued to offer virtual betting to its clients up to the 14th of March 2018, even though it was banned by law.
The Gaming Commission initiated a sanctions procedure that led to the 24-hour suspension. The Commission noted that the company which “has not contested the materiality of the facts” had continued to offer virtual betting “until it was legally banned from doing so”.
The Brussels Times
