Bwin to start accepting bets in Russia

Monday 20th of November 2017

The Russian branch of international bookmaker Bwin has officially launched its website and will soon start accepting bets on Russian territory, according to a statement on its website.

The company previously postponed the launch of e-bets processing from September to mid-November.

Bwin.ru is a joint project of GVC Holdings and two companies belonging to businessman Alexander Mamut, Digital Betting and Rambler&Co. The Russian partners promised to invest $11.2 million in the course of 3 years to develop the brand.

The bookmaker operates under the Digital Betting license issued on March 4, 2016.

Bwin has become the first international bookmaker to establish itself in Russia's developing gambling market.

There are now more than a dozen Russian-licenced online bookies, with Zenit and RUS-TELETOT being among most recent entrants.

Last week, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament approved in the third and final reading the bill on the doubling of betting taxes, but to become a law it needs to pass the reading in the upper chamber of the parliament and be signed by President Vladimir Putin.

There wasn't much criticism of this move among bookmakers as the taxes envisaged in the bill are much smaller than the Finance Ministry proposed back in February 2016, which would have resulted in a ten-fold increase of bookmakers' deductions.

Sports Betting Launch Opening