Betfair in Legal Battle with Dutch Government

Over 50% of Betfair’s customers are located within Europe. However, that number is in serious threat of being drastically reduced due to action being taken by the Dutch Government to ban its citizens from wagering, depositing and withdrawing funds from any Betfair sites by ordering banks to prohibit these requests. These include betfair.com, and sports.betfair.com that both host their casino and sports betting sites.

Betfair have initiated a multi million Euro legal proceeding against the government and have already submitted a formal complaint to the European Commission against them.

They are extremely angry at the Dutch government because their MD Mark Davies stated ‘It is a desperate move by the Dutch government and is merely to protect their own gambling monopoly. It simply breaks the rules of the EU regarding the right of free movement, we are going to fight this as it should not be allowed to continue further’.

The online gambling company want the letter sent to the banks early in February to be withdrawn immediately.

Further legal action will be taken by Betfair as the Dutch Government have initiated a boycott against all Betfair websites, therefore could potentially see the company lose millions.

Betfair fear that the longer this continues the higher the risk that other European countries such as Sweden which makes up 2.3% of their consumer base, Germany who make up 6.6% and Austria where 1.6% of their customers are based, could all follow suit in the Betfair ban.