Colombia ahead of Brazil: It already legalized sports betting

Earlier in the year, Colombia, through its regulator Coljuegos, had already announced a true blackout with regard to bookmakers operating in the country.

More than 325 bookie domains were banned in Colombia and had their ips blocked. Many of them are industry giants like William Hill, Betfair, Ladbrokes, etc., and had their use banned in the country.

A similar process to the blackout was used by the government in Portugal in the regulatory process.

Last week, Colombia issued its first sports betting license to Wplay.co. This was the first step after approval of the legalization process last year. That is, no one else could operate in the Colombian market until the allocation of licenses. Only the price of the license is 160 thousand dollars. In addition, there is 15% income tax on revenue, which are the deposit of players.

This model ended up driving away many players from the market who may prefer illegality instead of entering the system.

Therefore, it is only in this week months after the blackout that Colombia awarded its first license for sports betting. The estimate is that more companies start to submit their applications. The regulator expects another 7 licensed companies in 2017.

Coljuegos estimates that the new regulated market is able to move 8 billion in taxes only in the first year.

Source: GMB / Apostaganhabr.com