Betfair will today lodge a formal complaint with the European Commission in relation to recently passed Cypriot gambling legislation.
The law could lead to betting exchanges being prevented from operating in their current format in Cyprus. The new law was adopted by the Cypriot Parliament on July 6 and also prohibits cash betting transactions by betting operators.
Betfair’s formal complaint to the European Commission states that any attempted ban on betting exchanges is a discriminatory and disproportionate breach of EU law as it may apply only to exchange providers, with all other sports betting products remaining unaffected.
The Cypriot authorities have sought to justify the restriction based on unfounded and misinformed concerns relating to a supposed increased risk of money laundering as well as match-fixing. They have been unable to produce any evidence of increased risk of money laundering through exchanges, as required by EU law, to substantiate these claims.
To date, the sports betting company remains the only sports betting operator that has actively engaged on the issue of match fixing with a far-reaching memorandum of understanding for exchange of information with the Cyprus Football Association in suspected cases.
Betfair will continue to attempt to operate in Cyprus while the complaint is heard by the Commission.
Martin Cruddace, chief legal and regulatory officer at Betfair, commented: “Having played a constructive role in the preparatory phase of a draft Cypriot law, we were disappointed with the inclusion of elements within it which could unfairly discriminate Betfair and in any event are clearly incompatible with EU law. We have therefore asked the commission to review the matter and engage with the Cypriot authorities, with the aim of addressing the concerns raised in our complaint.”
