The Czech Republic’s online gambling market has seen many changes lately, especially when it comes to regulation.

The fast growth of the sector is also due to the technology servicing it, which has become more sophisticated, and the general demand for online services, including betting and gaming. The Czech gambling market became regulated just a short time ago and has already seen the benefits of having large software providers and international operators entering the sector and adding to tax incomes for the state.

Just recently, gaming provider, Play’n GO, signed a multi-year arrangement with PokerStars Casino. Owned by The Stars Group, PokerStars will gain access to Play’n GO’s complete portfolio of games directly integrated onto its platform. The move demonstrates the brand’s interest expanding its slot offering to additional markets and also follows up its entry into the sporting industry, having gone live in the Czech Republic in a deal with Tipsport at the start of the year.

People in the Czech Republic spent 39.8bn crowns on gambling in 2017, which is half a billion more than the previous year, national drug coordinator Jindrich Voboril said. A third of that sum was spent on online gambling, while it was only three per cent in 2009. "Thanks to the technological development, the increase is enormous. The risk is that younger and younger generations gamble. It is more available," Voboril said.

The Czech Republic’s gambling industry report will be presented by expert Jan Rehola when the third edition of Central and Eastern European Gaming Conference and Awards takes place on September 25 at The Ritz-Carlton Budapest in Hungary. Řehola has over seven years of experience in the gambling field, in both the public and private sectors. 

He has been working for four years for the Ministry of Finance, the Czech gambling regulator, firstly as head of the legal unit and later as director of the gambling department. In his work for the Czech gambling regulator Rehola was responsible for all gambling policy issues, including the drafting of new legislation, the issuing of gambling licences and cooperation with other European regulators as a member of the European Commission Expert Group on Online Gambling.