Gambling Industry trade bodies in two of Europe’s leading economies have joined forces to focus on standardising responsible gambling across the European sector.
Sweden’s online gambling body, Branschforeningen for Onlinespel (BOS) has signed what is described as a ‘cooperation pact’ with The Netherlands Online Gambling Association (NOGA) to channel responsible participation within the two gambling marketplaces.
Having offered help to licensed incumbents throughout the period of Sweden’s relaunch of its reformed online betting marketplace, which took place last year, BOS has now confirmed that it will be sharing its knowledge and best practices with NOGA ahead of the Netherlands moving to open its licensing window on March 1 next year.
As representative trade bodies for the two respective gambling sectors, BOS and NOGA have agreed that they will collaborate and exchange information to help come up with sustainable, business-friendly marketplaces, whilst at the same time ensuring the best standards of consumer safety.
Speaking about the arrangement, the BOS Secretary-General Gustaf Hoffstedt said that both trade associations shared mutual perspectives on how European markets should harmonise their gambling laws to safeguard vital consumer protections and to standardise the online gambling market:
“BOS and NOGA both stand for a high level of customer protection in every aspect of gambling. We also share a strong belief in the EU idea and therefore support free trade on equal terms. Protectionism and monopolism is not the way forward for the gambling industry.”
Ahead of what is likely to be a critical 2021 for the Netherlands gambling sector, the Managing Director of NOGA, Peter-Paul de Goeij welcomed the guidance of BOS on important issues related to consumer protections, channelisation to licensed incumbents and stakeholder management. He stated that NOGA was pleased to announce the deal, adding that Sweden had already led the Netherlands in the area of regulating online gambling over the last two years.
De Goejj also said that the organisation could learn a great deal from the experiences that BOS has picked up during this period. And he emphasised that although the links with BOS and with other European gambling trade bodies was already constructive and strong, this formal arrangement would help to boost European cooperation between key gambling sector organisations.