- Betfred has withdrawn from more than a dozen markets as of Monday June 9.
- The reason for the withdrawal has been given as “regulatory and general licensing processes”
- An email which has been sent to players explains that funds must be withdrawn “within 30 days as access to your account will be unavailable beyond then.”
Betfred has withdrawn from more than a dozen markets, as of Monday June 9.
Countries on the new blacklist include Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Hungary, Portugal and Canada.
Players from these countries who currently have accounts will no longer be able to use them other than for withdrawing their funds.
The terms and conditions on the website have been updated and reflect the complete list of countries from which it will no longer accept accounts:
Betfred does not allow South African, German, Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Belgian, Polish, Bulgarian, Austrian, Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Latvian, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovakian, Ukrainian, Canadian, French, Italian, American, Kyrgyz, Spanish, Greek, Danish, Serbian, Montenegrin, Chinese, Israeli or Turkish citizens or residents to open accounts, deposit funds or place bets on our sportsbook, casino, poker, games or bingo.
The reason for the withdrawal has been given as “regulatory and general licensing processes,” according to a moderator on the PokerStrategy forum.
Betfred operates a poker room on the iPoker network, and PokerStrategy is owned by iPoker’s parent company Playtech.
An email which has been sent to players explains that funds must be withdrawn “within 30 days as access to your account will be unavailable beyond then.”
However, a statement made by PokerStrategy indicates that players have only two weeks to process withdrawals.
Much of Betfred’s business comes from its original home, the UK. Under new gaming laws, the UK Gambling Commission will be demanding that all its licensees explain the legality of their operations in countries where they are not nationally licensed.
As the UK is such a critical market to Betfred, the withdrawal may be connected with the new regulatory demands.
William Hill, another company which gets much of its business from the UK, recently announced that it was withdrawing from 55 countries for “regulatory reasons.”
