Winner.ro, one of the leading sportsbook and casino operators in Romania, has started cooperation with Digitain for a sportsbook using a bespoke API solution.
Digitain, the leading sportsbook and casino platform provider, today announced that it started cooperation to deliver a sportsbook using a bespoke API solution with one of Romania’s leading online operators, Winner.ro.
Mr. Vardges Vardanyan, founder of Digitain, commented on the partnership: “I’m delighted with our whole team to work with Winner in the regulated Romanian market. As a brand, they have shown continued growth over the last ten years of their operations and continue to push the boundaries regarding technology and product innovation for their players.
“We therefore look forward to supporting Winner in the next phase of their growth journey with Digitain’s award-winning sportsbook.”
Winner CEO Nicklas Zajdel said: “Product leadership is our objective, and I am thrilled to go live with Digitain. We are now accelerating in the direction we have defined as our future strategy, which is to have the best customer and product experience with unique features and local content.
“I look forward to working with Digitain in continuing to innovate our sportsbook product and deliver value to our players.”
Dragos Buriu, founder of Newton (platform provider of Winner.ro), said: “We have admired Digitain over the years as the company has expanded its business solutions within the B2B iGaming supply chain.
“The business puts its customers and people first when delivering complex solutions for today’s omnichannel operators. We look forward to working with Digitain’s team as we further accelerate our growth in the Romania market over the months ahead.”
The Romanian Senate has adopted a draft law which would bring about strict limits on where and how gambling operators can advertise in the country.
The law has now been submitted to Romania’s Chamber of Deputies, the decisional chamber of the country’s parliament, where it may be approved and passed into law, rejected, or amended and passed back to the Senate for further discussion.
A draft law on the matter was first initiated in late 2022, but originally included a blanket ban on all forms of gambling advertising in any medium with a view to protecting young and vulnerable people.
After debate in the Senate, however, senators amended the bill to remove the blanket ban, after considering that it would too heavily impact tax revenues coming from the gambling sector.
Instead, the new bill proposes several strict limitations on how, where and when operators may advertise.
Advertisements in public spaces such as billboards, for example, may not exceed 30 square metres in size and must not promote prizes consisting of cash or goods.
On television, no gambling advertising will be permitted overnight between the hours of 11pm and 6am.
Within the allowed window for gambling ads, from 6am to 11pm each day, ads may only be displayed during live sports broadcasts.
Even then, ads may only be played when there is a player substitution or a score change, and must be accompanied by the message “play responsibly”.
The duration of individual ads during sports broadcasts may not exceed 10 seconds, while all ads shown during a single broadcast may not exceed two minutes in aggregate.
In addition, public figures including celebrities and sports personalities may not be used in gambling marketing.
A similar recommendation is already in place in the local regulator, the Romanian National Office for Gambling’s (RNOG) code of conduct, but at present is only a soft recommendation rather than a law.
If the law is approved by the Chamber of Deputies, the RNOG will be tasked with overseeing its implementation.
Romania has clarified its intention to implement a new and vastly increased withholding tax on player winnings from as soon as next week.
Under fresh proposals published yesterday (4 July) by the Romanian government, player winnings in excess of 10,000 Romanian Leu (€2,022) will face an automatic deduction of 1,700 Romanian Leu (€344) and will be taxed at 40%.
Mid-range winnings of between 3,000 and 10,000 Romanian Leu will be taxed at 20% at the point of withdrawal, while 300 Romanian Leu will be deducted immediately.
Finally, as part of the new three-tier model, player winnings up to 3,000 Romanian Leu will be taxed at the lowest threshold of 10%.
The proposals are bad news for Romania’s online operators as the figures represent a significant tax hike on previous levels. This will likely serve as a major deterrent to players.
Previously, all gambling winnings up to 66,750 Romanian Leu were taxed at just 1%.
Wins between 66,750 and 445,000 Romanian Leu were deducted 667.5 Romanian Leu and subject to a 16% tax, while a 25% tax applied to wins in excess of 445,000 Romanian Leu.
AOJND president Odette Nestor: “In the short and medium term, there will be losses for all parties, including the government, whose revenues, instead of increasing, will be reduced.”
For comparison, a player who won 11,000 Romanian Leu (€2,224) while online gambling under the old system would have taken home 10,890 Romanian Leu after tax.
Under the new proposals, however, the player would be left with just 5,580 Romanian Leu after tax, representing a near 50% decrease in profits.
Odette Nestor, president of Romanian online gambling trade body the Association of Remote Gambling Organisations (AOJND), insists players will turn to the black market if the new tax is enforced.
She said: “The adoption of this measure will have the opposite effect to the one expected by the government, so that the number of players on the licensed sites in Romania will be reduced.
“All these players who will no longer access legal sites licensed in Romania will migrate to an illegal area, that of the unlicensed sites.
“In the short and medium term, there will be losses for all parties, including the government, whose revenues, instead of increasing, will be reduced.
“For players, protection will be void if they play on unlicensed sites or in locations that do not apply this change,” she added.
Romania’s leading gambling operators include Superbet, MaxBet and Fortuna.