iGaming has evolved so much in every continent this last few decades and the return of investment is 9 (Nine) times as much as the stock market.

Cyprus which is a traditionally business hub with a strong presence of regulated forex operators with Cyprus companies law offering very attractive tax regime and at some cases zero withholding tax on dividends for non-tax residence.

The Cyprus “The Betting Law 2012 – Law 106(I)/2012.” introduced a partial legislative framework for legislating betting activities, introducing new rules and updating some others. Introducing the “National Betting Authority (NBA)” which is the supervising authority over all betting activities in Cyprus from Land based bookmakers to online gaming operators.

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Type of licenses

• 1. Class A – Regulates land based sports betting – bookmaker shops with physical Premises excluding Class B Services and horse racing.
  2. Class B – Regulates Online based activities excluding slot machines, online casinos lotteries.

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Application procedure
What are their application requirements for obtaining Class A or B Licence

1. Has shares registered in Cyprus
2. Is registered abroad, but has an overseas company branch in Cyprus or a partnership with a Cypriot company and whose principal activity is the carrying out of bets. In this case, the issued and paid up share capital must be at least EUR500,000. The required capital applies to both Cypriot and overseas companies.
3. Bank Guarantee by a bank of Cyprus or other EU member state of the amount of EUR 550,000 expiring six months after receipt of the license.
4. Demonstrate the ability to have sufficient resources to pay players winnings
5. Maintains a suitable control and accounting system for the provision of betting services
6. Has the ability to comply with regulations for the protection of players as imposed by the (National Betting Authority NBA) under the “Betting law of 2012”

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Cost and Duration of license

• All Licenses are issued for one or two years and may be renewed on application, NBA can revoke or suspend a license in the event of failure to comply with the regulations under the “Article 24” of betting law 2012.
• The Licensee must pay a fee of EUR 30,000 For one year and EUR 45,000 for two years.

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AML Legislation

• Accepted payment methods for Class B are Debit/Credit Card and/or other kinds of electronic payment(Article 54,Betting law 2012)
• No cash transactions are allowed for Class-B licensees electronic bets (Article 58(1),Betting Law 2012).
• Class B licensees are prohibited from accepting a bet, unless in the account maintained in the name of the player are sufficient funds to cover the amount of the bet
• Class B license must maintain a valid bank account at an authorized banking institution operating in Cyprus.

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Gaming Tax       

A combined rate of 13% which consist of 10% of net revenue and 3% contribution to the Authority which 2% is allocated to the Cyprus sport Federations and 1% to gambling addition programmes as stated to the (Article 71, Betting Law 2012).

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Technical requirements

• A backup server in the territory of republic of Cyprus which shall be linked to the authority’s computerized systems and have the ability to facilitate real time transactions and information’s about betting activities.
• A specialized website address ending with TLD of “.com.cy” from the Cyprus cydns regulatory.
• The betting platform must meet all the criteria as described in (Directive_13_2016) of Betting Law 2012

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