Alderney slashes cost of licenses

The Alderney online gambling licensing jurisdiction has announced major reductions in licensing fees as competition for business hots up in a market where national jurisdictions are increasingly dominant.

Alderney is reducing the cost of Category 1 (B2C) and 2 licences (B2B) for new operators moving to the jurisdiction from GBP 35,000 to GBP 17,500 for the first 12 months.

Robin Le Prevost, Alderney’s director of e-commerce development says that the island has always been a very cost-effective base for e-gambling operations but these significant changes have reinforced that position:

“We recognised that our unique fee-based system, rather than a ‘tax and duty’ system, provides real benefit for established operators but could be improved for new operators moving to Alderney,” he explained.

“This move adds to improvements we introduced last year. Our Games Developers Certificate can be upgraded to a Category 2 licence, which allows for the operation of a B2B platform, without the loss of any residual value.

“This means that developers wishing to become platform providers, with all the benefits that brings in terms of swifter and cheaper integration costs, can now do so at a substantially lower cost. This, in conjunction with the recently approved Cloud technology, provides developers and start-ups with a highly attractive environment from where to base their business.”

Le Prevost says that attracting these types of business is a key strategy for Alderney as the government sees huge potential for games developers in the future. He believes that the industry is ‘crying out’ for new and unique content as this is an important a point of difference for competing businesses.

Another change in Alderney is the introduction of a small fee for B2B operators calculated on their client base. This system, which already exists in the Isle of Man and Malta is levied at a rate of GBP 3,000 per client – a substantial discount to the other jurisdictions.

Underlining Alderney’s intention to be competitive, the jurisdiction has published tables on how it compares to other jurisdictions here:

http://www.alderneygambling.com/media/6319/egamingjuristictionstable.pdf