With Belclic’s decision last week to reverse out of the Russian online gambling market still reverberating around the industry, the Swedish online gambling operator Unibet plc has announced that it intends to follow suit – at least temporarily.
The sudden surge of enforcement interest from Russian prosecutors and enforcement officials, leading to more black-listings (see previous reports) has certainly caught the attention of online gambling operators working the region.
Like Betclic, Unibet has commenced by halting new player registrations and taking its foot off the regional marketing pedal in respect of both Unibet.com and sister Maria.com, according to an advisory sent by the company to its affiliates and other partners.
The advisory makes plain that the company intends to continue serving existing Russian punters, and that its ban on new sign-ups will not include customers from other Russian-speaking nations.