Legal bookmakers leave Russian market

Publication date: 15 December 2020

Legal bookmakers

The VulkanBET bookmaker announced its decision to leave th Russian market. The plan is as follows. From 15 December, the online bookmaker stops registering new users and no longer accepts bets on sports and eSports events. From 1 January 2021, all activity on the territory of Russia is completely terminated. All obligations to players and partners are to be fulfilled by 31 December 2020. “VulkanBET wants to focus on markets which offer more favorable conditions to betting businesses,” the company’s representative commented to 3snet. The online bookmaker will continue monitoring the situation in Russia and does not exclude the possibility of returning to the Russian gambling industry in the future. On 8 December 2020, the Russian State Duma approved the first stage of a bill which provides for the creation of a Unified Gambling Regulator. The Ministry of Finance then announced an increase in bookmakers’ mandatory contributions to Russian sports bodies—from the current 5% of revenue generated from each type of sport to 10%. Experts have immediately warned of negative consequences for legal betting in Russia which this decision will probably result in. Due to the increase in the mandatory contributions, many bookmakers will have to, for example, limit all the variety of sports they accept bets on to only a few most popular types.