Victoria Apuestas has just been granted a legal sports betting license. Mr. Estelella claimed that those sites that operate illegally fail to pay Spanish taxes, and as such should be banned entirely.
Only recently the leading UK sports betting company, William Hill, signed a partnership agreement with Codere. The Director of Corporate Strategy and Business Development at William Hill, Ian Spearing, says that despite that they view the sports betting situation in Spain with a much broader perspective, they were nevertheless unaware of Estalella's comments.
In response, Ignacio Gonzalez of Madrid Autonomous Region said that the sports betting license granted to Victoria Apuestas is applicable only to offline sports betting operations, and as such her proposed ban would include them too. Gonzalez added that the gambling legislations governing Madrid do not address the issue of online sports betting transactions.
Yet Gonzalez agreed that this is something that must be addressed, saying "We believe that the Spanish authorities should look at regulating online gaming in Spain, but on a national rather than a regional basis. From an EU point of view, William Hill supports an open market where regulated companies can compete freely with each other."
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