So, at this time of year, I always look out for the year’s eGaming industry predictions, delivered by various industry leaders to see if they have any gems to impart.
I was starting to feel pretty disappointed as all predictions were run of the mill – more USA M&A and growth, more licensing localisation and yet more regulation, but then I read Julian Buhagira’s (co-founder of RB Capital) predictions for 2021 and he came up with some interesting thoughts, including claiming that “a handful of similarly colourful Caribbean islands [will be] rushing to claim the crown of the incumbent Curaçao-an king”.
Whilst Julian did not elaborate much further, he did add that “It’s surely only a matter of time before new jurisdictional licenses [will] start to be offered to game providers and B2B platforms to supplant the outgoing Curaçao licence”.
Julian’s opinion on the impact of the Curaçao bailout enforced regulatory, tax and licence fee changes is clear and I would have to agree with Julian. I think that Curaçao and its many licensees have made hay for nearly 25 years but Curaçao’s reign was based on a light touch licensing and regulatory approach, low fees and easily avoidable corporation tax.
As an eGaming consultant (director and non-exec), I am frequently asked to strategically compare licensing jurisdictions and I believe that Curaçao will struggle to compete when it imposes a $50,000 annual licence fee plus an EU acceptable level of gambling duty. Particularly when you consider that it would pitch Curaçao directly against jurisdictions with lower duty and significant operational benefits gained from having built up a gold standard reputation.
Moving on to ‘the colourful Caribbean island that will look to supplant Curaçao’, I would be interested to gauge the opinions of my connections on LinkedIn as to which of the Caribbean islands will chase Curaçao’s crown. My immediate thought was Aruba, as it has a vibrant land-based gambling scene and legislation, but Aruba is a country within the Kingdom of The Netherlands, just as Curaçao is, so I would expect it to experience some headwinds if it chose to try and replicate the Curaçao model.
Please let me know your thoughts on the next Curaçao-an king, email me on tina@clarityconsulting.services
