Romanian operator fined by competition regulator

Westgate Romania has been fined €50,000 (£44,000/$58,000) after jumping the gun on completing a deal to take over Stanleybet’s brands in the country.

Westgate admitted that it had wrapped up the merger before the deal was fully approved by the country’s competition regulator.

The admission of wrongdoing led to a reduced fine, according to the ZF.ro news website.

Westgate struck the deal to acquire the Stanleysport.ro and Stanleybet.ro domains, as well as the Stanleybet brand in Romania, from Stanley International Betting Limited.

The competition watchdog did finally approve the deal in February of this year. However, it emerged that Westgate had already “opened and closed workstations and installed or withdrawn terminals”, the report said.

Stanleybet is one of Romania’s top betting brands. Earlier this year, Kambi Group agreed a deal to provide its sportsbook products to the operator.

Westgate has not been the only operator to fall foul of Romanian regulators in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, Publicwin hit out at Romania’s national gambling regulator, the Oficiul National Pentru Jocuri de Noroc (ONJN), after having its licence suspended.

Image credit: Dennis Jarvis