In a dynamic and heavily regulated online gambling market, Tom de Backer, CEO of 711 Casino, explains how reliability and compliance are central to their operations. Since launching in the Dutch market in April 2022, 711 Casino has relied on VerifyMe by CDDN for both player registration and continuous monitoring.

“We received our license on March 15, 2022, and went live on April 25 that year,” says De Backer. “We were part of the second wave of providers in the Netherlands.”
The partnership with CDDN was established via Bragg Gaming (formerly Oryx), a well-known online gaming platform already experienced with CDDN’s services.
“Our choice for VerifyMe was based on the positive experiences of other operators within our gaming platform. That existing collaboration gave us confidence in CDDN as our registration partner.”

Registration and Ongoing Monitoring

“We use VerifyMe for two key components,” says De Backer. “First, there’s the registration process, which includes several legal checks such as sanctions list screening, IBAN-name verification, and address validation. If needed, we also use iDIN. Second, we use ongoing monitoring to keep our player database continuously up-to-date. For example, we receive notifications if a player moves or passes away, so we can act immediately.”

Although De Backer is satisfied with the collaboration and the quality of VerifyMe, he also acknowledges challenges: “No system is perfect, and occasionally there are outages with external service providers on which VerifyMe depends,” he says. “Still, the overall experience is positive. If issues arise, they actively think along with us to find solutions, which is crucial for us.”

Challenges and Regulation

Since going live, 711 Casino has experienced major changes in Dutch regulations. “In the three years we’ve been active, we’ve had to survive five tsunamis and three typhoons,” he jokes. De Backer highlights that stricter limits and restrictions around responsible gaming and marketing have had a major impact:
“These changes led to declining revenue and increased cost pressure, as player value dropped.”

Partnership with CDDN

However, he stresses that this does not impact the core functionalities of VerifyMe, which continue to operate consistently and reliably. “Our cooperation with CDDN is always smooth,” says De Backer. “When challenges arise, they work closely with us to find solutions. Of course, there have been the usual discussions about price adjustments due to inflation, but we always find a compromise.”

Another area of discussion was a unified registration flow, which would allow players to reuse their registration data across multiple providers. “While the idea seemed convenient from a user standpoint, we saw risks,” says De Backer. “It would make it easier for players to quickly register with another provider, which is more of a risk than a benefit for our business.”

Looking Ahead

Despite the many challenges, De Backer remains realistic and hopeful about the future of the regulated Dutch online gambling market. “I hope policymakers carefully analyze the impact of strict regulations and limits,” says De Backer. “If we restrict players too much, the move to illegal providers is easily made, and that’s bad for everyone: players, operators, and the government.”