Online gambling has been permitted in the Netherlands since 1 October 2021. 12 companies have been registered in the Dutch online betting market. One of these is the Belgian Bingoal that began early with its preparations for making the logging in of their players as flexible as possible. CDDN has assisted Bingoal since the start of 2021.

Bingoal is a gambling company of Belgian origin which has offered online gambling to our southern neighbours since 2011. Bingoal has been one of the 11 companies with a Dutch licence since 1 October. Bingoal has been working closely with CDDN since the start of 2021 so as to meet the strict Dutch conditions and regulations concerning misuse, money laundering, fraud and gambling addiction.

Quentin Impens is a marketeer at Bingoal and he has been closely involved in the collaboration since the start. “In the first few months we were mainly busy discovering how players might register as easily as possible on our website.”

The most important feature that Bingoal has acquired from CDDN is the ability to scan in identity documents with a smartphone and in this way to read all the data required for compliance with the legislation and for creating an account. A check takes place immediately behind the scenes that the person who wants to open an account is not on a sanction or PEP list and in the event of a PEP notification he would not be able to play unless subject to increased vigilance. “And the most important thing of all is the connection that CDDN provides for us with CRUKS (Central Register for Exclusion from Gambling). If a potential client appears on that register, we cannot not authorise him”, explains Impens.

Hectic

The last few weeks were rather hectic for Bingoal, to say the least. “That is an understatement”, laughs Impens. “We deliberately did not go live on 1 October because so much was new to us. The Belgian legislation and regulations vary considerably from the Dutch ones and we were not yet using the process of scanning identity documents. We wanted to test that thoroughly first so as to ensure that it is as easy as possible for players to create an account. You really don’t want players pulling out and then never coming back again. That could have caused a lot of problems.”

Impens is still not totally satisfied. For him, the success rate – the percentage of potential players that successfully complete the entire logging in process – could still be a little higher. “But we and CDDN are working on this with maximum effort, so I expect that it will turn out well. The latest update resolved many of the teething problems.”

Time-consuming

For Bingoal and also for other online gambling providers it is important to be able to obtain all the required data regarding a potential player in as short a time as possible. If a player has to wait too long, there is a good chance that he or she will switch to a competitor. Impens: “The situation in the Netherlands is that we are obliged to ask for and record a scan of an identity document. And that is relatively time-consuming, in particular in comparison with how it works in Belgium. Not only is the law less strict there but you may also prove your identity there with a manual registration form instead of a scan. And the ‘Itsme’ app is very popular with us. It is comparable with DigiD in the Netherlands. But thankfully CDDN also helps us a great deal with guiding players in the Netherlands through the logging in process in a way that is as quick and user-friendly as possible. And without this collaboration it would have been somewhat harder for us to enter the Dutch market. ”