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SP : How do you explain that the unlicensed offers are so successful if they are not allowed to communicate commercially? CV : This is the point. As Betsson, this is our mantra: to be a sustainable business, we must hold licences in the relevant jurisdictions where they are available; otherwise we cannot promote ourselves or operate there. But it is not the case for everyone – some operators thrive in the black market, continue to operate without getting caught by regulation. The enforcement mechanisms available and the network of regulators are perhaps not strong enough to tackle the black market. It is all very well to keep adding new rules and new restrictions, but when you are only covering operators who you license, not the illegal operators, you must question what you are doing wrong. SP : We have seen some companies fined over the behaviour of subsidiary companies pre acquisition. How do you as General Counsel limit or mitigate against those skeletons in the cupboard? CV : You have to know what you’re buying. You should be able to spot legacy risks when you see a regulator is investigating, and you may have to pay up, for example. There is usually very little you can do to minimize the risk, but you may be able to negotiate with the vendor around some limitation of liability. Sometimes you just have to accept it as a cost of doing business and we have done a mix of both, which factors into the price. I am not normally directly involved with acquisitions at the earlier stages. When they do land on my desk, the first thing I do is a thorough operations check on structures, reporting, etc. to see if we have to restructure or make other adjustments. There is always a focus on keeping up the ROI, so that can’t be thrown out. The only way I find to make it work is to put in place controls to make sure the reporting lines are right in the organisation. It’s not immediately possible, but you need to do it over time. We have been able to explain to regulators that we recognise a business needed to change, and this is what we’re doing to fix it. With the more reasonable ones you usually get somewhere, and they accept things have changed now you have taken full control. It doesn’t always go your way, however, and at the end
of the day the regulator wants somebody to answer for failures that happened under people who are no longer around. Usually, you are buying the company because you want the license, so it’s the acquirer that needs to answer for it. SP : We have talked a lot about the challenges of working in the industry in the position you have. What would you say to young lawyers to encourage them to get into gaming? CV : I think it’s definitely the place to be if you want variety. There’s always something new. I mean, I come to that to work every morning, I look at the news to see if there are some things I need to follow, and there’s always something new. The world is a very big place and gaming is a very new area. Gaming law is still new and constantly changing so there is a huge amount still to learn. And it’s an area where you have the opportunity actually to use your knowledge of the different areas of law. One day I’m discussing civil claims, another day I’m discussing an administrative decision by a regulator that I don’t agree with. Another day we are talking about rolling out a new product in a new market. No day is the same. You can be an M&A lawyer, you could be a tech lawyer and be interested in the products, you could be an IP lawyer. For me, the interesting part is that it changes every single day. That’s what I love most about it. There’s a social aspect where I’m with people who have very different areas of expertise to me. That’s a reward in itself because we are coming up with a solution together and I am actually able to dip into different pots of expertise to come up with solutions. Then there’s the fun of working in the enterprise space. I worked in a law firm when I started, then at the Malta Gaming Authority before joining Betsson. When you’re in-house counsel, your client is your employer. In a law firm, you can always put in a series of disclaimers, but in house you have find ways to do things that keep the business competitive. As a junior you can hide away in a law firm. I have the challenge of training young lawyers fresh out of private practice. They have to learn quickly that their role is to show what the business can do, not the opposite. No one needs to be told the reasons why they shouldn’t go ahead. It is all about being a facilitator, finding ways to make things happen in the real world rather than being too cautious or over-concerned with theoretical risks. And that’s exciting.
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IMGL MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2024
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