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Sweden-listed operator Betsson has unveiled plans to take full control of Polish bookmaker Fuksiarz, despite a history of enforcement in the market.
A subsidiary of the Stockholm-headquartered company has applied to the state-run Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) to secure the competition watchdog’s approval for the planned acquisition.
As part of the planned deal, Great Pike Investments AB is to take over Bukmacherska Ltd, the UOKiK said in a statement.
Great Pike Investments (GP) “is part of the group in which the parent company is Betsson AB. GP is an investment holding company within the Betsson group. Betsson AB is a public company listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (Nasdaq Stockholm)”, the Polish watchdog said.
“Betsson AB is a holding company that invests in and manages its operating subsidiaries, which mainly operate in the online sports betting segment. The Betsson Group operates a number of websites under different brands and domains, where it offers online casino and poker games, as well as sports betting,” according to the UOKiK. “Bukmacherska is active in the field of online bookmaking.”
In December 2020, Bukmacherska Ltd obtained a licence to operate as a bookmaker in the Polish market from the country’s Ministry of Finance.
Johan Pontus Lindwall, the chief executive of Betsson AB, serves as the vice president of Bukmacherska’s management board. Great Pike Investments co-owns Bukmacherska, which also has a minority shareholder, MSMC Consulting Ltd, a company registered in Cyprus.
Acquiring Fuksiarz would enable Betsson to secure a licensed gambling business in Poland, as its own offshore websites are blacklisted by the Ministry of Finance.
Under the nation’s amended gambling law from 2016 that introduced tighter regulations to combat offshore gambling, Poland has been blocking local users from accessing non-licensed gambling websites since 2017.
As of January 28, the blacklist comprises close to 48,200 domains. More than 90 of those domains contain a reference to Betsson.
Article 15f of Poland’s amended gambling law obliges local internet service providers (ISPs) to prevent their customers from accessing the domains that were added to the blacklist.
The finance ministry is tasked with notifying ISPs on the domains to which access should be blocked. Once they receive such a notification, ISPs have 48 hours to block their customers from accessing websites from the blacklist.
At the same time, the UOKiK is not required by any Polish legislation or regulation to take the ministry’s blacklist and the included domains into consideration in its proceedings.
The potential value of the takeover was not disclosed in the statement. However, under Polish law, the competition watchdog’s approval is prerequisite to finalising all takeovers and mergers of Poland-based companies if the concerned entities posted total revenues of at least €1bn worldwide, or €50m in the Polish market in the year that precedes the deal.
Similar to many other operators in Poland, Fuksiarz has been promoting its offer by establishing partnerships with local celebrities.
These include Krzysztof Stanowski, a controversial celebrity YouTuber who recently announced he is planning to run for President in the country’s May 2025 presidential election.
