Malta has exempted Malta fantasy sports games operators from the requirement of obtaining a remote gaming license to be able to operate.
This important and welcomed change was brought about by a legal notice issued on the 1st August 2016, by means of which fantasy sports games operators can now proceed to provide their services online through a simple and straightforward notification of their operations to the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), without the need to go through a licensing process.
The simplified procedure is set to put Malta as the preferred destination for fantasy games online businesses that want to operate in a reputable EU jurisdiction and within a stable online gaming environment whilst benefitting from a practical, straightforward legal framework.
The legal notice just issued provides clarification on which are the exempted games , primarily games played for money or money’s worth whereby the winning outcome is determined predominantly through the skill or knowledge of the player, and where the results are determined by the accumulation of statistical results of the performance of a number of individuals in sporting events. The new legislation provides that games which providing for players betting on the forecast of the score, point spread or any other future occurrence of one or multiple events are not be considered as fantasy sports games and therefore are still deemed to be potentially licensable
