Entain’s Sportingbet brand is pushing for reforms in South Africa, calling out what it believes are inefficiencies in the system.

Tyrone Dobbin, Co-Founder of Sportingbet South Africa, wrote an open letter to all gambling authorities in the nation, raising some concerns about how they currently operate and proposing an improved roadmap for future consideration.

According to Dobbin, rising problem gambling rates in the country have attracted unfair judgement by media outlets, who are pointing at excessive advertising as the reason behind this.

Instead, Dobbin added that there is currently a misalignment between gambling authorities that has led to a vacuum being exploited by unlicensed operators.

South Africa’s regulatory system is truly fragmented – it consists of the National Lotteries Commission (national lottery oversight), the National Gambling Board (national compliance oversight), and nine Provincial Licensing Authorities (PLAs) responsible for regulating gambling activity within their respective jurisdictions.

These are all meant to be coordinated by the National Gambling Policy Council, which consists of the Minister of Trade and Industry, as well as Executive Council members from each province. Non-voting members include the chairperson of the National Gambling Board, and the Chairpersons of each PLA.

Sportingbet calls for national unity

In his open letter, Dobbin has argued that despite the Council being legally required to meet a minimum of two times every year, it has conducted only two times for the past eight years.

“In the absence of regulatory coordination, the National Gambling Board and the PLAs have operated in isolation, applying different interpretations of legislation and treating identical products inconsistently,” Dobbin said.

This, he added, has led to regulatory disputes “among provinces, regulators and operators of different wagering verticals against each other”.

To bring order to the chaos, Dobbin proposed a list of updates, such as a joint Regulator-Operator Task Team consisting of all PLAs, the National Gambling Board, and the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation (SARGF), to address national concerts around market conduct.

Another proposal includes a digital self-exclusion register that is funded and managed by the SARGF, ready to hit the ground running in six months. 

Lastly, Dobbin has called for coordinated enforcement against illegal offshore operators, supported by a national public awareness campaign to educate consumers.

The South African betting and gaming sector has grown substantially over recent years, with gross gaming revenue for 2023/24 alone up 25.7% on the year prior to R59.3bn (€2.9bn). 

The industry is now a significant element of the economy, but this has raised some concerns around problem gambling and societal impact – concerns that will require robust regulation if the sector is to remain sustainable. 

With South Africa scoring a major recent improvement in the eyes of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the country has already proven it can make rapid and efficient progress towards better regulatory frameworks.