MannBenham champions Software Supplier Licensing
Daren Ward | Head of Marketing | Originally published on 21 February 2019
The eGaming Advisory Team at MannBenham continues to grow, being exceptionally well placed to give impartial legal, factual and balanced online gaming advice across multiple jurisdictions. The team is responsible for advising on eGaming license applications along with compliance and procedural consultation, and this now includes the new Software Supplier Licensing which has been introduced by the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission.
The Isle of Man has now introduced a central software register which lists software companies offering gambling software and related services, such as live dealer studios. At MannBenham we believe that this will create an easier and simpler process for Operators seeking to deploy games and game content, as the software suppliers will be able to list their available software on a central register. Software suppliers will be able to certify their games in advance of Operators using them thereby reducing the time to market for their games and reducing the costs for Operators.
To take this further, any software or service listed on the central register will be deemed certified and any Isle of Man operator wishing to deploy those games or services will be permitted to do so without requiring notice to, or permission from the Regulator. The biggest benefit is that Operators will no longer be required to obtain testing certificates for software that is listed on the central register. So, multiple Operators wanting to make use of the same software no longer have to obtain individual testing certificates for exactly the same software – it would be as simple as opening and buying directly from a centralised catalogue of pre-certified games.
In order to list software or services on the register, the software company will be required to supply its certification directly to the Regulator and not via an Operator. In order for a company, game or service to be listed on the register, it will be necessary for the company to hold a new variant of the Online Gambling Regulation Act (OGRA) licence which will be either a software supplier license; or a token-based software supplier license.
A software supplier license is available for any licensee that wishes to list software or related services on the register.
In addition, with the introduction of the new Block-Chain Office and Sandbox a token-based software supplier licence will be necessary for any licensee that wishes to make available software or related services which depend upon a block-chain dependent token as the primary means of exchanging value. Token-based software suppliers are entities that have created block-chain based tokens for use as currency in a gambling eco-system.
The licensing process will be the same for a software supplier licence as it is for a standard OGRA license. The licensing process for a token-based software supplier licence will incorporate additional tests around the availability of tokens and the proven business competence of those involved in the offering. There will also be reporting restrictions on an applicant during the approval period.
At MannBenham we are at the forefront of eGaming and can provide you with informed, legal and purely independent, impartial advice across multiple jurisdictions.
