Poll: Is bwin.party's grey market approach the way to go?

On Friday it emerged bwin.party is blocking new sign-ups from a number of unregulated egaming markets, as it looks to enforce its new strategy of focusing on high-value customers within dot.com territories. But is this becoming the only option for listed egaming businesses?

A number of other Power 50 operators have similarly turned their attention to investment in regulated and regulating markets, with Betfair’s withdrawal from certain territories a prime example. But certain private operators continue to sustain a presence and continue to market in territories

Of course, bwin.party remains one of few operators with a near-comprehensive dot.country reach, recently adding Belgium to a list of territories which also includes Denmark, France, Italy and Spain, and others may therefore feel what works for the Gibraltar licensee is not similarly applicable to their own business.

As talk grows of pooled liquidity between two or more European Union countries in the coming years, could it be the case that a wider European framework for egaming is required before operators begin focusing further investment on regulated territories across the continent?

In this week’s poll we ask whether bwin.party’s policy, part and parcel of the “value over volume” strategy hinted at by CEO Norbert Teufelberger following the operator’s full-year results, is something others should be looking to emulate. Cast your vote on the right-hand side of the page.