We advise upon, assist with and prepare licence applications for all types of regulated gambling including land-based betting shops, limited pay-out machine sites, large terrestrial casino complexes and of course online gambling and betting sites across all nine provinces.
We do the same for manufacturers and developers seeking the provincial and national manufacturer licences, enabling them to manufacture, supply and distribute gambling related products and software.
Over the more than two decades of practice in gaming, gambling and betting, we have lost count of the different applications we have moved and believe that we have unparalleled experience in this regard in South Africa.
In providing these services, we also assist with the following essential aspects:
Understanding the implications of the mandatory Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) regime applicable to all publicly licensed businesses. In this regard, we have a long-standing relationship with specialist external advisers with whom we work hand-in-hand to ensure that the appropriate, planning, structuring and execution of policies occurs to ensure optimal and efficient BBBEE compliance
Advise upon and assist with preparing all manner of applications for renewal, change and variation surrounding gambling licences, or their conditions. We thrive on assisting our clients in overcoming overly oppressive constraints that impact their ability to trade favourably and have enjoyed many successes in this regard.
Advise upon the prescribed technical compliance path required to be taken by manufacturers and operators wishing to introduce new “contingencies”, games and software to their customers from idea origination through to implementation and execution, in line with the appropriate legislation and national technical standards.
Consult and assist with the most important facets of any gambling licence being “using it” and “keeping it”. This mostly comes down to proper compliance and understanding, consistent and timeous alignment of terms and conditions with licence conditions and following the stipulations of the regulators for reports, returns and the like.
Help in navigating the compliance environment surrounding pre-approval of advertising of betting sites.
Consult on and provide written opinions on all gambling related matters.
Above all, we love our clients. We thrive on seeing new entrants to our market growing their businesses and spreading their passion via technological innovation.
We also enjoy building and maintaining good relations, and continuous liaison, with the regulators throughout the licensing processes and lifetime of the licences.
This leads to us appearing on behalf of our clients at every manner of regulatory tribunal, panel and hearing surrounding the obtaining, maintaining and variation of gambling licences, including the occasional unfortunate disciplinary hearing seeking to sanction licensees.
We aspire to provide an ‘end to end’ full service offering to all our clients from establishing their legal entities right through fulfilling their licence requirements, to assisting them in innovating, successfully maintaining their commercial operations and dealing with any disputes or disagreements that might arise in the course of doing their business.
General advice and agreement drafting related to every manner of commercial transaction from negotiating supply agreements to large mergers and acquisitions requiring not only complex technical drafting and negotiation skills, but interface with numerous public regulators
Advice and assistance on consumer protection related matters including promotional competitions that fall outside the sphere of gambling
With gambling law at our core, we have a sound grasp of administrative law and have had the benefit of good success, through thorough preparation and deep understanding of the applicable law in various fora from quasi-judicial hearings to the highest appeal court in the land.
We always carefully and strategically select the appropriate path for our clients whether representing them directly in these fora or instructing and managing advocates, single-mindedly focussing on their success.
We are fully equipped to deal with all manner of commercial disputes in South Africa and beyond, in terms of international arbitration forums, and do not shy away from exploring alternative dispute resolution where this might achieve the most favourable and expedient outcome for our clients.
Our founder began his career in a practice dealing with some of the largest blue chip corporates in various industries from property to FMCG. Common at the time, being the turn of the century, was the rapid growth in e-commerce and new issues like the “Year 2000 problem”.
This gave rise to a need for a deep understanding of innovation and technology and passion for the practice area. Our firm prides itself to this day in understanding that technology lies at the centre of most things and the unique needs of technology related businesses, especially in the ongoing innovations surrounding the gambling industry.
We have also remained abreast of the unique and specific statutory developments in South Africa pertaining not only to e-commerce but to data privacy, software licensing and more recently the burgeoning e-payment, blockchain, cryptocurrency and general fintech sectors.
