Tony G’s TonyBet Gets Nod of Approval from UKGC
TonyBet, the online gambling company owned by former professional poker player Antanas Guoga, also known as Tony G, has received the UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) nod of approval to offer remote betting and real money gaming products and services to UK-located customers, under the new UK licensing conditions, gaming rules, and tax policies .
TonyBet sought UK licensing from the UKGC for its TonyBet.com sportsbook and casino gaming site and for TonyBetPoker.com, the first virtual poker room to offer the turn-based card game “Open Face Chinese Poker.” The UKGC granted TonyBet the authority to offer sportsbetting, online casino and poker games in the UK by issuing License No. 39126, and by recognising the company as a gambling operator based in Tallin, Estonia, doing business under the license granted by the Estonian Gaming Authority.
TonyBet’s licensed activities as a remote gambling operator in Great Britain include General Betting-Real Events, General Betting-Remote Platform, and Casino. The Commission also took note of Tonybet’s other domain sites TonyBet.dk and TonyBet.ee.
In January 2013, TonyBet was one of the 20 foreign operators whose initial one-year licence was extended for five years, and its remote operator licence fully certified by the Danish Gambling Authority. The Danish government opened its doors to online gambling in 2011, but initially granted a one-year temporary permit, pending the review of applications for remote gambling operations in Denmark.
TonyBet was originally founded in 2003 in Lithuania as the Omnibet sportsbook, Tony G acquired the sportsbetting company and its chain of 20 Lithuania-based betting shops in 2009; in the same year, Tony G rebranded the company to TonyBet. Today, the sportsbetting company is recognised as the second largest sportsbook operator in the Baltic gambling market, with more than 600 betting shops located in all major cities in Estonia.
TonyBet’s UK licensing covers its TonyBet.com sportsbook and casino gaming site and TonyBetPoker.com, the first ever virtual poker room to offer a turn-based card game called “Open Face Chinese Poker (OFCP),” using an in-house developed poker gaming platform.
About TonyBet.com
The UK-facing TonyBet dotcom site offers web-based and mobile OFCP poker games, sportsbetting, live betting, live games streaming, casino games, and live casino, in seven different languages: English, Eesti, Deutsch, Lietuvių kalba (Lithuanian), Русский (Russian), Nederlands and Português. Its betting products include the Supertoto pool betting game, the Euroleague, the Champions League and live betting for football, basketball, tennis, snooker, volleyball, handball, hockey, bandy, politics, and e-sports.
ToneyBet’s online casino is powered by Microgaming’s Viper platform, which contains a broad selection of slots, from classics, to video slots, slots with bonus and progressive jackpot, as well as table and card games in video format and in live casino mode.
About Tony G
Antanas Guoga or Tony G is of Lithuanian descent who grew up in Australia. He initially made a name for himself in the online gambling world as a professional poker player. He later became a full time businessman, and an esteemed philanthropist. In 2014, he won a seat as a member of the European Parliament after running as a candidate of the Liberal Party of Lithuania.
