Russian Sports Betting Sites Race Towards Year-End Launch

Three Russian sports betting sites are racing towards launching their products by year’s end. Once operational, the three bookmakers will represent a major step forward for regulated Russian sports betting.
BaltBet.ru, Bingo Boom, and Bkolimpbet.ru are all in various states of readiness as 2016 closes, but all are expected to be taking wagers by the time Baby New Year rolls out, according to a report on CalvinAyre.com.
BaltBet.ru is leading the pack and is expected to begin accepting wagers as early as December 28. The site has been in beta for some time and company officials are cautiously optimistic regarding the post-Christmas launch.
Bingo Room, which offers bingo and sports betting, is expected to be up and running by New Year’s Day.
Bkolimpbet.ru is also expected to be completely operational soon, though no official announcement has been made regarding a specific launch. (Though it’s believed that it will be going sometime this week.)
All three sites will be connected to the TSUPIS centralize payment hub. This homegrown Russian payment processing system is operated by Bookmakers Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO). The SRO is a home-grown regulatory/trade group that represents regulated Russian bookmakers.
So what does the face of regulated Russian wagering look like? According to a spokeman from TSUPIS, 540,000 Russians have already registered with the sites. Of those 540,000, approximately 89 percent were men. Roughly 95 percent of the new registrants are between the ages of 18-40.
Regulated Russian sports betting is actually open to Russians and foreign nationals, but foreigners must present proof of Russian residence in person to Russian gaming authorities.