Gibraltar: Gibraltar; Punching above its weight

Irrespective of major shifts in policy or trade that have recently happened, or have yet to happen, Gibraltar has remained and will continue to be one of the leading e-gaming jurisdictions in the world, as well as the home to many of the top and most reputable businesses in the industry. The sector has significantly evolved over the years, experiencing rapid growth amid a constantly changing regulatory landscape.

Gibraltar is an attractive jurisdiction as it has built a solid reputation for its conservative and pragmatic approach to licensing. It also boasts a forward-looking business environment, a favourable tax regime, an extraordinary Mediterranean climate, a friendly multi-cultural community, and it’s a safe place to live. It also has easy access into Spain and Europe, direct air links to UK and is in close proximity to Africa.

International e-commerce businesses by their sheer nature are also largely dependent on cutting-edge technology, a secure environment for their crucial IT equipment and global reach. Gibraltar’s service providers have developed and implemented products and services to support the requirements of the operators and software providers. Companies have invested heavily in state-of-the-art data centres providing co-location, managed services and a full range of cloud services. Gibtelecom has been at the forefront of this evolution in Gibraltar since its inception, jointly planning and delivering on all of these requirements and building the foundations for the future.

Punching above its weight, Gibraltar is well connected to Europe and Asia by modern submarine cable systems and Gibtelecom is one of the founder consortium members of the Europe-India Gateway (EIG). Designed for the 21st century to meet the needs of modern comms-rich businesses, it was also the first direct, high-bandwidth optical-fibre undersea cable system from UK to India, with a branch landing in Gibraltar. Gibtelecom’s investment in EIG was instrumental in extending Gibraltar’s international reach, growing capacity, increasing diversity and future proofing the territory.

The igaming sector is a global industry and Gibtelecom needs to deliver what customers need wherever in the world they may be: global footprint of data centres, a vast portfolio of services and a highly resilient private network that allows them to be agile and movefast into new markets. Driven by this need, we are currently expanding further abroad and we are currently putting the finishing touches to our first Asian cloud platform in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

This new facility offers the full suite of cloud products, hosting services and connectivity solutions. It connects directly via our private network with its cloud hubs and data centres in the London and Gibraltar, and it also provides European companies looking east or eastern companies looking west a secure and reliable internationally-distributed infrastructure.

Gibtelecom understands that many gaming companies may already be using Global Hyperscale Cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. However, many operators are also aware of the Cloud Act and prefer to host their operational platform on privately-owned cloud infrastructure. Gibtelecom’s Cloud Connect product enables companies to connect directly between both platforms. Thanks to its direct private connection, customers avoid many of the security risks associated with doing so over the internet while creating a wide-spread hybrid cloud solution.

Gibraltar has evolved to meet its many challenges over time, and with every challenge there have been opportunities. Today is no different. We have already been seeing new technology, such as blockchain, entering the market and Gibraltar is once again firmly positioned and leading in its regulatory approach. As new businesses and industries develop,there is no doubt Gibraltar will be in prime position to attract and nurture such opportunities, supporting their success both locally and internationally.

Article featured in Gambling Insider March - April 2021