Mozzartbet Quits Malta on 1 October and Shuts Mozzart.com for Local Licences

The Belgrade-based group will cease operating under its Malta Gaming Authority licence, close the Mozzart.com brand and its affiliate programme, and put its money into markets where it holds a domestic licence. It is the second European operator in a month to decide that a Maltese licence no longer buys what it used to.

• Mozzartbet Group has confirmed it will withdraw from Malta's online market on 1 October, ceasing operations under the MGA licence held by Mozzartbet Malta Limited since March 2019, according to Focus Gaming News
• The Mozzart.com brand and its affiliate programme will close as the group concentrates on markets where it holds a local licence
• The group, founded in 2001 by Dejan Čakajac and headquartered in Belgrade, will continue in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, North Macedonia, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria
• The Malta Gaming Authority separately published a list of 11 websites identified in August that falsely claim an MGA licence
• Malta's .com model faces pressure from courts and regulators across the EU, with Brussels having opened proceedings over its Gaming Act

A Seven-Year Maltese Licence Ends With a Decision to Go Local

Mozzartbet Group will leave Malta's online gambling market on 1 October, Focus Gaming News reported on Friday, citing the group's confirmation. The company will cease operations under the Malta Gaming Authority licence it has used since March 2019 through Mozzartbet Malta Limited, and will shut the Mozzart.com brand and the affiliate programme attached to it.

The stated reason is strategic: the group is prioritising markets where it holds domestic licences. Mozzartbet was founded in 2001 by Dejan Čakajac and is headquartered in Belgrade. Its licensed operations in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and North Macedonia, and in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, continue unchanged, according to the report. iGaming Times' directory entry for Mozzart lists the group's footprint.

The withdrawal removes one of the better-known Balkan brands from the roster of MGA-licensed .com operators, and it follows the same logic that has taken others out of grey markets over the past two years: a Maltese licence gives access to markets where the operator is tolerated, while a domestic licence gives access to markets where it is welcome, and the second is worth more as enforcement tightens.

The Regulator Spent the Same Week Chasing Sites That Only Claim to Be Licensed

The MGA, meanwhile, published its latest list of websites that reference the authority without holding a licence. The 11 URLs identified during August range from royalgame-canada.com and totobet.net to a poker site hosted on a developer platform and a Swedish-facing dice site. "Any reference to the MGA and/or gaming licences said to be issued by the Maltese Authority is false and misleading," the regulator said.

The two items describe the same market from opposite ends. Legitimate licensees are weighing whether the MGA licence still justifies the cost of operating into markets that increasingly reject it, while unlicensed sites borrow the authority's name because it still carries weight with players.

Domestic Licences Are Where the Growth Is, and Mozzart Knows the Balkans

Mozzart's home markets are among the fastest-regulating in Europe. Serbia, Croatia and Romania all license online operators domestically and tax them accordingly, and the group has spent two decades building retail estates and brand recognition there. A .com brand serving customers from those and neighbouring markets under a Maltese licence competes with the group's own local licences for the same players, at higher regulatory risk. Closing it is a tidy-up as much as a retreat.

Malta's Licence Is Being Repriced by Every Court That Refuses to Honour It

The MGA licence was built on the promise that a Maltese-licensed operator could serve EU customers under freedom-of-services rules. German and Austrian courts have spent years ordering refunds to players regardless, and Malta's answer, a 2023 law shielding its licensees from those judgments, is now the subject of EU infringement proceedings. Each operator that chooses local licences over the .com model is voting on how that dispute ends. Mozzart's vote is the more telling for coming from a group with no need to make a point.

The Affiliate Programme Is the Part Partners Will Feel First

Closing Mozzart.com also closes its affiliate programme, which is where the decision reaches beyond the group. Affiliates who sent traffic to the brand have until 1 October to move it, and the destination will be a local licence in one of Mozzart's home markets or a competitor's .com. The withdrawal is small in revenue terms and large as a signal about where the Balkan operators see their next decade.

Mozzartbet is leaving Malta because its future is at home. The question for the MGA is how many licensees will reach the same conclusion before the EU case is decided.