Fonbet launch official Russian sports betting site

Russian bookmaker Fonbet has gone live with its new licensed online sports betting site.

Fonbet’s new officially approved Russian-facing betting site bkfon.ru is the sixth to have received one of the new online sportsbook licenses since Liga Stavok’s Russian-approved site made its debut in February. Fonbet is a member of the Bookmakers Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO), which saw its first member (Leon.ru) launch its official online site in October.

Russia’s new online betting regime requires all online betting operators to channel their payments through centralized hubs known as TSUPIS so that the government can monitor the activity. All Bookmakers SRO member sites plan to use payment processor QIWI’s Russian subsidiary KIWI-Bank to power their TSUPIS.

But QIWI representatives told Betting Business Russia that it’s TSUPIS was still in “test mode” and thus Fonbet’s new site is really only in beta until the payment processing is sorted.