Buy-side acquisition · Greece
Buy an online gaming license in Greece — HGC Type 1 and Type 2 operators
You are buying access to one of Europe’s oldest betting cultures, not just a permit. Cadena Brokers represents acquirers taking control of licensed Greek online gaming operators: Type 1 betting and Type 2 casino-and-poker authorizations issued by the Hellenic Gaming Commission, pre-vetted for regulatory standing, banking continuity, and clean shareholder history before they reach your desk.
Why Greece
A regulated market the regulator is actively clearing for its licensees
The Hellenic Gaming Commission (Επιτροπή Εποπτείας και Ελέγχου Παιγνίων, EEEP) is an independent administrative authority supervising every game of chance offered on Greek territory. The online regime rests on Law 4002/2011, recast for online betting and gaming by Law 4635/2019, which replaced the old transitional-permit patchwork with a permanent licensing system. Two license types exist. Type 1 covers online betting on sporting and other events, fantasy contests, and virtual events run on a random number generator. Type 2 covers every other online game of chance, including casino, live-dealer tables, and poker. An operator can hold both, and most acquisition targets worth the diligence spend do.
The acquirer’s case for Greece is unusual. The license does not passport anywhere; it buys you one market. What that market offers is depth. Greeks wager through licensed channels at rates most EU member states would envy, and the regulator is spending real enforcement capital on widening that channel: by December 2025 the HGC had blocked roughly 11,000 unlicensed domains, and a government omnibus bill tabled for 2026 adds bank-level transaction blocking against unlicensed operators, inspectors with the status of special investigative officers, and prison terms for organizers of illegal gambling. Every domain that disappears from the grey market is demand that re-routes to license holders. You are not buying a flag of convenience; you are buying a protected franchise.
Scope
Scope, capital, and the conditions that survive a change of owner
Both license types run for seven years and may be granted to companies seated in Greece or in another EU or EEA member state. The statutory minimum share capital is EUR 200,000, and the licensee must post a bank guarantee in favor of the Greek state, scaled to the license type, before going live. Licensed platforms serve the Greek market through a .gr domain, application files are submitted in Greek (or with certified translations), and the platform stack must carry the certifications the HGC recognizes for game and RNG integrity.
Taxation is the number every board asks about first: gross gaming revenue is taxed at 35%. That rate looks heavy next to Malta’s effective imputation outcomes, but it prices in something Malta cannot sell, a home-market license in a jurisdiction where the supervisor actively suppresses your unlicensed competition.
There is no procedure for selling a Greek license on its own. Control changes hands at the corporate level, through the shares of the licensee or its holding company, and the HGC vets incoming qualifying shareholders against the same fit-and-proper standard it applied at original licensing. Criminal-record certificates, source-of-funds evidence, and group structure charts for the new ownership should be ready before signing, not after.
Our book
What we broker in Greece
Our Greek profiles range from operating Type 1 and Type 2 licensees with established player bases to license-holding entities with minimal operations, held by groups consolidating around other markets. Three diligence gates decide whether a target reaches your desk. Regulatory standing: no open enforcement, with sanction history checked against the HGC’s published decisions. Banking continuity: the PSP and acquiring relationships must survive the ownership change (Greek acquiring for a gaming merchant is not trivially replaceable). Operational substance: the AML officer, the certified platform stack, and the Greek-language player-facing operation stay in place on day one. Profiles are disclosed at portfolio level only; named targets surface after a signed NDA.
If Greece is one leg of a broader plan, we also broker Malta B2C gaming licensees, Curaçao-licensed operators, and same-country fintech structures such as Greek e-money institutions.
Process
How a Greek gaming acquisition runs
The mandate follows our standard four-stage path: brief and target screening, indicative offer with NDA-gated disclosure, diligence and HGC change-of-control filings, then completion with banking and platform handover. Greece adds one wrinkle, the Greek-language filing layer, which we coordinate with local counsel as part of the mandate. The full sequence is set out in our process.
Why Cadena
Why acquirers run Greece through us
- Buy-side only. We act for the acquirer, never the seller, so the pre-vetting on a Greek target answers your questions about standing, banking, and substance rather than a vendor’s marketing deck.
- Regulator-literate execution. Change-of-control packs prepared to the HGC’s fit-and-proper expectations, with the Greek-language filings handled through local counsel inside the mandate.
- Cross-market view. Where your roadmap pairs the Greek home market with passportable EU reach, we broker the adjacent authorizations too, from Malta B2C to EU CASP and EMI structures listed on our coverage page.
FAQ
Buying a gaming license in Greece — questions acquirers ask
Can I buy a ready-made company with a Greek gaming license?
Yes, by acquiring the shares of an existing licensee. The license itself is not transferable as a standalone asset, so the transaction is structured as a corporate acquisition and the Hellenic Gaming Commission reviews the incoming qualifying shareholders for suitability. We present pre-vetted licensees and manage that review as part of the buy-side mandate.
What types of online gambling licenses does Greece issue?
Two. Type 1 authorizes online betting on sporting and other events, fantasy contests, and RNG-based virtual events. Type 2 authorizes other online games of chance, including casino games and poker. Both run for seven years under Law 4635/2019, and a single operator can hold both, which is the configuration most acquirers ask us for.
What is the gambling tax rate in Greece?
Licensed operators pay 35% on gross gaming revenue, with Greek corporate income tax (22%) applying to the entity’s profits on top. Player winnings are taxed separately on a bracket basis, and the omnibus bill tabled for 2026 proposes reshaping that side of the regime, so model the full stack with your tax advisers early in diligence.
Does Greece license gambling affiliates?
Yes. The HGC operates a registration regime for affiliates promoting licensed operators, in place since 2020. An acquirer building a Greek-facing media or affiliate arm needs that registration alongside the operator’s own license, and we flag affiliate-side exposure during diligence on any target with marketing subsidiaries.
Do I need an EU company to hold a Greek gaming license?
The licensee must be seated in Greece or another EU or EEA member state. Non-EU acquirers structure through an EU holding or operating company, and the HGC’s suitability review then looks through to ultimate beneficial owners regardless of where the top of the structure sits.
Is a Greek gaming license valid in other EU countries?
No. Online gambling is not harmonized at EU level, and the Greek authorization stops at the Greek market. Operators wanting multi-market coverage typically pair a Greek license with a Malta B2C license or other national permits, a combination we structure regularly on the buy side.
Next step
Brief us on your Greek acquisition
Tell us the license configuration you need, Type 1, Type 2, or both, and whether you want an operating book or a clean licensed vehicle. We come back with anonymised profiles from our pre-vetted Greek book and a realistic read on the HGC approval path. Expedited closings, buy-side only.
