Anjouan B2C vs B2B Licence: Which One You Need, and Why Holding Both Costs Double

The decision rule in one sentence

If players hold accounts with you and bet against your book or on your tables, you need a B2C operator licence; if your customer is a licensed operator rather than a player, you need a B2B service-provider licence; and if both are true, you need both licences, because neither includes the other.

What the Authority actually publishes

The two categories are defined briefly and clearly. A B2C operator licence covers “entities operating online gaming platforms offering services directly to players”. A B2B service-provider licence covers “companies providing technology or services to licensed gaming operators”.

A B2C licence may cover several permitted verticals at once. The published list is online casinos, sports betting, poker and bingo, prediction markets, blockchain-based gaming platforms and cryptocurrency-enabled gaming operations. That breadth is genuinely useful: an operator running a casino and a sportsbook on one platform is not buying two licences for it.

What decides your actual scope is not the category but the paperwork. The framework states that “the specific activities authorised under each licence are defined in the licence conditions”. So the licence you are granted lists what you may do, and the category is only the starting point.

	B2C operator licence	B2B service-provider licence
Who holds it	The entity running the gaming platform	The company supplying technology or services
Whose customer	Players	Licensed gaming operators
Verticals	May cover casino, sports betting, poker, bingo, prediction markets, blockchain and crypto-enabled gaming	Technology or services to operators
Domains	Approved operational domains, EUR 500 for each beyond the first	No additional domain fee published
Issuance fee	EUR 17,828	EUR 17,828
Annual renewal	EUR 17,828	EUR 17,828
Shown in the register	Yes, with licence type	Yes, with licence type

Holding both costs exactly double

The fee is the same for each category, and the categories do not overlap. A group that operates its own casino and also licenses its platform to third-party operators holds two licences at EUR 17,828 each, renewed separately, which is EUR 35,656 a year in regulator fees alone.

This is the most expensive misreading available in this jurisdiction, and it is an easy one to make, because the fee page shows a single low number and the licence-type page shows two categories. Our cost breakdown sets out the full schedule and what sits outside it.

Which one are you, in practice

Some cases are obvious and some are not.

Clearly B2C. A casino brand taking deposits from players. A sportsbook running its own risk. A poker room where players hold accounts with you.

Clearly B2B. A game studio licensing slots to operators. A platform or aggregator supplying the stack another company runs. An odds or data feed sold to licensed books.

Both. A group with an operator brand and a supplier arm selling to third parties. White-label arrangements where you both run brands and supply the platform to partners.

Ambiguous, and worth asking about. A payments or affiliate layer that touches gaming without either taking bets or supplying the gaming technology itself. The published definitions do not settle this, and we are not going to invent a boundary the Authority has not drawn. Ask the Authority which category your model falls into before filing, and get the answer in writing, because the licence conditions rather than the category will define your permitted activity.

The conditions that apply to both

The published conditions attach to the licence regardless of category, and two of them shape day-to-day operations more than operators expect.

Only approved operational domains may be used for licensed activity, and operators must not conduct licensed activity on unapproved domains. Changing a domain requires the Authority’s approval, and each additional domain on a B2C licence carries the EUR 500 fee. So a brand estate is a regulatory matter here, not just a marketing one.

Licence status must be represented accurately on all platforms, which is the condition that makes seal misuse a licence issue rather than a presentation issue. Beyond that: comply with applicable laws, provide information to the Authority on request, obtain Key Person Authorisation for individuals in designated roles, and notify the Authority of material changes to the licensed operation. The Authority may also impose conditions tailored to an individual operator based on risk profile.

About the “recognition certificate”

Search results for this jurisdiction turn up references to a recognition certificate as though it were a third category alongside B2C and B2B. We could not find it on the Authority’s site. The published categories are two, and the licence conditions define permitted activity within them.

Until a primary source appears, treat any document described as a recognition certificate as something to verify in the public register rather than as a licence. Our verification guide covers what the register does and does not establish.

Before you file

Decide the category from your customer, not your product. Confirm the verticals you need are listed among those a B2C licence may cover. List every domain you intend to use and price the EUR 500 per additional domain into the first-year budget rather than discovering it later. And if your model sits near the boundary, put the question to the Authority in writing first, because the category determines the fee you pay twice if you get it wrong.