Remote gambling and software technical standards (RTS) guidance

Updates to RTS effective 17 January 2025

We consulted in 2023 on changes to the remote gambling and software technical standards (RTS).

Requirements that come into force 17 January 2025

The following sections contain new or updated requirements that are due to come into effect 17 January 2025.

• features which speed up the time for a result to be shown or can give the illusion of control such as ‘turbo’ or ‘slam stops’ (RTS 14E)
• autoplay (RTS 8A)
• celebrations of returns less than or equal to stake (RTS 14F)
• operator-led functionality which facilitates playing multiple simultaneous products (RTS 14C)
• display of transactions - net spend and net time information (RTS 2E and RTS 13C)
• a minimum spin speed for casino games of 5 seconds (excluding peer-to-peer poker) (RTS 14G)
• security requirements.

We have updated the supporting testing strategy to incorporate any new standards and changes made to the numbering of existing requirements as a result of this consultation.

The new provisions are highlighted in the updated RTS.

Updates to RTS effective 1 April 2018

The following sections contain new requirements that came into effect on 1 April 2018.

• display of transactions
• gambling account history
• display of net deposits
• financial limits.

We have updated the supporting testing strategy to incorporate any new standards and changes made to the numbering of existing requirements as a result of this consultation.

Customers must be able to choose whether to accept price fluctuations that occur after their bet is requested.

From the 1 April 2018 the remote technical standards (see RTS 2C) require that operator’s systems enable customers to choose whether to accept price fluctuations (in either direction) that occur after their bet is requested.

Providing consumers with greater control and consistency

This requirement applies to both fixed odds betting and betting exchanges. It was introduced because we were aware of concerns that bets were sometimes subject to price fluctuations caused by time delays and market movements. Consumers were not always aware that event odds may be subject to price fluctuation and the way in which licensees handled fluctuations differed.

Players should be presented with options to control whether a price change should be accepted or not.

These options must be presented on a per bet basis, except in circumstances where a customer has requested a default account setting to disable price change alerts prior to bet acceptance. Where the functionality is offered at an account level the default option should not be set to accept all fluctuations.

Where a customer chooses not to accept price changes automatically any bet where the price changes must be reoffered before it is accepted. Information sufficient to explain the options to the customers should be provided.

An optimum solution would enable consumers to choose to automatically accept price movements within a particular margin range. Account level options offered to consumer could include accepting all bets with higher price, accepting all bets with shorter price or accepting all bets regardless of price movements.

This requirement does not intend to capture currency fluctuations.

Remote betting operators must ensure that their systems are compliant with these requirements.