Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency has introduced a mandatory licensing regime for gambling affiliates paid on performance-based commission, under amendments to the Gambling Act taking legal effect on 1 September 2026. Affiliates already active in the Bulgarian market must file their applications by 15 August 2026 to avoid an operating gap once enforcement begins.
The regime captures anyone whose remuneration is tied to referred players, deposits, bets placed, or revenue generated for an operator active in Bulgaria – covering CPA affiliates, revenue-share partners, and hybrid arrangements alike. Flat-fee media buys with no performance link fall outside the definition as published. Licensed affiliates must also declare every promotional channel they use, including websites, apps, and social media accounts, with undeclared channels falling outside licence cover.
The confirmed cost structure has two components: an annual licence maintenance fee of approximately €6,000, plus a 10% remittance on the affiliate’s performance-based remuneration, which operators must withhold and pay directly to the NRA rather than affiliates settling it themselves. The NRA has not published how the 10% applies to hybrid CPA/revenue-share deals or to months where a referred player’s net revenue turns negative, and it has not confirmed whether a separate upfront application fee sits on top of the annual charge.
Several structural details remain open. The NRA has not confirmed the processing timeline for applications, whether the licence runs for one year or longer, or whether foreign affiliates need a local Bulgarian entity or representative – leaving compliance teams to plan around a baseline figure rather than a finalised framework.
Affiliates fall under Bulgaria’s gambling advertising regime for the first time under this reform, with dedicated sanctions in the Gambling Act for breaches – a shift that echoes how regulators elsewhere are extending advertising accountability beyond operators to the marketing layer itself, as seen in Alberta’s iGaming advertising rules.
Operators carry parallel obligations: they must verify an affiliate’s licence status before paying commission after 1 September 2026, and withhold the 10% remittance at the point of payout. The NRA can block websites, apps, and social media pages run by unlicensed affiliates, a power that mirrors the broader regulatory trend toward shutting down unlicensed promotional activity, as with the UK’s incoming ban on unlicensed gambling sponsorship.
A Bulgaria gambling affiliate licence authorises promotion of licensed operators within the Bulgarian market only; it grants no rights in other jurisdictions, since gambling remains nationally regulated across the EU. The scrutiny also lands amid wider regulatory attention on undisclosed performance-linked marketing, a concern that surfaced recently in the CFTC’s consent order over an undisclosed influencer campaign.
According to iGaming Republic, the measure sits inside Bulgaria’s 2026 State Budget Act, passed by the National Assembly on 24 July and promulgated on 29 July, with officials at the proposal stage estimating the affiliate levy could add roughly €100 million a year in state revenue.
Source: LicenceGaming
When he is not analysing the latest compliance updates or dissecting quarterly operator results, Florian follows Bundesliga football closely and maintains a healthy skepticism toward anyone claiming to have cracked a winning betting system. He brings a grounded, insider-aware perspective to his writing and is always more interested in the structural story behind the headline than the headline itself.