Licensed Dutch operator VBet has been effectively invisible in organic Google search results in the Netherlands since December 2024, a critical issue that has left the company battling unlicensed imitation sites that are ranking in its place.
Despite months of technical SEO efforts and reporting the issue through official channels, the BetConstruct-owned brand says it has received virtually no support, costing the company dearly in both revenue and consumer trust.
The problem highlights a significant challenge for the regulated Dutch market. VBet reported the illegal clone sites to Meld Vals Spel, a portal established by industry associations VNLOK and NOGA to combat the black market, on May 5, 2025.
However, beyond a single automated response on the same day, the operator has received no further communication or action from either the portal or the Dutch Gambling Authority (KSA), which Meld Vals Spel is supposed to inform.
Ed Quigley, Regional Director at VBet, expressed his deep frustration with the system. “What is the point of a portal if nothing’s going to be done with it?”
The financial and reputational damage has been immense, with traffic that should be directed to a licensed and secure operator instead being funneled to potentially dangerous, unlicensed platforms.
VBet’s internal SEO team, along with external consultants, have worked tirelessly to resolve the issue. They have followed all of Google’s public guidelines for recovering from penalties, which can be algorithmic or manual, but the site remains delisted from organic search.
David Mkrtchyan, SEO Team Lead from SoftConstruct, suggested the problem could stem from either a negative SEO attack or a simple error in Google’s algorithms that mistakenly penalized the legitimate site.
Despite numerous tickets being logged by VBet’s Google account manager for paid search, the issue has not been escalated to the organic search teams, and no clear timeline for resolution has been provided.
