Grand Casino Brussels Licence Suspended by Belgian Court

⏱ 3 min read

Belgium's highest administrative court has suspended the award of the Grand Casino Brussels concession to ECK NV — the entity behind Belgian operator Napoleon Games — throwing a €750 million, 15-year licence into legal limbo just four months before it was due to take effect. The ruling, handed down on 31 August 2026 by the President of the VIth vacation chamber of the Council of State in extreme-urgency proceedings, responds to a challenge filed by Viage, the Casinos Austria International subsidiary that has held the Brussels concession since 2010 and finished second in the six-bidder tender.

The suspension blocks Napoleon Games from taking over the Boulevard Anspach venue on 1 January 2027 as planned. At stake is one of the most valuable land-based casino concessions in continental Europe — and a case that could set precedent for how EU procurement and foreign-subsidy rules apply to the gambling sector across all member states.

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Background: How Napoleon Games Won the Tender

The City of Brussels launched a competitive tender for the Grand Casino Brussels concession earlier in 2026. ECK NV — the corporate vehicle for Napoleon Games, a Belgian operator best known for its online and retail sports-betting brands — was selected from a field of six bidders in July 2026, beating out incumbent Viage (owned by Casinos Austria International). The city's Real Estate and Economic Affairs Department valued the contract at approximately €750 million excluding VAT across its 15-year term, running from 1 January 2027 to the end of 2041.

Viage, which has operated the casino uninterrupted for 16 years, immediately challenged the award. Its application for extreme-urgency interim relief succeeded within weeks, indicating the court found the grounds credible enough to warrant immediate action before a full merits hearing.

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The Court's Grounds for Suspension

The Council of State identified multiple procedural and substantive flaws in the City of Brussels' award decision:

• The tender evaluation reasoning does not sufficiently demonstrate that all elements of the specifications were taken into account.
• Certain evaluation criteria applied had no connection with the subject matter of the concession.
• The assessment of certain partnerships put forward in the winning bid contained an obvious inaccuracy.
• A potential conflict of interest involving Brussels Mayor Philippe Close, who sits on the board of Anderlecht FC — a club with an existing Napoleon Games commercial partnership — and reportedly did not recuse himself from the meeting at which the concession was awarded. The Mayor was not, however, a member of the jury charged with ranking candidates, a distinction the court noted.

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The EU Foreign Subsidies Angle

Perhaps the most far-reaching element of the ruling is the court's finding that the award procedure disregards obligations under the EU's Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR, Regulation (EU) 2022/2560), which requires bidders to notify or declare foreign financial contributions once the €250 million threshold is met. The FSR is designed to prevent state-subsidised foreign companies from distorting EU markets — its application in a domestic gambling concession tender is a novel development that legal observers are watching closely. If upheld on the merits, it could require contracting authorities across the EU to routinely screen large gambling licence awards under the FSR framework.

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Operator Impact and What Comes Next

The suspension creates acute uncertainty on both sides of the deal. Napoleon Games had been preparing an operational transition set to begin in under five months; that timeline is now frozen pending the full merits ruling. Viage continues as operator for the time being, but with no guarantee its position is permanent. The City of Brussels faces two paths: restart the tender from scratch, or bolster the reasoning behind its original decision to make it legally defensible.

Wider industry implications include:

• Operators bidding on large EU public concessions may now need to conduct proactive FSR due diligence on their own funding structures before submitting bids.
• The conflict-of-interest findings add pressure on Belgian and broader EU municipalities to tighten recusal protocols in gambling procurement.
• Viage's successful suspension application may embolden losing bidders in other EU licensing processes to pursue similar challenges.

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Key Figures at a Glance

Detail	Napoleon Games (ECK NV)	Viage (Casinos Austria Int'l)
Tender Result	Winner — July 2026	Runner-up (of 6 bidders)
Planned Start Date	1 January 2027	Incumbent since 2010
Concession Value	~€750m (excl. VAT, 15 yrs)	—
Current Status	Award suspended by court	Continues as operator
Legal Challenge Filed	—	Yes — extreme-urgency relief
Court Ruling Date	31 August 2026 (Council of State)
FSR Threshold Raised	€250 million foreign subsidy notification

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Sources

Ranked by source type: primary legal/regulatory record first, then specialist trade press.

The reasoning for the evaluation of the tenders does not sufficiently demonstrate that all elements of the specifications were taken into account, and certain elements appear to have no connection with the subject matter of the concession.

— Belgian Council of State, VIth Vacation Chamber · Extreme-urgency interim relief ruling, 31 August 2026