Nevis is the newest jurisdiction in the ICOS portfolio. What follows is the complete cost breakdown for obtaining a Nevis NOGA gaming licence through ICOS.

Regulator and Company Formation Costs

The principal licensing cost is the NOGA application and first-year licence fee: EUR 28,000. That same figure applies every year on renewal. There is no GGR tax, no corporate income tax, no capital gains tax, and no dividends tax payable in Nevis, which means the EUR 28,000 is effectively your entire regulatory tax burden.

Key employee registrations are charged at USD 500 per person. If you are adding domains to the licence, each additional domain costs EUR 750 per licensing cycle. Sub-domains are priced at EUR 35 each, dropping to EUR 15 each once you pass fifty. These figures are set by NOGA and are not ICOS mark-ups.

Company formation uses a Nevis IBC or LLC structure. ICOS charges EUR 2,200 for formation, and this includes first-year maintenance. On top of that, there is a government registration fee of approximately USD 450 paid directly to the Nevis authorities. A registered agent is required throughout the life of your company: expect to pay USD 500 to USD 1,200 per year depending on the agent and the scope of services.

One mandatory cost that operators sometimes overlook is the Local Reporting Officer. NOGA requires one, and the role must be fulfilled through a Nevis-registered agent. The annual fee for this service, arranged through ICOS, is EUR 4,200. There is no minimum share capital requirement for the company itself.

ICOS Service Fee

The ICOS application service fee is EUR 7,500, charged once, at a fixed price. No surprises, no scope creep invoices after the fact.

For that fee, ICOS handles the complete document preparation process: personal due diligence packs for all directors and ultimate beneficial owners, full corporate document assembly, compliance policies, and a business plan with three-year financial projections. ICOS also manages company formation coordination, NOGA portal submission, ongoing liaison with the regulator, Compliance Officer sourcing (the Compliance Officer must be independent of your company structure, which is a non-negotiable NOGA requirement), Reporting Officer arrangement, and four months of post-licence compliance support.

The business plan requirement deserves a specific mention. Many operators assume it is a brief overview document. It is not. NOGA expects three years of detailed profit and loss statements and cash flow projections, with clearly stated assumptions. Operators who underestimate this requirement typically lose two to four weeks to revisions. ICOS prepares this document to the standard NOGA expects, first time.

Total Year 1 Cost (ICOS Package)

Here is the full Year 1 picture with all ICOS-managed items consolidated:

This total excludes key employee registration fees (USD 500 per person), additional domain fees (EUR 750 per domain), and any legal or advisory costs that fall outside the ICOS scope of work. Those variables depend on your specific structure and should be factored into your own planning.

Year 2 and Beyond

From Year 2, the structure simplifies. The NOGA annual renewal is EUR 28,000. The Local Reporting Officer continues at EUR 4,200 per year. Registered agent maintenance runs USD 500 to USD 1,200 depending on your agent.

ICOS offers an optional monthly compliance retainer to manage ongoing obligations. The standard rate is EUR 800 per month. Operators who commit to an annual contract pay EUR 650 per month, billed as an annual lump sum of EUR 7,800.

What the Monthly Retainer Covers

The retainer is not a ticketing service. It is active compliance management, and the scope reflects what NOGA actually requires of licensees on an ongoing basis.

The retainer covers annual renewal management, monitoring NOGA for new reporting requirements as the framework matures (this matters because NOGA has the authority to set reporting intervals but has not yet published them), and event-driven notification management. That last point includes tracking ownership changes, which must be reported within ten business days, serious incidents within three working days, and material changes as they occur.

AML compliance oversight via Reporting Officer liaison is included and regulatory update monitoring. ICOS runs weekly checks on NOGA publications and regional regulatory signals. When NOGA tightens its requirements, policy documents are updated and circulated. When NOGA sends an information request or schedules a meeting (with a standard five business days' notice), the retainer covers preparation and response.

For an operator running a live platform, this is not optional in any practical sense. The question is whether you handle it in-house or we do it for you.

The Annual Contract Option

If you know you will need ongoing compliance support, the annual contract rate of EUR 650 per month (EUR 7,800 paid upfront) saves you EUR 1,800 per year compared to monthly billing at EUR 800.

Why the FATF Whitelist Matters for Your Budget

St Kitts and Nevis holds a clean FATF status through CFATF, the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force. For gaming operators, this is not an abstract compliance point. It has direct implications for your ability to access fiat payment processors.

Operators who choose a cheaper jurisdiction, Anjouan being the most common comparison, sometimes find that PSP access becomes a significant operational problem. The workarounds, which may include routing through higher-risk processors, taking on additional currency conversion costs, or losing access to certain card schemes entirely, can easily add more than EUR 14,000 per year to the cost of running the business. The Nevis premium over Anjouan is not purely a regulatory premium. It is a banking access premium, and it should be evaluated on that basis.

Operators who intend to serve European recreational players in any volume should run the PSP access question before they select a jurisdiction, not after.

What Is Not Included

For clarity, the following costs are not included in the 7500 ICOS service fee and are paid separately by the operator:

• NOGA licence fees (paid directly to NOGA)
• Local Reporting Officer fees (paid to the Nevis-registered agent)
• Company formation government fees (approximately USD 450)
• Platform, game provider, and payment processing costs
• RNG certification costs
• Key employee registration fees (USD 500 per person, paid to NOGA)

None of these are hidden. They are third-party costs that ICOS coordinates but does not absorb into the service fee.

Ready to Move Forward?

The next step is simple. Fill in the ICOS intake form. It takes three minutes. You will receive a confirmed quote within 24 hours, scoped to your specific structure, including an honest assessment of timeline from application to licence grant.

No commitment is required at that stage. Just a form, a quote, and a clear picture of where you stand.