Russia’s chamber of commerce has formally welcomed locally licensed sports betting operators into its ranks through the formation of a new subcommittee for bookmakers and sweepstakes.

On Tuesday, the First Self-Regulatory Organization of Russian Bookmakers (First SRO) announced that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation (RFCCI) had created a subcommittee devoted to “bookmaking and totalizator activity.”

The new committee’s priorities include establishing an effective system of financial support for Russian sports, playing an advisory role in future regulatory and legal developments involving betting, and creating favorable conditions for further development of Russia’s legal betting industry by combatting unauthorized operators.

First SRO, one of two rival Russian bookmaker associations, had been pressing the RFCCI for this step since 2015, and First SRO member Nikolai Oganezov will serve as chairman of the new committee.