Sports betting in Germany: record behind the performance of the German betting market in 2016

Goldmedia research group reveals interesting numbers behind the last years performances of the sports betting market in Germany

The research of the prestigious market research group Goldmedia, has recently announced that for the first time in its history the German betting market in 2016 succeed to surpass the border of EUR 5 billion made on bets exclusively. As their analysis indicates this is mainly due to the European Championship in football, although not exclusively. The total wagers on sport in Germany, according to gambling news, grew from EUR 4.8 billion euros in 2015 to EUR 5.1 billion in the past year.

What are the factors for the growth of the German betting market?

For the director of Goldmedia Professor Klaus Goldhammer there is no doubt about the main factor for the excellent market performance in the past year. It is the EURO2016. “We calculated that the German sports betting providers will generate extra betting revenues to the tune of around 150 million euros from the European Championship“, explains Goldhammer. The demand for sports betting is obviously related to the attractiveness of the sporting event. And certainly as many expected a tournament with 51 games was likely to bring higher amounts of money in the sportsbooks. 

• The “gray betting market” in Germany blossomed during last year’s EURO 2016

• The private providers perform incomparably more successfully than the state owned

• Will there be soon change in the German betting laws?

The role of state betting providers is only marginal for the betting boom

The summery of the final results from all the transactions made last year on the betting market in Germany reveals another very interesting tendency. Namely, as online gambling sites in Germany report, the private sports betting providers in the country made EUR 4.9 billion euros while the state owned ones only 0.2 billion. That is especially important to be emphasized because apart from the state sports betting system ODDSET, no other sports betting providers are officially allowed in Germany.

The State Treaty on Gaming which is on force since 2012, offers an opportunity, although experimental, for private operators to be licensed. However, as of today, no license has been granted and the private operators are mainly operating on a gray market. They find justification for they market activities only in the judgements of the European Court of Justice, while for the German legislation their activities are certainly illegal.

But these contradictions or unresolved issues within the German gambling legislative coming from the opposed views on gambling between the European and the domestic German legislators, didn’t impede the development of the market. On the contrary the gray sports betting market in Germany, has made an amazing 12% development in the past 4 years moving from EUR 3.3 in 2012 to EUR 4.6 billion in 2015. What is even more paradoxical is that most of the companies pay taxes on revenues from betting although they are not licensed in Germany. Thus for 2016 there are EUR 250 million to enter the state treasury. Most of them, as online gambling sites in EU report, will be pay by commercial sports betting providers.