Betfair cuts staff in underperforming markets
Fifty redundancies made across help desk and customer service staff as company reduces language options in "less attractive" markets, eGaming Review has learned.
Betfair has made around 50 redundancies across help desk and customer service staff as it reduces some of its language options in “less attractive” markets, eGaming Review has learned.
Customers in a number of unspecified territories in Asia, the Nordics and Eastern Europe were told last week that their respective language options would close down permanently after the exchange operator carried out a recent market audit.
eGR has learned that the markets in question were no longer attractive and the decision was taken to immediately shut them down and halt investment. The maintenance of these services is thought to have far outweighed their profitability, however a number of customers remain active, eGR understands.
The move marks new chief executive Breon Corcoran’s second decision to downsize the company’s market portfolio following the announcement earlier this week to withdraw from Germany “ a territory that accounts for around 4% of the exchange’s revenues and generates around £6m a year before costs.
On Wednesday Betfair said it would immediately withdraw its exchange product from Germany after calling the country’s 5% tax on sports betting stakes “unviable”.
Following a decision by 15 of Germany’s 16 Lander in July to implement a 5% turnover tax on a limited 20 sports betting licences, Betfair, after consulting a number of legal and tax advisors, said that the current framework would render its “current exchange model unviable” forcing it to withdraw “almost immediately”, according to a spokeswoman.