It's business as usual in Germany, says bwin.party chief
Norbert Teufelberger says German sports betting market remains "unclear" despite the recent award of an online betting licence
Bwin.party will continue to offer a full suite of products to players in Germany for as long as the country’s regulatory landscape remains “unclear”, the operator’s chief exec Norbert Teufelberger (pictured) has said.
Last month, bwin.party became one of only 20 operators to be awarded a sports betting licence by the Hesse Ministry of the Interior, with those who didn’t, such as bet365, BetVictor and Sportingbet, believed to be mounting a legal challenge against the licensing process.
Speaking to analysts following yesterday Q3 results update, Teufelberger said it was “too early” to predict the conditions of its sports betting licence and would operate “as is” for the next year or two, with Germany being one of its largest markets.
“It is unclear what is going to happen in Germany,” Teufelberger said. “It is too early to predict what are going to be the conditions of the licence as they have not been published yet.
“But currently we estimate that we are going to continue operating in Germany as is for another year or two, until we have clarity. And not only sports betting but all other products as well,” he added.
It is believed that should the sports betting licences become active, bwin.party would be required to switch off its casino and poker products in the country or risk having its licence revoked.
The news comes after bwin.party yesterday revealed its Q3 2014 financial results, with the firm posting a 2% year-on-year increase in total revenues to 148.7m. The growth predominantly came as a result of a double-digit increase in sports betting, which offset a 25% decline in poker.
The operator also said it planned to re-enter the Bulgarian market, which now offered an “attractive commercial regulatory framework” and represented a “potential new market opportunity” for the group.
Teufelberger said he was not concerned about having to potentially withdraw from grey markets such as Portugal, as the firm was well placed to enter new ones like Nevada where it is in the process of applying for an online poker licence.
“We are taking a fairly conservative view in terms of the markets we operate in compared to many of our peers, and I do believe that Portugal will launch a similar system to Belgium. So you may need a market access partner but that is not clear yet either.
“We are putting the final touches to our licence in Nevada, and we are in the final stages of a licence application in the UK. We are in full compliance with all of those licenses and I would not expect anything overly material because we started to de-emphasise non-core markets almost two years ago.
“So even if we had to exit one or two markets, we would hope to offset that by entering others at the same time. So Bulgaria is one example. We pulled out about three-and-a-half years ago, but now there is a licensing framework in place,” he added.