Sports betting boosts mybet H1s
Earnings up 20% for Q2 and 21% for H1 " income rise due to Euro 2012 and sale of lottery business.
Mybet Holding’s record betting stakes during Euro 2012 have helped the operator achieve strong revenue growth in H1 and Q2, results released today reveal.
Consolidated revenue increased 20% to 15.8m in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, and 21% to 34.3m for the first half of the year in comparison to H1 2011.
The results were boosted by a 66% rise in betting stakes in Q2 as a result of June’s UEFA European Football Championship, with the number of mybet’s registered users increasing from 56,000 to 959,000.
The operator, formerly known as JAXX, sold its lottery business after the signing of Germany’s controversial Interstate Gambling Treaty, which saw the implementation of the country’s first national lottery organisation, die Gemeinsame Klassenlotterie der Länder and rendered private lotteries effectively unprofitable as tax remained at 16.67% of turnover.
Mybet changed its name after becoming one of the first to be awarded an online gambling licence in Schleswig-Holstein, however this is now under severe threat as the German Land announced an intention to abolish its own egaming laws and rejoin the country’s Interstate Gambling Treaty.
Mybet, alongside bwin.party, however have taken legal action against Schleswig Holstein over delays in issuing their online sports betting licences after being approved in May this year.
Earlier this week Germany opened the tender process for its 20 sports betting licences to be issued under its controversial Interstate Gambling Treaty with licensees given until September 4 to submit the necessary paperwork in German to the Interior Ministry of the state of Hesse, which will act as the licensing authority for the 20 licences.
The Treaty came into force on July 1 after being ratified by 14 of Germany’s federal states, replacing the previous state monopoly on sports betting. It carries with it a 5% turnover tax on all sports bets and continues to enforce a ban on online poker and casino.
Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia have both yet to ratify the Treaty, however SH’s new coalition government has drafted bills to scrap its four month-old law and opt to re-join the federal Treaty.
Earlier in the year, the operator agreed a deal to sponsor German football team SpVgg Greuther Fürth, which will play in the Bundesliga for the first time this season. In July, mybet and FIFA subsidiary Early Warning System announced a partnership aimed at helping FIFA investigating suspicious betting patterns.