William Hill confirms German withdrawal
Operator pulled out of market on Friday " bwin.party only company to confirm plans to continue operating in market.
William Hill has become the latest operator to confirm its decision to withdraw from Germany, shutting its doors to players from Friday 20 July.
German punters can still play online casino and poker on the operator’s site, however sportsbook customers are no longer able to place bets. At the time of writing Hills’ share price had fallen 3.5p, down to 289.1p.
It joins 188Bet in exiting the market after the passage of the Federal Horse Racing and Lottery Act on 1 July, bringing into force the controversial state treaty signed by 15 of the 16 German Länder. Under the terms of the new legislation the Bundestag will award 20 sports betting-only licences, with operators taxed on 5% of sportsbook turnover. As neither is regulated, operators will not be taxed on casino and poker, but may face yet-to-be-announced sanctions for offering illegal products.
Regulation has already been heavily criticised by the the European Commission, which explained that restrictions on egaming services must be suitable to satisfy the objectives of the relevant law “ something which it says is lacking in the current framework, alongside a failure to justify the ban on online poker and casino. These claims were supported by the German Monopolies Commission, which called for a “fundamental overhaul” of legislation.
188Bet became the first operator to announce its withdrawal from Germany with new players unable to sign up for an account from 4 July. PokerStars has also moved its German players to its Malta-licensed dot.eu client, alongside its Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian and Swedish players.
Bwin.party is the only operator to date to announce that it will pay the 5% turnover tax ahead of its licence application “ a move expected to impact on the operator’s EBITDA with an additional 5m-10m in costs. While details of the application process are yet to be announced, it will be overseen by the Land of Hesse, and is expected to open this year.
(Photo courtesy of ‘Luukas’ – obtained via Creative Commons)