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German Sports Betting Association Calls for Rethinking of Regulation to Combat the Black Market
The German Sports Betting Association (DSWV) will report on the current development of the sports betting market in Germany at its 2023 annual press conference.
Although millions of people in Germany show great interest in sports betting, it is becoming increasingly difficult for legal providers to meet the high demand with attractive products due to overly strict regulation and a rampant black market. As a result, there was also a noticeable decline in the market in 2022. The latest figures and data are cause for great concern, because the undesirable development feared a year ago has been confirmed and is obviously intensifying.
After the German sports betting market stabilised again at pre-Corona levels in 2021 with stakes of EUR 9.4 billion, there was a massive decline in the permitted market in 2022. Despite the World Cup year, gaming stakes fell to around €8.2bn last year. State revenues from sports betting tax were also correspondingly lower than in the previous year, at €433m.
However, the rather disappointing World Cup, partly due to Germany’s early exit and the resulting up to 80% drop in betting, is only contributing to a small extent to this development. The main reason for the market decline has to do with the extremely restrictive German regulation and the rampant black market.
Legal providers are only allowed to operate within a very narrow regulatory framework and are therefore unable to offer sufficiently attractive products. In a European comparison, Germany’s legal gambling market is one of the most restrictive in this respect. At the same time, the black market continues to expand unhindered. Customers are not gambling less than before, but elsewhere.
“Unfortunately, in 2022, exactly the scenario we have warned about time and again has come to pass: The legal market has to hold its own against the countless black market providers who do not adhere to any specifications or rules. For most customers, whether a provider has a permit from Germany is secondary. They are looking for the most comprehensive offer, the best odds, uncomplicated payment processes and interesting bonuses. That’s where the legal offers have a hard time,” DSWV President Mathias Dahms said.
And customers are finding it. In February 2023, the DSWV repeated its market study from the previous year and found an increase of at least 65% in active illegal gambling and sports betting offers. Out of a total of around 1500 websites without a German license that were checked, players from Germany can access 840 illegal websites and open a gaming account on 723 sites. This contrasts with only 46 permitted providers – 31 of which are sports betting providers – which have little room for maneuver due to the excessive regulation. In the area of betting shops, too, there are still too many unauthorised betting opportunities. In some cases, providers whose applications for permission have been rejected are still operating on the web and locally with betting stores. Here, too, the local authorities must step up controls and take action.
The previous enforcement measures of the Joint Gambling Authority of the Federal States (GGL) are visibly reaching their limits in the fight against the black market. The fact that the authority’s push for IP blocking, i.e., the blocking of illegal websites by Internet providers, has now also been curbed by three court rulings should give cause to focus on alternative approaches in the fight against illegal offerings. This includes, in particular, the consistent strengthening of the legal market: In order to be competitive, the permitted sports betting providers need as attractive and broad a range of offers as possible. The extremely strict restrictions on offerings and advertising urgently need to be put to the test.
“Advertising serves to steer all those who are already interested in sports betting into the state-supervised, and thus safe, market. In order to obtain a sports betting license in Germany, providers must meet numerous player protection criteria. The illegal providers from third countries do not care about the German regulations. Many advertise even in the Internet purposefully thereby to let also blocked players play. This type of advertising must be urgently prevented, and the advertising possibilities of legal providers must be strengthened,” DSWV Chief Executive Luka Andric said.
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The post Try to Beat the Devil: Hell Partners Dares You at iGB Live 2025 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
TESTA, the crowd testing platform for the iGaming industry, has launched its innovative TESTA Score with CasinoCompare.ph, a Philippine-focused online casino affiliate—and the only platform exclusively listing PAGCOR-licensed online casinos.
TESTA Score is a new UX quality benchmark developed by TESTA that shines a light on online casino brands in markets with new regulatory compliance standards.
Using real testers with local devices, IDs and bank accounts, TESTA evaluates each operator’s performance across four key processes – registration, deposit, withdrawal and KYC.
Each process is scored against strict usability parameters such as the number of required input fields, page clicks, lead times for verification and fund arrival, as well as the number of KYC attempts required.
The total possible score is 100, divided across:
The TESTA Score provides objective, player-centric transparency in any market.
With local connectivity, device preferences and regulatory friction in mind, the scoring system reflects the real-world user journey and highlights where improvements are most needed.
This then provides a chance for operators to improve their key flows, especially KYC, and then apply for a re-test to update their published score.
CasinoCompare.ph becomes the first online casino affiliate to deploy TESTA Score, with six Philippine-licensed online casinos now ranked. The site is operated by AFFILI.ph whose aim is to set a new industry standards for transparency, trust, and player confidence.
The six sites include Casino Plus, Desk Game, FBM E.Motion, Bet88, PlayTime and Crazy Win.
While most operators performed well on the core user flows, the KYC process emerged as the main differentiator.
Operators that lacked a working KYC step at withdrawal automatically received a zero in that category, pulling down their overall TESTA Score significantly.
This is how they fared:
Casino Plus led the pack with a total score of 97/100, earning perfect marks in registration, withdrawal, and KYC, and only dropping points on deposit due to a single extra page click.
As well as accessing TESTA Score through their affiliate partners, operators can work directly with TESTA to determine their TESTA Score.
Chris Johnson, TESTA CMO, said: “Born out of frequent client requests for key processes testing, and competitor benchmarking, the TESTA Score measures the parts of the customer journey, outside of game play, that make or break player acquisition and retention.
“Operators can use their TESTA Score to understand where they stand out over their rivals and where there is a gap they need to close.
“It’s great to see that six Philippine-licensed casinos have already used TESTA Score to benchmark their UX and acquisition flows, and we look forward to working with more moving forward, both in the Philippines and other markets around the world.”
The post TESTA debuts TESTA Score, allowing operators to benchmark UX appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Yolo Investments has closed fundraising for its flagship Fund II after hitting its €100 million target.
The fund comprises €50 million in external capital, as well as a €50 million commitment from Yolo Group.
It brings together a network of 23 investors, including founders and industry thought leaders, further strengthening the Yolo Investments ecosystem and enhancing the strategic value it can offer portfolio companies.
Fund II has already backed 12 companies across igaming, blockchain and fintech, with notable investments including Dabble, Kraken and Syfe. It expects to make a further 10 investments over the next 12 months.
Tim Heath, GP at Yolo Investments, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be closing our raise for Fund II having hit our target. This took place during challenging market conditions, with global VC fundraising facing significantly more headwinds compared with previous vintages. But investors have looked at our previous funds’ track record and the strength of our ecosystem, and have strongly backed us.
“We are humbled by that response as a real vote of confidence, not just in what we’ve built so far, but in where we’re heading next. We will continue to back more brilliant founders and help them scale faster, smarter and with the full power of the Yolo ecosystem behind them.”
Yolo Investments’ Fund II is structured as a Guernsey-registered limited partnership, and is licensed by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC).
The post Yolo Investments completes raise for €100m Fund II appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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