Germany - 12 March 2020, Saxony, Dresden: Football: 2nd Bundesliga, SG Dynamo Dresden. View into the empty Rudolf-Harbig-Stadium. Numerous football matches in Germany and Europe are currently taking place without spectators. It is not yet clear whether so-called "ghost games" will also take place here because of the new corona virus. Photo: Robert Michael/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa - IMPORTANT NOTE: In accordance with the regulations of the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga and the DFB Deutscher Fußball-Bund, it is prohibited to exploit or have exploited in the stadium and/or from the game taken photographs in the form of sequence images and/or video-like photo series.

85% pause activity as esports tops the betting bill in Germany

More than 85% of sports bettors in Germany have stopped placing bets, according to a survey conducted by bookmaker comparison portal MySportwetten.de – part of Leadstar Media group.

The unrepresentative survey, conducted as a poll amongst members of the MySportwetten.de community, was set up to show how much the betting world in Germany has changed as a result of COVID-19.

For the period 17-23 April, it investigated to what extent bettors are still placing bets, on which sports they are currently betting and which online gambling alternatives they are using while their favourite sports and leagues are paused.

While 14.9% of the participants said that they are still placing bets, 85.1% said that they have paused betting activities – a result that correlates with the numbers released by the country’s sports betting federation Deutscher Sportwettenverband (DSWV), which estimated that the loss of revenue for most betting brands was higher than 90%. 

Added to that, 77% of the MySportwetten.de members surveyed have not just stopped betting but also their whole online gambling activities. 5% are still playing online poker or using online casinos while, interestingly, 3.1% have started trading on the stock market.

In terms of sports still available for betting, esports is getting by far the most attention from the MySportwetten.de betting community. An impressive 75% of those still active are placing their money on esports bets. Football, usually the clear number one in the German betting world, comes in with just 7.1%. 

Scoring surprisingly well is table tennis bets (14.3%). There were also some participants (3.6%) who mentioned darts as their number one sport to currently bet on. 

It will be interesting to see how these betting trends develop over the coming weeks, particularly as rumours persist over the imminent return of the German Bundesliga – alongside more tentative stories around ‘Project Restart’ for the Premier League.

The full results of the survey can be viewed in German HERE.

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