SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The registry of the Ministry of Sports and the Interior of Saxony Anhalt has confirmed that it has granted a German Fourth Interstate Treaty (GlüNeuRStv) licence to ComeOn Gaming.
Cherry AB’s B2C unit has registered the brands of sunmaker.de, comeonwetten.de and mobilebet.de under its approved German licence.
Though having secured its GlüNeuRStv licence, ComeOn has yet to disclose whether it will launch a sportsbook property, accepting the terms of Germany’s conflicted sportsbook marketplace.
At present, Saxony Anhalt has chosen to serve as the GlüNeuRStv regime’s interim regulator, as the state’s executive proceeds to establish Glücksspielbehörde (GGL) – German gambling’s new federal regulatory authority by the end of 2022.
ComeOn joins 35 foreign and domestic operators that have been granted GlüNeuRStv sports betting licences.
Last week, Kindred Group announced that it had withdrawn its Unibet brand from Germany, stating that the terms of the GlüNeuRStv regime were unviable for its business.
Q1 trading statements saw European gambling Plcs outline multi-million Euro costs, adjusting their German sportsbooks to be compliant with in-play wagering restrictions, limited bet types and €1,000 monthly spending limit.
Further burdens have seen a 5.3% turnover tax applied across sportsbook, online casino and poker verticals.
Der Deutsche Sportwettenverband (DSWV), Germany Sports Betting Trade Association, has called on Bundestag to undertake a review of the GlüNeuRStv regime’s terms of play, amid fears that German sports betting will be lost to the black market.
The DSWV accepted the GlüNeuRStv sportsbook rules, in order to certify a regulated market launch, but insisted that rules must be changed to make the market more accessible for licensed incumbents.
In need of reassurances, GlüNeuRStv licensed operators and stakeholders await for German authorities to establish a new regulatory agency, the Glücksspielbehörde (GGL).
Following the GlüNeuRStv regime’s ‘tough year-1 transitions’, German stakeholders expect the GGL to fix the market’s commercial limitations on licensing, tax and product restrictions that have seen the market become European online gambling’s problem child.
