SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
bet-at-home AG has reassured its commitment to growth in its home market of Germany, having renewed its online gambling licences.
On 22 December, the embattled Frankfurt Boerse betting group announced that it had been granted approval by the Darmstadt Regional Council to renew its sports betting licence to operate in Germany’s Fourth Interstate Gambling Treaty (GlüNeuRStv) regime.
The GlüNeuRStv sports betting licence renewal was followed by bet-at-home being granted approval to launch an online slots licence by the State Administration Office in Saxony-Anhalt – a decision approved on 28 December.
Both licences are to be valid until 31 December 2017 and guarantee bet-at-home’s legal presence within Germany’s reformed GlüNeuRStv marketplace.
Bet-at-home Chairman Marco Falchetto declared: “With the obtaining of permissions for all product categories offered, bet-at-home creates complete legal and planning security for the Group, their investors and business partners in Germany.”
Dire trading in 2022 saw bet-at-home hindered by the ‘compounded effects’ of its Austrian market exit and the subsequent downsizing of its Malta subsidiary, which resulted in a 6X interim EBITDA decline to €1m.
Undertaking group-wide restructuring, bet-at-home reduced the headcount of its workforce by 65 employees to 170 staff members.
Providing an end-of-year update, bet-at-home revealed improved group GGR results, but cited that full-year 2022 losses would be in the expected range of €2m-to-€4m.
The negative results saw Parent company FL Entertainment notify investors that it had placed its 53% stake in bet-at-home under strategic review alongside other ‘underperforming assets’.
