DSWV unhappy with portrayal of sports betting by health body

Germany’s Sports Betting Association (DSWV) has once again criticised analysis that it says represent the market in a fabricated bad light.

This time around, what grabbed DSWV’s attention was the latest report from the German Centre for Addiction Issues (DHS), which it says contradicts official data about the size of the regulated sports betting market in 2023.

The DHS figures note that the market made a total of €12bn in that year alone, constituting a growth of 28.6% from the €9.3bn turnover calculated for 2022. 

However, DSWV has now come out to say that the information is completely off course, asking the DHS to go back to the drawing board and input the factual data.

With the DSWV putting forward what it says are the correct evaluations, it paints the market in a completely different light for the period highlighted in 2023. 

The Association says that the total turnover for 2023 was actually €7.7bn, and that the market has actually shrunk by 5.4% against the previously-mentioned 2022 estimates of €9.3bn. 

Strong words for German statistics

Calling the DHS’ estimates “absurd”, the DSWV has questioned where the discrepancy in the centre’s figures comes from. 

One potential reasoning is that the €12bn figure reflects the amount wagered on the black market, which the DSWV states that the DHS is “quantifying for the first time” – potentially bundling it together with the regulated market numbers.

The Association advises that the correct statistical outtakes are easily accessible by tracking the official reported tax data from the Federal MInistry of Finance – with every wagered euro in Germany subject to a 5.3% sports betting tax. 

A similar misunderstanding between both bodies about a discrepancy with past figures also arose back in 2023, so this has been a long going conundrum. 

Back then, the DSWV’s statement about tax was backed by gambling researcher Tilman Becker in a piece for the Behörden Spiegel magazine, who said: “The volume of the legal market should be calculated based on the sports betting tax and not based on the gross gaming revenue derived from it.”

Concluding its latest call for change in the DHS numbers, DSWV added: “If..the legal market has once again been misrepresented due to incorrect calculations, we call on the DHS to make a correction, as it has done in the past. 

“The victims of a conscious or unconscious distortion by the Bremen researchers are not only the legal providers, whose reputation is damaged by false turnover figures, but ultimately also consumers, politicians and regulatory authorities, who are presented with a false picture of the gambling market.”