SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Despite witnessing year-on-year revenue growth in Q1 2025, bet-at-home AG has expressed concerns about the future gambling landscape in core markets.
The Germany-based online gambling and sports betting provider is particularly worried about regulatory developments in neighbouring Austria.
Since the start of April, the country has enforced a new betting tax regime which introduced a 150% percentage increase from the previous 2% to a new 5% tax cap.
Sports betting, alongside online betting and generally any other type of gambling that involves stakes or wagers, falls within the new tax bracket, which the government says will increase public revenue and unlock additional revenue streams to combat illegal gambling.
Operators like bet-at-home have naturally stood against this decision, arguing that it will have the exact opposite effect, pushing players towards the unlicensed market by limiting the competitive odds on offer by license holders, alongside putting their profitability at risk.
Commenting on the development in its latest financial report, bet-at-home’s Board said: “This short-term and significant adjustment to the betting fee will result in a significant burden on net betting and gaming revenues year-on-year.”
In addition, there are active discussions about potentially raising the tax even higher, up to 10%, led by reformists who believe that gambling in Austria should be viewed as a public health matter as opposed to a purely business sector.
Such an increase would place the country among the highest-taxed European jurisdictions, even more so when you factor in that it taxes stakes rather than GGR compared to countries like the UK, France and Sweden.
This will certainly lessen Austria’s appeal for gambling stakeholders, counterintuitive to the nation’s plans to move away from its current online gambling monopoly and gradually liberalise the market in the coming years.
Bet-at-home still in a good spot
Regardless of what might come next for the group’s second core market next to Germany, bet-at-home has exhibited stable financial results going into 2025.
For the three months ending March, the operator saw a total of €103m in betting and gaming volume across both online sports betting and igaming (Q1 2024: €99m).
Quarterly gross betting and gaming revenue was capped at €14m compared to the €12m for the same period last year. Net betting and gaming revenue was €11m (Q1 2024: €9m).
EBITDA was €1.1m compared to €744k for the first quarter in 2024. EBITDA before special items was €1.6m (Q1 2024: €208k), while consolidated profit stood at €887k (Q1 2024: €381k).
Cash and cash equivalents stood at €29m (Q1 2024: €30m), while group equity for Q1 was capped at €24m (Q1 2024: €23m).
Factoring in regulatory uncertainties in its core markets, the group expects FY25 gross betting and gaming revenue to reach between €46m and €54m, and EBITDA before special items to be anything up to €4m.
