German market worth €1.5bn by 2015

 DISCUSSION and debate based around the liberalisation of the German betting market has been ongoing since 2003. A new report by the consulting and research company MECN has revealed that Sports betting is estimated to grow to €1.5bn by 2015. So it seems liberalisation could be a gateway towards a bigger and better gambling market.

The latest revelations could follow suit of Germans wagering in a total of almost €45bn, with gross revenues topping €10bn, in 2011.

The key growth driver will be the retail sports betting segment where around 2,500 new betting shops and countless new shop-in-shops/terminals are expected to open in the next few years.

It has been reported that German states will soon enact the new Interstate Treaty on gambling at some point this year. Martin Oelbermann, co-author of the study, commented: “Since the experience with France, liberalisation alone no longer automatically prompts applause. Aside from taxes, operators are also concerned about other regulations, such as advertising restrictions, online identification processes, IT systems,that will be imposed.”

MECN and industry experts expect that by 2015 the total online gambling market (licensed and unlicensed – betting, poker, casino and lotteries) will grow to €1.7bn, with online lotteries driving this development.