GERMAN MARKET REGULATION UPDATE GVCAffiliates

[Jambo]

The following email we just received. This time it seems things become serious in Germany ):

Dear Affiliate,


With the German federal state’s introduction of the Interstate Treaty on Gambling in 2021, they have agreed to a transitional period to allow gambling operators to adjust to the new regulations. These new regulations will come into force from 15^th October 2020 and we will require you to adhere to the following:

• Ensure that you have removed all banners and promotional text relating to casino and poker products from all GVC brands from your German website(s).
• Remove all promotional material for casino/poker products belonging to all GVC brands, such as landing pages and banners that you have acquired through our affiliate system from all German facing websites (these will be taken down from our affiliate system on 14^th October 2020).
• Stop any social media, app or network activity for casino/poker products belonging to all GVC brands that target German players.
• Pause any media buying that targets German casino/poker players for all GVC brands

Please ensure you take the above actions before 15^th October 2020.

Our Sports brands will continue to operate as before – we do invite you to change the affiliate promotional activity towards them; SLOTS and poker products will remain available IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE UPCOMING TOLERANCE POLICY. We are HOWEVER stopping all advertising IN RELATION TO these products to comply with the ABOVE-MENTIONED regulatory guidelines.

We would like to thank you for your cooperation and understanding with this matter. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your account manager.

Kind regards,

Your GVC Affiliates team

[MrAJ]

So the list is getting longer:
888, LeoVegas, EGO, Affiliateclub, GVC, etc.

And each brand seems to have different guidelines.
As far as I understand, some don't want to receive any traffic at all.
Others ask to ban the terms "casino", "roulette", "blackjack", casino games, etc. from the site which basically means you need to redirect to a domain without these keywords + change all the website content. This is almost impossible to do without big sacrifices.

All the large affiliate sites seem not to care and just drop the brands that try to get compliant and replacing them with some grey market brands.

Any other German affiliates here scratching their heads?

[BestBuker]

GVC was assigned today to pay -1 euro, although it should be 230, do you have the same situation?

[MrAJ]

GVC was assigned today to pay -1 euro, although it should be 230, do you have the same situation?

Well, that was really helpful.

[Strider1973]

Well, that was really helpful.

Yes, with a posting frequency of 1 post per year one has to carefully chose his words... :/

Anyway, is anyone aware of operators that are not interested in the new regulation / in obtaining a license but want to continue to serve the German market?

Which grey operator would you recommend for DE (ideally with German landing pages)?

[ocreditor]

Yes, with a posting frequency of 1 post per year one has to carefully chose his words... :/

Anyway, is anyone aware of operators that are not interested in the new regulation / in obtaining a license but want to continue to serve the German market?

Which grey operator would you recommend for DE (ideally with German landing pages)?

Everything is still very new and it's early stages, very few operators sent emails about Germany, even bet365 still haven't announced how they are going to approach Germany yet.. so I guess with time we'll know more about which operators are staying and applying for license and which are not.

Also, this regulation is done to bring the German to protect their landbase casinos and keep the money in the country, by leaving only Slots & Video Slots games to be legal online and banning all table games and all live games and the big jackpots, so if a player like to play blackjack or live roulette online, when new regulation will come in to force he'll be able to do that only on a land base casino.

They even banned the actual word 'casino' so they'll associate that a real "casino activity" is done only in a land base casino and not online!

[Jambo]

Anyway, is anyone aware of operators that are not interested in the new regulation / in obtaining a license but want to continue to serve the German market?

Which grey operator would you recommend for DE (ideally with German landing pages)?

This time it seems it get serious in Germany.All operator are really careful and leave the German market for the moment or include some big changes.

[Strider1973]

They even banned the actual word 'casino' so they'll associate that a real "casino activity" is done only in a land base casino and not online!

Hm ok, it seems like the land based casinos in Germany were able to design a law that protects themselves, similar to what happened in Switzerland.

[ocreditor]

Hm ok, it seems like the land based casinos in Germany were able to design a law that protects themselves, similar to what happened in Switzerland.

Exactly !

[Jambo]

Dear Affiliate,

We are pleased to announce that GVC has been awarded a sports-betting license for bwin in Germany.

This has allowed us to launch a dedicated site for our German customers – bwin.de – which will be launching on 15^th October 2020. This new German facing label will host both existing and new players from the market, offering Sports, Casino, and Poker products.
How does this affect you as a GVC affiliate?

The existing German players at bwin.com will be migrated to bwin.de. The betting and game play activity of the players under your GVC affiliate account will be visible in the same account under the new label. You will keep on receiving commission as per the original deals for these players.

All prospect/new German players will be directed to bwin.de. Players from Germany will no longer be accepted at bwin.com. However, we will keep on acquiring players from Austria, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg at bwin.com.

You will be required to generate new Tracking URLs under bwin.de from the 15^th October 2020 in order to continue promoting to German players. If you are unsure how to do this, follow these instructions:

1. Log in to your account at gvcaffiliates.com

2. Go to Marketing Tools

3. Select Brand: BWIN, Country: Germany, Product: Sports, Type of resource: Tracker URL, Language: German

4. Select the Ad you would like to promote

5. Generate the new tracking link

The tracker URLs for bwin.de will be available in the GVC affiliate platform from 15^th October.

The current bwin.com tracker URLs remain valid for traffic from Austria, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.



And last, but not least …

With the launch of the new German bwin label, we are launching a new welcome offer for the affiliate channel – 100 € JOKER! Players receive a Joker Bet to be used on the bet of their choice. If bet is lost, players receive the stake back in the form of a FreeBet with maximum amount of 100 EUR.

In order to receive Joker Bet, the players need to:

1. Register a new account at bwin.de (18+, Germany)

2. Make a first deposit of min 10 EUR via one of the following payment methods - BANKTRANSFER, EPS, DINERS, GIROPAY, SOFORTÜBERWEISUNG, KALIXA, MAESTRO, MASTERCARD, PAYSAFECARD, PAYPAL, VISA, INSTANT BANK, MUCH BETTER, APPLE PAY, RAPID TRANSFER und ECOPAYZ.

In order to use the Joker Bet, players need to

1. Place a bet using the Joker bet (by selecting "Use Joker Bet" in the betslip before finalizing the bet).

2. If bet is lost, player receives the amount of the stake back as a FreeBet (maximum 100 €).

Joker Bet restrictions:

1. Joker Bet can be used on single and combi bets, pre-match and live bets

2. Joker Bet cannot be used on system bets and bets placed with a FreeBet

3. Joker Bet is made void on edited bets, cashed-out bets and cancelled bets and cannot be used again

4. Joker Bet is valid for 7 days after receipt

5. Joker Bet can be used only once
We also kindly ask you to keep your GVC Affiliates account up to date at all times regarding your affiliate sites/channels.

If you have any questions or need further clarification, please feel free to contact your dedicated Affiliate Manager.

Kind regards,


Your GVC Affiliates team

[ocreditor]

Sportsbetting & Bingo from my understanding are staying the same but require a local license.

However, a bigger problem is what I've heard today that also rev-share/CPA and other incentive oriented deals with affiliates are going to be prohibited.. soI'm wondering what deals (if any) are available for affiliates in this market, only flat?..

This is from Rabbit Entertainment email from today:

Renumeration According to Section 5 ‘Advertising’, Para. 6 of the GlüStV 2021, Affiliate remuneration based on revenue, deposits, turnover, wins or losses are prohibited, this is extended to players that have opened an account prior to the 15th October 2020 and will also effect players that convert after the 15th October 2020. Revenue share, hybrid and CPA deals are no longer permissible for German traffic.


Your affiliate managers will be contacting you to discuss and agree on a new remuneration plan. These new terms will mitigate potential lost earnings for revenue share and late converting traffic.

Q. Will I be paid for late conversions on my German traffic?
A. Within the above-mentioned regime, it is prohibited to pay affiliates based on player actions such as wagering, deposits, wins or losses. For this reason, late conversions cannot be paid but the new remuneration plan that will be discussed with your affiliate manager will be mitigated as potential lost earnings. The final day for late conversions to be counted, will be the 14^th October.

[Strider1973]

This is the relevant section in German:

"(6) Für Werbung für Glücksspiele, an denen gesperrte Spieler nach § 8 Absatz 2 nichtteilnehmen dürfen, im Internet, insbesondere in Form von Affiliate-Links, darf keine variable,insbesondere umsatz-, einzahlungs- oder einsatzabhängige, Vergütung vereinbart odergezahlt werden. Live-Zwischenstände von Sportereignissen dürfen nicht mit der Werbung fürSportwetten auf dieses Sportereignis verbunden werden; davon unberührt bleibt die Anzeige 15von Live-Zwischenständen zu Wettangeboten auf der eigenen Internetseite einesWettanbieters."

I'm not sure their intention is. But I really doubt that this will make CPA impossible. I'd rather say they don't want the casinos to pay more for higher value players (thus no affiliate payments depending on the height of a players revenues, deposits or wagers). I'm not a lawyer and I haven't followed the discussions leading to this paragraph 6, but I'd say that CPA with a trigger would still be possible? Otherwise they'd have to switch to a CPL model, which in the end would be about the same for us affiliates (bad because still no RS).

[MrAJ]

So what happened today?
Any affiliate accounts already closed?
I see even large affiliates like askgamblers promoting Leovegas and others who asked affiliates to be compliant, so I really doubt it.

[casinosenpai]

Ye the situation in Germany is getting really serious and seeing how it is done there, I think the only way for affiliates to keep making money is not to promote the licensed casinos anymore. There has been also a mention that CPA, Revenue share models will not be available anymore for affiliates.