Germany & Affiliates

[theGman]

Hi GPWAers

I am hoping for a few pointers. Given that Germany has new regulations in place for Gambling, are Affiliates allowed to continue as per normal or is there a licensing regime or other criteria to fulfill to target German players?

Or is it simply a case of sending traffic toLicensed brands

Have a great day evening

Regards
G

[spinsfactory]

Hi, first the good news. You do not need a license.

[spinsfactory]

Now for some bad news.... Firstly, your website is only allowed to have operators listed that have a German license. Which is pretty strange if you have also Austrian or Swiss traffic. German is spoken by about 100 mln people. So you basically need to build a website only for German residents.
Secondly, you can only advertise slots. No Live Casino allowed (there are going to be - eventually - own licenses for Live Casino....)

Thirdly, the regulation is so slow that currently there are only about 14 operators regulated for slots. here you can see the whitelist
I would like to post the link to the whitelist here, but I cannot now because I am a new member... find it yourself, search "white list sachsen anhalt automatenspiele"

many of those are not really operational or don't have an affiliate program. Funny, eh? So basically everyone is illegal but only a few operators are legal and actually working... fun fact that most of those operators belong to Novomatic or Gauselmann who are the biggest land based operators. They even openend multiple companies and brands to block the pipeline for new licenses... costs them Euro 5 mln each, but if you have it, you have it.

More bad news in my next post

[universal4]

Here is the whitelist
https://lvwa.sachsen-anhalt.de/filea...White_List.pdf

List updated November 3rd, 2022.

Rick
Universal4

[spinsfactory]

So, ready to hear more? Bad news part 2 - still fun to play?

Taxation is done on bets (turnover) and not GGR. Has many effects but most importantly 1) less bonuses 2) less profit for operators 3) less money for affiliates.
We are currently talking about cpas of €50 (I am not telling you the baseline, so you don't start banging your head on the table).

Needless to say that land-based operators have a different taxation model, lots of law suits incoming.

As if this was not enough fun killer, the legislation also limits the games itself
- no progressive jackpots anymore
- no max bets
- 5 seconds spin time
- daily / monthly limit
- central player database (will take years to implement that)
- lower RTP (see taxation above)

ah, I forgot to add that revenue share is not allowed (success based remuneration). only cpa or cpl. IMO the only clean way would of course be cpc....

[Pokerface]

This is a great way to kill the industry in Germany. Why would you really want to be part of this unless you are really niche.

[eenzoo]

... that sounds all more than perfect.
Need to start some Germany focused live dealer project right away.

[theGman]

Thanks for all the great info Spinsfactory & Rick

I found out the large majority of what you have kindly put down and got the White List as well. We are very niche in some areas and obviously we would be remiss if we didnt look at the options in what is the biggest European market, I didnt know that about Novomatic and Gausellman - i guess it makes economic sense for them to do that.

As you point out there are significant challenges on all fronts and we are still debating on wether it is worth pursuing the licensed options.

It appears that following the licensed options is actually penalising yourself in so many ways.

[spinsfactory]

licensed biz is very likely going to be less profitable. however, the regulatory body is staffing up heavily in terms of resources and headcount and going full throttle on the hunt for unlicensed operators, i.e curacao. further they particularly target payment processors as well.... so, I guess, unlicensed will be a market for crypto in the future.. ah, yes, this was bad news no. 3

[dannyx]

And is there any problem with promoting offshore bookies? Germany blocking sites like Russia?

[dannyx]

From what I read Germany will be blocking access to the sites.
Interesting, maybe a lot of Germans will seek access to offshore bookmakers without some sick legal requirements in English and it will be a great gray market.