Casino City's iGaming Pocket Directory - 2014 Edition

Sponsored by SPORTS BETTING 95 Visit iGamingPocketDirectory.com for more information. Sports betting is the most popular form of wagering in the world. Excluding the US, it’s a nearly €10 billion market, according to industry estimates. That’s about twice as big as casino gaming and more than three times larger than online poker. But as Benjamin Franklin once noted, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” And whenever billions of euros are in play, governments are sure to want to tax that play. Unfortunately, for both players and operators, some tax regimes prove to be so onerous that they eat into revenue and profits. When that happens, players ultimately stop betting, and revenue for operators falls sharply. Germany is a perfect case example. In the first half of 2012, there was no tax on sports betting. In the second half of 2012, Germany implemented a 5 percent turnover tax and it had an immediate impact. Some operators, like bwin.party, tried to pass on some of the costs to its customers by withholding 5 percent of winnings. German punters responded by wagering less money on “riskier” bets that paid out more. So while the amount of money players wagered declined, the amount of money the sportsbook held onto remained about the same because there were fewer winners. And despite all of this, gross gaming revenue declined 5 percent – and that was during a good year. SPORTS BETTING INDUSTRY OVERVIEW