Euro Vision: Germanyâs mobile landscape
In an extract from eGR Mobile Intelligenceâs analysis of the mobile gambling landscape around Europe, we look at how Germanyâs regulatory chaos is not preventing mobile innovation
Germanyâs regulatory car crash continues to threaten the entire sector, and in previous years mobile had suffered as a result with operators reluctant to invest heavily into the channel. But while German operators continue to play catch up on mobile, the last 12 months has seen the beginnings of some major development, and the market is now producing some genuinely innovative mobile products.
Tipico, a retail behemoth with a growing online presence, has surprisingly spearheaded this transformation. In May it boosted its mobile offering the launch of Tippn, a new native application for iOS. The app, built in collaboration with Berlin-based developer Couchsport, allows users to build accumulators by dragging a logo of a team into a circle on the stripped-down UI. Tipico CEO Jan Bolz said the app was âopening up a new space for football bettingâ and the implementation of gamification features to a sports betting product certainly put the firm at the cutting edge of mobile operators on the continent.
Elsewhere there are other reasons for optimism. Earlier this year former Mybet CEO Sven Ivo Brinck admitted that while the firm had been slow to react to the mobile disruption, with mobile contributing just 1% of online revenues as recently as last year, the firm was now approaching a 20% mobile contribution. The figure continues to rise as the firm rolls out a new sportsbook and a series of mobile-focused products.
And in July, Interwetten reported a 62% year-on-year increase in mobile revenues for H1, with the mobile channel accounting for 55% of sportsbook revenues and 40% of casino revenues, with a spokesperson from the operator telling eGR Mobile Intelligence that the firm was âtesting some innovative usability ideas for mobile devicesâ and confirming that mobile was now the âmain driver for our growthâ.
But while German operators are moving swiftly on the mobile channel, their long-term prospects are inexorably linked to a regulatory framework deemed âa complete messâ by German gaming lawyer Martin Arendts. The framework arbitrarily limited licences to 20 operators and has been criticised by a number of German courts for violating existing laws, not being transparent enough and restricting operatorsâ freedom to provide services.
The issue could come to a head in September, when the European Court of Justice is expected to rule against the legality of the Interstate Treaty on Gambling which provides the legal basis for the framework in a move which should finally force political movement on an issue most German parties have been reluctant to touch.
Realistically, a full re-regulation of the German market is required and that will undoubtedly take time. But the conditions are there for a thriving mobile gambling market to develop once that re-regulation is complete. Germany is set to overtake the UK as the country with the most smartphone users in Europe this year, albeit with lower penetration rates than much of Western Europe, while connectivity remains among the best on the continent. With operators in Germany finally appreciating the importance of an innovative and integrated mobile product and recording channel growth that beats most of the continent, Germany mobile market could be in a position to drive the sector in the coming years.
This is an extract exploring the mobile gambling landscape across Europe which appeared in issue 22 of eGR Mobile Intelligence