Affiliates with German traffic could miss out on significant sums of money, if the current suggested State Treaty amendments are passed.
Last week, the country’s 16 Federal States met to talk about moving forward with iGaming regulation. Dirk Schrödter, Head of the Schleswig-Holstein State Chancellory, praised how things progressed.
However, the European Betting & Gaming Association (EBGA) expressed its reservations and argued that multiple flaws existed and for affiliates, these could be detrimental for their businesses.
Why would affiliates be negatively affected?
At the moment, sports betting in Germany is legal. Over 60% of its current activity occurs through in-play wagering, which is problematic for affiliates under new proposed changes. It’s planned that new restrictions will come in for this form of betting, along with an advertising crackdown during certain hours in the day. Online sites will be affected by this and since traffic and advertising form two key parts of a successful affiliate business model, this could cause serious damage.
Moreover, the drafted State Treaty proposes a €1,000 monthly cross-provider deposit limit for all players. As such, the market would grow smaller and competition – much of which is driven by affiliates – would also decline.
Other restrictions
When players change between offers, a waiting time of five minutes has also been suggested. According to figures in the industry, this is “completely blind to the second-by-second nature of the iGaming industry and its consumers’ habits”. With this in mind, there are worries that players will turn to unregulated operators. These already form a big chunk of Germany’s online gambling market and addressing such issues is one of the reasons that legislation was put on the table.
Concerns from elsewhere
The EBGA isn’t the only organisation with reservations related to the current proposed legislation. Within Germany, the opposition has also been voiced.
The German Sports Betting Association (DSVW), for example, has referred to the new potential laws as “unbalanced”. Elsewhere, there have been other demands to revisit the treaty and address such issues but no further comments have been released.
Affiverse will be investigating the impact of these changes and how it will affect affiliate business owners in the course of the next week. Watch out for more information to follow.
