Unlicensed operators in Germany generated gross gaming revenue (GGR) of between €500m and €600m last year, according to a report released by the country’s regulator, the GGL.
The figures, as per the GGL, put the size of the online black market at around a quarter of the size of the licensed, regulated online sector for online slots and sports betting.
The regulator’s 2024 activity report uncovered 212 illegal operators running 858 websites in Germany.
Out of the 212 operators, 19 came from within the EU while 174 were from outside of the EU – 152 from Curaçao alone. The remaining 19 were classed as unknown.
When looking at the individual websites, the vast majority (838) were online casino or virtual slot game platforms.
Additionally, 382 websites offered sports betting, 14 were online poker platforms and 20 were sites for secondary lotteries.
The GGL estimated that these unlicensed sources made up 3%-4% of the entire land-based and online gambling market for 2024.
According to the GGL, the overall gambling market generated GGR of €14.4bn for 2024, with the online market contributing GGR of €3.5bn.
The GGL’s 25% black market disclosure relates to what the regulator deems “dangerous online gambling”, which excludes digital lotteries.
For the online market, sports betting made up €1.3bn, lotteries added €1.6bn, with the remaining €600m coming from online slots, poker and other casino games.
In an attempt to combat the black market threat, the GGL initiated 231 instances of legal action and reviewed more than 1,700 websites.
As a result, around 450 illegal websites were removed from the German market following prohibition orders, with a further 657 geo-blocked in accordance with the country’s Digital Services Act.
The GGL highlighted the impact of Google’s adjustment to its advertising guidelines, which has “significantly reduced the visibility of illegal offers”.
GGL CEO Ronald Benter said: “Our measures are having an impact. Nevertheless, combating illegal offerings remains challenging and requires perseverance and close cooperation with national and international partners.
“Our stated goal is to make the business model of illegal providers unattractive through a comprehensive package of measures.
“Combating illegal offerings remains a long-term process that requires strategic action, decisive action and close interagency cooperation.”
Looking ahead, the GGL confirmed its actions against black market operators will only ramp up.
A GGL statement read: “In 2025, the GGL expects further groundbreaking court rulings on its measures, thus providing even greater legal certainty in its approach.
“The authority will continue to support the evaluation of the 2021 State Treaty on Gambling and, among other things, further expand advertising monitoring.
“The further development of the use of safe servers is intended to further improve oversight of the legal gambling market and enable more precise monitoring.
“A particular focus is on intensive cooperation with national and international authorities to further effectively curb the illegal gambling market.
“This will target not only the providers themselves, but also technical service providers, advertising partners and other supporting actors.”
Reacting to the report on LinkedIn, Tipico’s director of igaming Christian Heins claimed that the GGL had been conservative in its estimate of the size of Germany’s black market, instead judging it to be worth up to €2bn.
He wrote: “The online casino black market isn’t separately quantified in the report. Instead, the GGL boldly claims that the combined black market for online casinos, sports betting, poker and secondary lotteries amounts to €500 to €600m in GGR. I believe that the online casino black market alone could easily be worth €1.5bn to €2bn in GGR.
“According to the GGL, €489m was generated by legally licensed online casinos in 2024 – quite an interesting number. If we assumed a 50/50 traffic split between legal and illegal providers, and that the customer value is only double (not three or four times higher), that already puts the black market at roughly €1bn.
“But the usage isn’t evenly split – in fact, in 2024, the black market saw at least 50% more traffic than the legal market on average. That puts the online casino black market at around €1.5bn alone.”
The growth of the black market in Germany has emerged as a key concern in the European igaming sector, with deposit limits and heavy tax burdens resulting in players leaking out of the licensed space.
Speaking to EGR at the start of May, LiveScore Group CEO Sam Sadi said that “overregulation completely destroyed” the regulated arena in the European country.
The post German regulator: Online slots and sports black market is a quarter of the size of regulated space first appeared on EGR Intel.
GGL’s report looking at 2024 claims GGR for the unlicensed online sector could be as high as €600m, with more than 850 black market sites having been identified
The post German regulator: Online slots and sports black market is a quarter of the size of regulated space first appeared on EGR Intel.