Tipico announces Trusted Partner Programme in bid to tackle unlicensed gambling in Germany
Germany’s biggest online gambling group aims to make sure its suppliers don’t provide offerings to the black market.
Germany.- Operators continue to take steps amid concerns about the size of the black market for online gambling in Germany. Tipico, the biggest regulated operator, has created a Trusted Partner Programme, under which it aims to make sure that its game suppliers are not involved in supplying unlicensed operators.
Under the new initiative, Tipico will conduct checks to verify that all game suppliers are aligned with its Trusted Partner commitment and that the games it offers in the German market are licensed only to regulated operators. Game manufacturers already listed as part of the program are: Apparat, Games Global, Greentube, Hölle Games, MERKUR, Play’n GO, SYNOT and ZEAL.
Tipico says: “The aim of the Trusted Partner Programme is to support game manufacturers who voluntarily commit to not supplying anyone operating illegal gambling websites in Germany. Such black-market offerings bypass German regulatory requirements, provide no reliable player protection, and evade taxes owed in Germany.”
Christian Heins, director of igaming at Tipico, says: “We are very pleased that several major game manufacturers have already fulfilled the requirements as ‘Trusted Partners’ at the start of our quality initiative. Combating illegal offerings is essential for the successful channelisation into the legal and safe market, and we are convinced that this goal can only be achieved in the long term through a joint effort by all stakeholders.”
There have been disagreements about the size of the black market for online gambling in Germany. The regulator, GGL, has estimated that illegal gambling accounted for between 3 and 4 per cent of the total gambling market in 2023, generating between €400m and €600m in gross gaming revenue (GGR). However, the findings of a study conducted by the University of Leipzig suggest that around half of German gamblers have used unlicensed gambling sites and that up to three-quarters of online gambling revenue went to unlicensed operators.
Meanwhile, the German gambling market has been in the media spotlight this month after it was reported that a lack of supervision was allowing German consumers to evade the country’s $1,000 deposit limit for online gambling. The site Investigate Europe claims that players evade the limit by gambling with different operators.
