Bet-at-Home share price continues to fall

The share prices of Bet-at-Home, the Germany-based gaming operator listed in the Frankfurt stock exchange continues to fall. It fell by 10 per cent this week. The company has blamed its blacklisting in Poland as the main reason for the continuing decline in the share price.

The gambling regulator in Poland blacklisted Bet-at-Home, along with several other operators, about a year ago, as part of the country’s gambling crackdown.

The company’s gross betting and gaming revenue for the six months to June 30 was €66.6m, down around 13 per cent on the same period in 2017. The group’s betting and gaming volume fell by 10 per cent year-on-year to €1.5bn. EBITDA of €11.0m was down on last year’s €17.4m, in part due to high marketing costs during the FIFA World Cup.

According to the company sources, the main reason for the fall was the blocking measures that have excluded foreign betting and gaming operators in Poland since July 2017. These “are considered as a violation of European legislation,” according to Bet-at-Home.

The company was one of the first companies to be black-listed in Poland at the start of July 2017, three months after legislation was introduced that allowed unlicensed companies to be blocked from offering gambling services to Polish citizens.

The legislation introduced a licensing structure and a huge 12 per cent turnover tax on those operating in Poland. At the time, the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) said the “fiscal framework is not workable. Until it is changed, few operators will take up licences in Poland.”

Earlier this month, a Warsaw court ruled against four overseas companies that challenged the legality of Poland’s blacklist, which now contains more than 2000 domain names. The Regional Administrative Court in Warsaw found that the Ministry of Finance – which operates the licensing scheme – had the right to block the ISPs of firms offering gambling services without the necessary permits.

Cherry recently became the ninth licensed operator in the Polish market, and the second company to receive a licence under the new gambling regulations which came into force last April.