Online casino operator LeoVegas has received a licensed by the German Federal States’ Joint Gambling Authority (GGL). With this license in hand the online slot operator will be able to operate in all 16 states in one of Europe’s largest iGaming markets.
LeoVegas to return to Germany with wide range of virtual slots
The German Federal States’ Joint Gambling Authority, Gemeinsamen Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL) has granted LVSports Limited, one of LeoVegas Group entities, with a new gaming license. This gaming license allows the company to offer virtual slot machines in all sixteen German states.
With LeoVegas being available in all German states it is also able to market their product nationwide. This of course offers huge opportunities for the brand since not many operators are already active in Europe’s largest online gaming market.
German market very important for LeoVegas
The LeoVegas Group had some sad backs in the recent years. Especially their closure in the Netherlands and Germany had a huge impact on their performance. Due to these markets closing down the operator only managed to realize a small revenue growth in 2021.
With the German market now returning to LeoVegas portfolio one of the problems has been solved. The company expects to be fully operational in the country soon which is very good new for shareholder in the company.
The situation in the Netherlands is still not very promising for LeoVegas. The company did apply for a license at the Dutch KSA, but they still haven’t received any good news.
LeoVegas Group is expected to go live with their main brand, LeoVegas, as main brand for slots and casino games. On top of this the company also wants to launch the brand Expekt in the Dutch market, which will offer both casino games and sports betting opportunities.
Not only LeoVegas struggles with Dutch market
The LeoVegas Group is definitely not the only iGaming giant struggling with leaving the Dutch market. iGaming company Flutter recently released their year numbers, and it showed that the company is missing out on a lot of revenue from the Netherlands. Only in 2022 the company said to have missed out of £30 million in revenue.
Although leaving the Dutch market was very painful Flutter still managed to grow their revenue in 2022 with a whopping 27%. The total revenue jumped from £6,036 million to £7,693 million. The companies EBITDA also increased by 27% from £723 million to £918 million.
Some of the most important reasons for the growth where expansion in the US and the purchase of the Italian iGaming company Sisal. After the purchase of Sisal Flutter has a massive 22% market share in Italy based on gross gaming revenue.
Future of Flutter in the Netherlands
The Flutter Group holds various big iGaming brands including Pokerstars, Betfair, Fanduel, Tombola, and PaddyPower. Currently only Tombola has a license in the Netherlands, which the company probably hopes to change.
Although the Dutch market is very important for Flutter they haven’t stated anything about a return to the market. While this is the case, we expect Pokerstars to return to the Dutch market since this brand is very popular under Dutch poker players and gamblers in general.
