FOBTS – new gambling guideline for British sports betting

UK is undoubtedly one of the countries in which gambling is very popular across shift, which should not least be attributed to the fact that the British still has a lot left for horse bets. But a lot of money is also set on football, cricket or other sports. At the end of last year, however, a reform was decided by British politicians that have to be implemented since April 1, 2019: At the popular Fixed-Outds Betting Terminals (FOBT), which can be found in many British betting shops, a new maximum use applies. This is only 2 GBP instead of 100 GBP. Betting providers now fear high sales losses.

Nobody bets more often than the British

What many do not even know: Within the European Union, the British sports betting market is the largest, measured by the sales figures. 2017 were in Great Britain 14 Mrd. GBP generated on the national sports betting market, this corresponds to around 16 billion $ and meant an increase of two billion compared to the previous year. this can be explained with the general enthusiasm for bets itself. because compared to other betting markets such as the American betting market, the betting agency is not only visited in the uk, but there are also on significantly more events betting handed off. an example in numbers: bet in great britain 48 percent of all men and even 41 percent of all women regularly, a third of the entire population can even be found once a week in the betting office, a value that is hardly comparable in this country despite the increasing enthusiasm for betting. in addition, it is not just sports betting that british can get enthusiastic about. even on political or social events such as brexit or the royale wedding, money is set, even if soccer betting, of course, on the european peninsula, but also Horse and dog bets are most popular.

Maximum insert from 100 GBP reduced to 2 GBP

Now, however, politics wants to thwart their own people’s proverbial strokes. Because in November last year it was decided that the British Gambling Act would be modified. The aim of the reform is the maximum inserts on the popular fixed-odds Betting Terminalsthat can be found in many british betting shops and allow bets with cash. for many british, this option is to take part in gambling, despite the booming online business, still of outstanding importance and much more interesting than online sports betting. the estimation would have 1-2 million British not a separate bank account. so far it was possible to take one to the Maximum insert of 100 GBP to choose. with the decision at the end of last year, the maximum use was significantly reduced, namely 2 gbp. as usual, the reason for this was relatively simple: one wanted to contain pathological game behavior. how important the sports betting business is for many parts of the population and also the sports betting providers themselves was apparently forgotten. the had to be implemented New guideline by April 1st, 2019. This relatively long period since November 2018 is primarily due to the technical challenge, since the numerous Betting terminals needed a software update and also had to be changed in terms of content. Due to the new maximum bet, many bets can no longer be offered as usual.

“This is an immensely complicated process, but we are at an advanced level to be able to test the new content, software updates and the new operational limits very soon. So we can ensure that all bookmates will really stick to the new guidelines from April 1st. ”

British bookmaker threatened with existence?

Due to the strong reduction in the maximum insert, the reform not only means an incision in the sports betting system itself, but of course also economically. Because with the FOBT, all large and small bookmakers Great Britain have implemented millions of millions annually. These are likely to break away gradually. This also fears the numerous sports betting companies such as William Hill oder Ladbrokes, which of course are very active in great britain. many of these sports betting providers now even speak of the fact that their entire british core business could be threatened with existence. at least hundreds, if not thousands of betting shops, will probably have to be closed, since from then on they could no longer be managed economically. but is that really true? to find out, has Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC) in march as part of a study, the effects of the new legal regulation on the betting industry examined, with the following result: the bookmakers, all of which were selected for the investigation from the city of birmingham Profit losses of around 55 percent calculate. if you calculate this one to the entire british betting industry, this meant loss of around 1 billion gbp. of course, such a sum cannot even collect the british betting industry. the economic consequences can therefore be immense. the situation is made more difficult by the fact that the current legal situation could lead to numerous customers of the inpatient providers Offers from the online segment switch. The legal restrictions do not apply to online sports betting providers, the possible maximum inserts are often significantly higher. Thus, the political incision could have weakened domestic companies from the sports betting industry twice.

“Online gambling providers are the responsibility of protecting their players from placing bets that they cannot afford. But too often, the providers neglect the players or work too carefully. We therefore have to set limits for the expenses, the heights and the speed of the games in online casinos. ”