Mobile Gaming Drives Growth in Germany in 2023

Mobile gambling has been extremely popular in Europe over the past several years, perhaps one step ahead of the North American market.

In Germany, online gambling regulation went into affect two years ago, courtesy of The German Interstate Treaty on Gambling (ISTG). Germany is the second largest gaming market in Europe after the UK.  Both nation's regulatory bodies focus heavily on "at risk" behaviour and the UK especially has demonstrated its willingness to impose stiff fines on licensed operators who lag when it comes to social responsibility and money laundering deterrents.

Evolution of Mobile Gambling in UK, Germany

At the start of the last decade, the UK and Germany were the world's top markets for online gambling, particularly social casino gambling, According to research from Socialnomics, close to 20% of the time devoted to playing online casino games back then took place through social networking sites in both the UK and Germany.

But social platforms weren't the only drivers of online casino gambling in Germany in particular. Mobile sites were starting to come into their own. Germany is where this activity was most prevalent. Revenue from mobile gaming in Germany was expected to double by the middle of the decade.

Today, the vast majority of online games are played via one's mobile devices.  Annual mobile gaming revenues in the country have moved beyond the half a billion dollar mark.

As of 2023, there are over 2,467 German publishers on Google Play out of 190,283 game publishers.  Germany makes up 1 percent of the market, but the number is still staggering.  Be mindful that not all of these games incorporate real money gambling.  In addition to social casinos (i.e. free) the numbers include popular games for prize money and tokens.  With this in mind, we can throw countries in that aren't necessarily gambling-friendly (i.e. China).  Japan, the US, South Korea, and Canada make up much of the world's online mobile gaming market. But China sits atop the list globally with a total market value of $29 billion in 2021.  That number has surely gone up with all the closures and folks left at home to their own devices, so to speak.

Stats Don't Lie

Revenue for mobile gaming was projected to reach US$6.19bn in 2023 with an annaul rate of 6.88% for projected market volume of US$8.08bn by 2027.

Compare those numbers to China.  Revenue in the mobile games segment is projected to reach US$97.35bn in 2023 and US$130.20bn by 2027.

And the United States where revenue in the mobile games segment is projected to reach US$77.04bn in 2023 and US$102.30bn by 2027.

Why is Online Gambling So Popular in Germany?

Gambling has always been beloved in the European Union's largest nation, but last year Germany began to open the online casino market up.

The igaming market size overall, encompassing more than just mobile, was estimated at €2.8bn in 2021 and likely to approach €3.3bn in 2024.

Goldmedia, a marketing intelligence firm, found that 12 per cent of those polled play online daily, and 32 per cent play on a weekly basis.

Sports betting was the kicker with 15 per cent of respondents saying they bet daily, and another 29 per cent saying they gamble weekly.

Advances in technology have also placed Germany at the forefront of the mobile gaming revolution.

Casino games especially require the highest bandwidth and Germany has certainly demonstrated its ability to keep up.  The Federal Network Agency has found that around 85 percent of nation is currently covered by 5G networks, which offers the fastest internet speeds.  Hey, we here at Gambling911.com only got 5G a few months back where we are located in Miami Beach.  

The 5G network only went live in the United States in late 2019 with just 1.3 million 5G service subscriptions by year's end. 168 million subscriptions were anticipated by 2024.

The 5G network has also helped to fuel the advances in live dealer casinos.  These feature immersive casino games with actual live dealers and true-to-life land-based casino settings.

Betting on football in particular has helped fuel gambling in Germany.  It helps that the FIFA World Cup has been won four times by Germany and its team typically makes the final rounds in recent times.  There are estlmates that around three quarters of all sports bets placed by Germans are on soccer as we call it here in the US.

The nation is also home to one of the earliest known casinos, Casino Wiesbaden, established in 1810.  Today, there are close to 400 gambling establishments in the country.

Casinos in Germany have around 80 to 150 slots.  The most popular casino games include American Roulette, Baccarat, Blackjack, French Roulette, German Roulette and various forms of poker.  Germany is well represented at major global poker tournaments year after year.  Players like Fedor Holz and Christoph Vogelsang may not be household names but they've made a whole lot of money playing the game.  Both are in the $25,000,000 total earnings range lifetime.

When you can make this kind of money, honing your skills using your mobile device, is it ever any wonder why online gambling is so popular in Germany?

- B.E. Delmer, Gambling911.com