William Hill closes Mr Green online sportsbook in Germany

British sportsbetting giant, William Hill, has reportedly shuttered the Germany-facing online sportsbook run by its Mr Green and Company AB subsidiary following the imposition of a new local regulatory regime.

According to a report from CalvinAyre.com, the Malta-headquartered subordinate released a statement on Monday in which it advised marketing partners that it was ‘closing all German sportsbetting operations with immediate effect’ while asking affiliates to ‘remove all sportsbook content from your German marketing channels as soon as possible.’

Modern market:

Mr Green and Company AB was purchased by London-listed William Hill in 2018 and it reportedly also declared that it had taken the decision to close the sportsbetting service attached to its Germany-facing online casino due to ‘recent gambling regulatory changes.’

Provisional permission:

CalvinAyre.com reported that German lawmakers ratified temporary federal gaming legislation last year that now requires all online casino and sportsbook operators to be freshly licensed or face prosecution. This new regulatory regime, which is set to run until July of 2021, purportedly went into effect from January 1 and has so far resulted in eleven firms applying for one of the latest authorizations with seven others having submitted ‘binding announcements’ that they intend to follow suit.

Casino continuation:

Despite the closure of its virtual sportsbook and Mr Green and Company AB has reportedly not shuttered the Germany-facing domain’s online casino although CalvinAyre.com moreover postulated that this former service ‘was almost certainly not the site’s primary earner.’

Temporary transition:

It was further reported that Mr Green and Company AB is widely known for its online casino offerings after only adding a sportsbetting component in 2016. It purportedly hypothesized that the operator could be waiting for Germany’s 16 states to work out a more permanent set of nationwide regulations before once again relaunching an online sportsbook to serve punters in western Europe’s most populated country.