博彩交易所必发从德国撤回(2)

　　译文：

　　BETFAIR WITHDRAWS ITS BETTING EXCHANGE FROM GERMANY

　　UK-based online gambling operators and betting exchange Betfair has announced that it would leave the German market after it had failed to negotiate a preferential taxation system with German authorities.

　　Betfair has just announced that it had decided to withdraw its betting exchange services from the German market. This decision has been taken after German authorities have refused to revise their 5% tax levy on turnover generated by online sports betting operators.

　　Betfair has argued that the German federal tax on online sports betting companies cannot be applied on Betfair because Betfair is not a regular sports betting operator. Betfair functions under a betting exchange concept where players themselves create bets and trade them between each other.

　　As such, Betfair attempted to convince German officials to impose a different taxation system on the company. However, Germany refused to agree with any compromise and as such Betfair decided today that operating in Germany isn't going to be profitable in the future.

　　Betfair has applied for a German sports betting license shortly after Germany adopted a new federal gambling treaty this summer. At that time Betfair's CEO Stephen Morana explained that Germany's 5% tax on turnover will undermine the company's German operations.

　　The company had announced earlier the year that its German operations have last year generated around ?40m in revenues that constituted about 4% of the venture's total revenues. Based on this, leaving the German market could be quite a significant blow to the company.

　　When announcing the withdrawal of its main betting exchange product, Betfair also explained that it would review its other operations in the country as well. Betfair also offers online poker and online casino gaming services at this moment but they make up only a small fraction of the company's revenues.

　　A few weeks ago Betfair has also shut down its marketing affiliate program in Germany. This could potentially indicate that Betfair might leave the German market altogether. Still, there is a chance that the company would continue to provide its non-betting exchange services in the country.

　　In Germany at this moment there are around 90 companies waiting in line to be awarded with an online betting license. However, Germany will only award a total of 20 licenses. This rule is against European Union legislation but Germany seems to ignore all previous European Commission warnings in this regard.