Bet-at-home warns of increased liquidity risk after Austria shutdown
The warning comes in the context of a significant winding down of the company’s activities in other regions, most notably Austria.
In October 2021, the business lost a legal battle against a consortium of players in Austria who sought compensation from unlicensed operators. Following this, Bet-at-home announced it would be exiting the market, as well as winding down the Maltese company set up to target it.
In July, Bet-at-home announced that it had “surrendered” its GB licence, and would be permanently withdrawing from the market – this occurred in the wake of the operator’s licence suspension by the Gambling Commission for suspected anti-money laundering and social responsibility failings.
As a result of these exits, Bet-at-home has categorised its liquidity risk level as “medium”, and higher than last year, as the reduction in operations create uncertainty in the company’s cash flow, assets and liabilities.
Bet-at-home stated that even small negative shocks may leave the business with a shortfall:
“If the bet-at-home.com AG Group is unable to provide corresponding collateral in the form of bank guarantees, existing cash and cash equivalents would have to be deposited as security,” the report states.
“The remaining freely available liquidity could prove to be critical even in the event of minor negative deviations from the existing planning if, in addition, a significant reduction in liquidity were to occur due to payments to Bet-at-home.com Entertainment Ltd and to the Maltese tax authorities.
In the context of the operator’s reorientation of strategy, Bet-at-home abandoned its in-house platform and will be using the EveryMatrix technology stack going forward, in an effort to cut costs.
However, there was also good news for the operator. The business revealed it was “assured” in July by the State Administration Office of Saxony-Anhalt that it will be granted an online casino licence.
The business said it expects the licence to be issued in the second half of 2022, following its application which it entered following the 2021 passage of the German State Treaty on gambling.