Novomatic, Greentube and Merkur stop services in Germany. Where is this going?
A few days ago we mentioned that Stargames Casino closed her doors for online real money players. Since 29th of december this casino closed her doors for all players because they offered Novomatic Games. Stargames was famous because they where one of the first online casinos with the full portfolio of Novomatic casino games. The Novomatic casino games are super popular with German players because you find those games in Spielotheken, bars and Gas stations across the country. The majority of players at Stargames are located and living in Germany.
After the decision made by the management of Novomatic (and other German based game suppliers like greentube and Merkur) to stop providing their games to German players, Stargames came out of games. There where no games left for the majority of their loyal players. And an online casino without games in my opinion has no need to stay open. But why did Novomatic and other German based game suppliers made the decision to stop offering games to German players. And where is this going to end with other suppliers and what can German players expect in the next few months. In this blog I am trying to explain more about this issue and I will also give you my opinion about it.
Try LVBetWhy German based game suppliers did pulled the plug for German players?
Novomatic/ Greentube and Merkur are all companies based in Germany. They all offer games for the offline (Bricks and mortar casinos) and digital games for several selected online casinos. The games where not available for all online casinos. Only a few selected casinos like LV Bet, Casumo, Stargames, Quasar and Videoslots had the right to offer their German players the games. Actually Casumo made a deal and added the games less than a week before the games where pulled offline by the suppliers. What a hell of a deal that became.
After the German regulators reminded the companies of their licensing arrangements in Germany they decided to remove all of the games from the German market. They didn’t even complained about it. Within a few days the decision was made and all casinos had to go with this final decision. I think they accepted the licensing arrangements because these suppliers are bigger in the offline market in Germany. And when they decided not to listen to the regulators it could cost them their offline licenses.
With Germany as one of the biggest markets for Novomatic/ Greentube and Merkur it is a hard loss but they will survive because their offline share will grow again. But the casinos relying on their games and the German market are now fucked. Stargames, Supergaminator and Skill7 are the first 3 online casinos that had to close their doors. And I think there are more to come.
Chances for other game suppliers in Germany
In the Netherlands we say “The een zijn dood, is de ander zijn brood”. What means something like “The ones Death, is the others living”. And in this case it works exactly the same because the German suppliers pulling out the online market gives the chance for others to take a higher share. And with Stargames closing down, their players will search for new casinos to try.
With Novomatic/ Greentube and Merkur closing their German online business this gives the chance to suppliers like NetEnt, Red tiger, WMS, PragmaticPlay and others to take a bigger share of the market at excisting clients. There are online casinos that offer all the mentioned suppliers together with the ones that stopped in Germany. Now that the excisting players cannot play the German games anymore they will try others instead. So the other suppliers will get more market share. On top of that their are casinos relying on the German suppliers. Those casinos can close their dors or they can start plan B and start adding other game supliers to their casinos.
With new casino games in the casino the majority of the loyal players probably will stay loyal to the casino. And casinos adding new suppliers to their casino is a huge chance for suppliers that decided to keep on offering games to German players.
If you are hit by this decision because you where a player at Stargames, Supergaminator and Skill7 you can simply move on to another interesting casino. In the underneath table you find a selection of casinos that we recommend to our visitors. If you want to keep playing Novomatic or Merkur games I recommend you to read the following paragraph.
Online Casinos we recommend to players from Germany (and other countries)
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New
1 |
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No Deposit €10 Free Or 55 Free Spins |
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BetonRed review | ||
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Exclusive
2 |
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Bonus €25 Free On Registration |
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Ice Casino review | ||
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New
3 |
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Bonus 30 Free Spins No Deposit |
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Vulkan Vegas review | ||
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*Exclusive
4 |
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bonus 25 Spins +150% Bonus |
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N1 Casino review | ||
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5 |
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bonus 50 Spins +100% |
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Cookie Casino review | ||
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6 |
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bonus €10 Free +100% |
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Unique Casino review | ||
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7 |
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bonus 100% up to €300 |
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22Bet review | ||
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8 |
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bonus 50 Spins +100% |
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Casilando review | ||
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*Biggest Casino
9 |
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bonus 100% +11 Spins |
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Videoslots review | ||
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10 |
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bonus 100% +100 Spins |
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Jonny Jackpot review | ||
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This is what you could do when you want to continue playing Novomatic and Merkur games
Ok, let us make things easy. When you are living in Germany and you want to play Novomatic, Greentube and Merkur games online you are fucked. From 29th of december this is not possible anymore. All the casinos that used to offer these games had to remove them for Germans. When you are living in another country you can still play them at most of the online casinos.
The only way you can keep on playing the games is in a Brick or mortar casino throughout Germany. In Germany you find a lot of Spielotheken and gas stations where you can find the games. When you realy fancy to keep on playing these games you can search for the nearest offline land-based casino and visit it. In the land-based casinos you get exactly the same gameplay and pay-outs . The only huge different is the fact that you need to go to a location in order to play.
In my opinion it is a better idea to try a few other casinos or try online casinos powered by other suppliers like NetEnt, Red Tiger, Microgaming and Play ‘n Go. These games are also amazing and there is not a huge different when you compare them to the German Suppliers.
How does the future for German online gambling looks like?
This is one big question. As mentioned before, with the German suppliers closing down this gives the chance to other Suppliers. But will the German regulators now starting a hunt against those suppliers? Or is this impossible? I think because of earlier mistakes by German regulators according licences for online casinos they can not force other suppliers and online casinos to stop operating in Germany. We know casinos that applied for a German licence a few times, but never got an answer on their requests. The casinos wanted to do everything the way it needed to be done legal wise. But the German authorities that work with mulitple jurisdictions in different regions made a mess of the regulations in the past. This will now hunt them I think.
Try a few of my favorite online casinos with free play money
Ok, you are from Germany and you cannot play Novomatic games any more. Get used to it and try other suppliers at other online casinos. It is very easy to switch from your favorite casino to a different one. Simply choose a casino on our website, open the casino and register a free account. At most of the casinos we prefer you receive an amount of free play money to start with. Underneath you find the 3 casinos I recommend you to try when you are a German player.
LV Bet Casino – €5 Free on Sign up + €1000 bonus and 100 Spins on deposit
LV Bet is a pretty new casino and it offers Novomatic/ Greentube games. So when you are not living in Germany you can play these games at this casino. For German players this casino offers NetEnt, Thunderkick, Microgaming and Wazdan. All regulated suppliers and they all offer similar kinds of Video slots. And when you want to try LV Bet you only need to register a free account because the casino gives you €5 free. There is no deposit needed to collect this free play money.
When you like LV Bet you can start playing with real money and collect a few super high bonuses.
This are the available bonuses at the casino
- 1st Deposit – 100% Bonus up to €200 + 200 Free Spins on Starburst
- 2nd Deposit – 50% Bonus up to €200 + 200 Free Spins on Aloha
- 3rd Deposit – 25% Bonus up to €500 + 500 Free Spins on Joker Pro
- 4th Deposit – 200% Bonus up to €100 + 100 Free Spins on Wild Wild West
Click here to open LV Bet and collect your free €5 cash!
Videoslots Casino – Try 11 Spins and €10 Free cash + 100% Bonus on deposit
If you want to join a serious online casino and you still have no idea which games you like, you must try Videoslots. Videoslots Casino is the biggest online casino around. The casino offers over 2.200 different casino games and they have all the popular suppliers in their casino. When you join Videoslots you can actually play allmost every casino game around. There are no other online casinos that offer so many different game suppliers.
And when you join the casino you receive 11 free spins on sign up and a double bonus on your first deposit. Make a minimum deposit of €10 and you receive 100% extra and another €10 free cash in your reward overview. Every week Videoslots gives you an amount of free play money. This amount is based on the activity at their casino.
Open website!21 Casino – Try €10 free at over 1.300 different casino games
Another pefect casino you could try is 21 Casino. This casino offers you €10 free cash when you join them. With this money you can play over 1.300 different games for free and win real money. At 21 Casino you find the most popular game suppliers. The casino does not offer Novomatic, Greentube or Merkur and they will stay active in the German market. This is a safe and 100% reliable online casino for both German and other players.
On your first deposit you receive 100 free spins on a selected NetEnt video slot and 121% extra play money. There is no maximum bonus at 21 Casino.
Click here to open a free account at 21 Casino and collect €10 free play money
