Under the of the agreement, pferdewetten.de will be granted the opportunity to contract directly with the franchise partners currently operating Happybet retail shops across .
In addition, the German operator will assume ownership of specific hardware assets associated with the business.
The arrangement is subject to successful negotiations with franchisees and regulatory approval by German authorities.
A transition period has now begun, during which pferdewetten.de will seek to finalise agreements with franchise partners and secure the necessary approvals.
Playtech stated that any Happybet assets not transferred or taken on by pferdewetten.de will be wound down.
The move follows Playtech’s announcement in March 2025 that it had begun a formal process to divest the remainder of the Happybet business, having already closed its Austrian operations in H2 2024.
What’s ahead for pferdewetten.de
Pferdewetten.de AG — headquartered in Düsseldorf and formerly known as Sportwetten.de AG — has established itself as a major player in the German horse racing betting market, with both online and retail operations.
Its flagship platform pferdewetten.de is one of the leaders in German online horse racing betting.
Since 2018, the company has also re-entered the sports betting market via sportwetten.de and expanded into retail sports betting in 2022.In addition to its consumer-facing services, the company also monetises its expertise as a B2B provider for national and international betting operators.
The acquisition includes approximately 600 hardware units, including modern betting terminals and POS systems.
“We expect a mid-double-digit number of shops to be integrated into our network in the next three months,” said Pierre Hofer, CEO of pferdewetten.de AG
This, he added, corresponds to expected additional annual revenue of around €7m and a positive EBITDA contribution of over €1m.
“The process, which has been closely coordinated with the vendor, enables us to implement the transition without any significant disruption to business operations and without additional approval costs.
“With this strategic step, we are significantly closer to our goal of operating more than 300 brick-and-mortar betting shops under the sportwetten.de brand by the end of 2025,” Hofer continued.
In November last year, NEXT.io first learned that Playtech was exploring a sale of its German-facing sports betting brand.
Playtech acquired the brand through its Italian subsidiary Snaitech and integrated it into its operations in 2021, upgrading its technology infrastructure and product offering.
However, the brand faced persistent financial difficulties, and was excluded from Playtech’s recent £2.3bn sale of Snaitech to Flutter Entertainment.
