Bwin.party warns on German betting tax Analysts cut their full-year earnings for Bwin.party after the online gambling group warned that the introduction of a sports betting tax in Germany would put a dent in its annual results. The FTSE 250 group said that Germany's introduction of a 5 per cent tax would knock €5m-€10m from its full-year earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation. Although Bwin.party had already flagged that the tax would affect its results, analysts cut their full-year earnings per share by 7-8 per cent on Tuesday. Simon French at Panmure Gordon trimmed his ebitda estimate from €173m to €165m, but held his "buy" recommendation on the stock on the back of solid performances from its casino and bingo divisions. However, Simon Davies at Canaccord Genuity warned that Bwin.party faced "deteriorating poker trends and weakness in sports margins," and warned of downward pressure to underlying forecasts. The decision by Germany's federal government to introduce a Rennwettlotteriegesetz from July 1 applies to online gambling, affecting Bwin.party's operations in the country. The hit follows a decision by Bwin.party in May to pay Spanish authorities as much as €33.6m in taxes and interest to comply with two historic laws previously not applied to online bookmakers in the country. The cut to forecasts came as Bwin.party, which was formed last March when sports specialist Bwin merged with online poker and casino company PartyGaming, said that a run of predictable results at the European football championships had eaten away at its win margins. Bwin.party said that although the championships had increased betting activity and customer numbers, "gross win margins were lower than expected due to the majority of results following the predicted path." A brighter spot for Bwin.party was the groups casino division, which benefited from the launch of Italian casino games in the second half of last year and in Spain last month. "While certain southern European markets remain challenging, the launch of the group's sports, poker, casino and bingo products in Spain went live on June, and the early performance has been encouraging," Bwin.party said. Bwin.party shares fell 3 per cent to 104.3p in early trading.