BGH hearing on unauthorised losses in sports betting cancelled

Last Thursday, 7 March 2024, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) was originally due to hear the question of whether sports betting companies without a German licence must compensate players for their losses. However, the proceedings were suspended at short notice due to the resumption of negotiations between the betting provider and the plaintiff player.

In the past, we at GambleJoe have already reported several times on decisions by the highest court of the Federal Republic of Germany. For example, an article published in November 2022 dealt with a BGH ruling according to which the bank does not have to repay authorised gambling credit card payments. In this context, the BGH already had to clarify the question of whether banks are liable for damages for casino transfers in autumn 2021. In a recent case, the BGH was supposed to deal with the question of whether organisers of sports betting without a licence must reimburse players' losses. However, the hearing was cancelled at short notice - but why?

Player takes legal action against sports betting provider

In the current case, a player is taking legal action against the Malta-based gambling provider Tipico. Specifically, the player had initially registered on the platform between 2013 and 2018 and then regularly placed sports bets online. At this time, however, Tipico only had an EU licence from Malta, but not a licence from a German authority. However, Tipico subsequently succeeded in obtaining such a licence by court order in 2020.

Over the above period, the plaintiff player lost a total of more than 3,700 euros with the sports betting provider. He then claimed the losses back in court. The player ultimately failed in his claim before the Ulm Regional Court. The plaintiff then appealed against this judgement, whereupon a decision by the BGH was scheduled. In another case, we reported on a decision by the Regional Court of Ulm, according to which a player is to receive 170,000 euros back from the online casino.

BGH: Parties to the proceedings apply for proceedings to be suspended

A hearing before the highest German court was originally scheduled for last Thursday, 7 March 2024 (case no. I ZR 90/23). However, just a few days before the hearing, both the plaintiff and the sports betting provider then requested that the proceedings be suspended as an out-of-court settlement was being negotiated. This was announced by the BGH in Karlsruhe last week.

Obviously, the defendant betting provider would like to prevent a landmark judgement, as this could lead to a wave of lawsuits. For this reason, it currently seems likely that Tipico will repay at least part of the losses in the current case. Back in March 2021, we asked ourselves on GambleJoe whether it is a good idea to reclaim casino losses afterwards.

The fact is: since the new State Treaty on Gambling (GlüStV) came into force, the legal situation has been clear and unambiguous. According to this, players may only participate in virtual slot machines or sports betting if the respective provider has a licence from the Joint Gambling Authority of the federal states, or GGL for short. The official "whitelist", i.e. the overview of authorised gambling providers, can be called up here on the authority's website on a daily basis.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/illustrations/gerechtigkeit-gerade-zuständigkeit-2071539/