Austrian Supreme Court orders Bet-at-home to pay back €2.8m in player losses

The Betclic Everest subsidiary left the Austrian gambling market nearly three years ago.

Austria.- The Supreme Court of Austria has ordered Bet-at-home to pay back €2.8m in player losses. The court found that the plaintiff had incurred losses while “legally incapacitated” due to suffering from gambling addiction. 

The case involved losses incurred via Bet-at-home’s website between August 2018 and July 2020. The Betclic Everest subsidiary left the Austrian market in October 2021 as a result of the case and had already set aside €2.3m to cover the expected cost.

Although Malta-based Bet-at-Home Entertainment is in liquidation, the court will hold Bet-at-home AG and Bet-at-home.com Internet Ltd liable for the losses. Bet-at-home said it is assessing the impact. It recently lowered its forecast for full-year revenue to between €44m and €48m with EBITDA expected to come in between negative €3m and positive €1m.

Casinos Austria’s Win2Day has a monopoly over online casino gambling in Austria. Other online gambling operators can only provide sports betting. Bet-at-home withdrew from the market after the Supreme Court ruled that offshore brands were operating illegally and that contracts with players were invalid, paving the way for players to sue to recoup losses. However, it seems that things can go both ways as a court this month ruled that a player must return some of their winnings from an unlicensed operator to reimburse the operator’s legal fees.

Betclic Everest began winding up Bet-at-Home Entertainment in January 2022 but still offers sports betting in Austria through a different subsidiary. The company left the British gambling market in July 2022 after the Gambling Commission suspended its licence. It has also faced tax probes in France and Switzerland.