Germany still taking sports betting applications

One of the German councils responsible for online sports betting licences is still accepting applications while it awaits a court appeal.

Germany.- The Darmstadt Regional Council (DRC) is still processing online sports betting licence applications despite an April court ruling blocking the council from issuing licenses.

The authority in the German state of Hesse has lodged an appeal with a federal supreme court against the Darmstadt administrative court’s decision to block the awarding of licences. 

Germany’s Darmstadt Regional Council will not issue licences to operators until its appeal is heard but it is continuing to accept and review applications in order to be able to issue them rapidly if its appeal succeeds.

By February, more than 50 companies had either already applied or expressed interest in applying for a licence.

The Darmstadt Regional Council was one of two bodies put in charge of sports betting licences in January under Germany’s Third State Treaty on Gambling.

The process was suspended by the Darmstadt administrative court last month after Austrian betting firm Vierklee alleged the process was unfair and lacked transparency.

Vierklee claimed the process of deciding which provider would qualify for a licence was “opaque” and that the system discriminated in favour of German companies.

The Darmstadt Regional Council has appealed the ruling with the Kassel Administrative Court.

Germany’s Third State Treaty on Gambling came into effect on January 1 to bridge the gap until a wider-ranging law comes into effect next year.

The treaty currently permits online sports betting but no other forms of online betting, which are to be legalised when the full law comes into effect on July 1 2021 to allow online poker and casino games for the first time.