MGA suspends Tipster’s licence

The Malta Gaming Authority has issued the suspension due to the business being wound up.

Malta.- The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has confirmed that it has suspended Tipster Limited’s gambling licence due to the business being wound up. The operator may no longer offer gambling under its MGA licence.

The MGA issued the suspension in accordance with Regulation 9 (1) (f) of Malta’s Gaming Compliance and Enforcement Regulations. It noted that Tipster is required to allow registered users to access their accounts and to refund any funds remaining.

Tipster has the right to appeal against the decision. The operator’s German gambling licence has also been withdrawn by the new national regulator GGL.

The decisions came after Jörg Gollnick of Heidland Werres Diederichs was appointed as provisional administrator of Tipster Limited last month. Heidland Werres Diederichs was approved last month by the District Court of Cologne to oversee the winding up of Tipster Service GMBH after the company submitted an application for provisional insolvency proceedings. The request came after police raided Tipster Group‘s offices.

According to media reports, some 1,000 officers took part in a joint operation between the Rhine-Westphalia financial police and the Federal Criminal Police Office, the Bundeskriminalamt. The raid followed an international investigation into illegal gambling and large-scale money laundering and tax evasion that also involved German anti-corruption units in Bavaria, Berlin, Bremen and Saxony and police in Croatia and Malta.

Tipster Ltd GMBH had held a German sports betting licence since 2010, initially under a provisional licence from the Regional Council of Darmstadt. With its headquarters in Ta’Xbiex, Malta, it also ran Norobet and Kuka.de.

Gollnick said last month: “With the insolvency application for Tipster Ltd. in Germany, the course has been set for the restructuring of the entire Tipster group of companies The group is very valuable: the annual turnover of Tipster Ltd alone was more than €250m.

“We have set up a structured investor process in order to use a strong partner to support the business operations for the Tipster Group including its franchisees in the long term.”