The Köln Regional Court has confirmed that a player has been reimbursed for €14,000 (£12,195/$14,845) after placing bets with unlicensed sports betting operator Brivio Limited.
The plaintiff had participated in sports betting on Vulcanvegas.com between 2020 and 2022. This website is operated by Brivio Limited, which is based in Cyprus.
The plaintiff’s losses were estimated to be €14,000.
Unlike previous cases, which dealt with activity before the Fourth State Treaty on Gambling came into effect in Germany, this case included activity up to 2022.
Brivio Limited did not have a licence to operate before or after the Treaty took effect, meaning that its post-treaty activity was also illegal.
Reimbursement
The court said that the operator had violated the State Treaty on Gambling as it did not have a licence to operate.
The judgement was made by default as Brivio Limited did not defend itself against the lawsuit in court.
As well as being ordered to pay the losses, Brivio Limited must also pay the associated court costs.
This is one of several recent reimbursement cases in Germany where the court has ruled in the plaintiff’s favour, though most have dealt with online casino, which only became legal outside of Schleswig-Holstein last year.
Last month, the highest level of court in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen ruled that PokerStars must reimburse a player for €58,517.
