German court order repealment threatens further delays

The Hessian Administrative Court of Appeal has repealed an earlier decision to fast-track German sports betting licensing leading to threats of further delays.

The move came late last week as the Court repealed an interim decision made by the Administrative Court of Wiesbaden, issued on 20 December, which called for the process ““ which first began in August 2012 ““ to be accelerated.

The order considered the duration of the process to date to be unreasonable and requested that a decision be made on the application submitted by state-owned operator ODS Oddset Deutschland Sportwetten GmbH within three months.

If no decision could be made the order also requested for a temporary legalisation or toleration of the Oddset business to operate in the country, but the Administrate Court of Appeal has rejected these requests as it does not consider the Oddset application to have fulfilled all of the licensing requirements.

All 41 licence applicants at the second stage were informed in November 2013 that not a single operator had met the minimum requirements stipulated in the Interior Ministry’s approval process, most recently prompting the German district court of Sonthofen to request that the European Court of Justice intervene.

The move has placed further doubt on if the first sports betting licences are to be issued this year as hoped, with many claiming that licences are now unlikely to be awarded before 2015.