Germany extends application deadline until 21 Jan 2013

The German state of Hesse today ruled that it will accept further applications until 21 January next year, adding yet another two weeks to the initial delay that was announced earlier this week.

The state, that has been given the responsibility to process more than 90 applications for the country’s prospective 20 sports betting licences, has according to sources, been inundated with questions from companies that have applied.

Answers to these questions must officially be responded to and published by the state with the local authorities facing a huge backlog of queries before it faces up to the task of filtering which companies will and will not be successful in gaining the small number of licences on offer under the country’s non-European Commission backed State Treaty.

The Land had initially extended the deadline from 20 December to 7 January 2013.

Phase one of the application process was for registering initial interest for the licence under the revised “E15″ treaty and ended on 12 September. The second phase, also overseen by the Hessen Ministry of Interior, requires more significant documentation, including security and business details, as well as financial data.

Due to the extensive nature of the requirements, the phase two deadline has been extended to give operators more time to complete the necessary paperwork.

The phase one deadline was also postponed for similar reasons, from 4 to 12 September.

To date, only mybet (formerly JAXX) and bwin.party have officially said they will apply for a licence despite also being approved in breakaway state Schleswig Holstein that, unlike the State Treaty, has been formally backed by the EC. Schleswig Holstein last issued sports betting licences in August but has since said it would fall back in line with the 15 other states in approving and backing the State Treaty.