Mybet awarded 11.5m after lottery legal battle
Operator hails victory against Westdeutsche Lotterie as a "big success" as long-running court case comes to an end
Mybet has hailed its award of 11.5m in damages from German state lottery company Westdeutsche Lotterie as a “big success”, drawing the six-year legal battle to a close.
Yesterday the Higher Regional Court of Dusseldorf ruled in favour of FLUXX, a subsidiary of mybet, after it accused the German Lottery and Pools Organisation of preventing it from marketing its lottery agency operations in the country.
“We feel it is a big success that after years we finally were successful in this law case,” Stefan Zenker, spokesperson at mybet, told eGaming Review this morning.
“The ruling underlines that the German State Lotteries have been acting illegally for years and were violating antitrust laws in an exceptional way.”
Mybet filed for compensation in 2008, claiming that as a consequence of the organisation’s actions it was forced to abandon its German lottery business, then called JAXX.
The damages relate to costs incurred and loss of profits but while no right of appeal was granted to Westlotto, it can still file a complaint about the non-admission of an appeal with the German Federal Supreme Court.
Mybet eventually sold its domestic lottery business to a group of private investors in 2012 for 12.5m after receiving an online sports betting licence in Schleswig-Holstein, but chose to keep its Spanish lottery arm.