LG Koblenz orders Tipico to repay €122,000 in online betting losses

The Landgericht Koblenz ruled on 14 October 2026 that Tipico Co. Ltd. must repay more than €122,000 a player lost on online sports betting offered through a Tipico website, according to CLLB Rechtsanwälte, the law firm that brought the case. The court held that the contracts were void because Tipico did not hold the licence required to offer online sports betting publicly in Germany during the period at issue.

The player took part in online sports betting on a German-language Tipico platform between August 2016 and September 2020 and lost more than €122,000 in total. Tipico Co. Ltd. received its German concession only on 9 October 2020.

The court found that Tipico breached the prohibition on online gambling under § 4(4) of the 2012 version of the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag, which it treated as a protective law covering health risks such as gambling addiction and the associated financial risks. It held that the public-interest aims of the prohibition did not breach European law, and that an earlier Tipico licence application did not change the unlawfulness of the offer because the concession procedure was contrary to European law. The court also found the offer would not have been eligible for a licence in any case, since a licence carries conditions including a monthly deposit limit of €1,000 per player, and the player's transaction record showed the limit was exceeded several times.

The court rejected the argument that the player's participation from abroad during foreign stays affected the claim, holding that the decisive factor was his ordinary residence in Germany. It also found the repayment claims not time-barred: because the prohibition is a protective law, § 852 of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch applies, under which claims expire only after 10 years.

Thomas Sittner, a lawyer at CLLB Rechtsanwälte, said that without the required licence, online gambling including online sports betting was and remains prohibited in Germany, and that the judgments show players have good prospects of recovering their losses.