Lottoland granted German lottery licence with sports betting and casino on the horizon
German division of firm granted lottery brokerage licence after a number of years contesting blocking orders from the regulator in a victory for Gibraltar-based parent company
Lottoland Deutschland has been granted a lottery licence by the Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL), bringing the operator onto the German regulator’s whitelist.
The German offshoot of the Lottoland Group was founded in Hamburg at the end of 2020 and has now received a long-term licence for the brokerage of state lotteries and state-licensed lotteries.
The operator also confirmed that further licences for sports betting and online slots will be granted by the GGL shortly.
Lottoland has secured two domain names thus far in Germany in the shape of Lottoland-deutschland.de and Lottohelden-deutschland.de.
The group is now one of 12 lottery brokers operating in the market, including ZEAL’s LOTTO24 brand and Tippland.
The awarding of the licence comes as another victory for the group after previous regulatory entanglements in Europe’s largest economy.
The GGL had previously ordered German internet service providers (ISPs) to block Lottland’s domain in October 2022.
At the time, the operator subsequently filed a complaint against the regulator and sought interim legal protection.
As part of its appeal, Lottoland argued that the blocking order was not permitted under German gambling law as it had applied for a licence, which was still being processed. The Koblenz Administrative Court rejected the appeal for interim relief.
However, in February 2023, the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate found that the GGL’s blocking order against Lottoland was unlawful.
When delivering its verdict, the court said that Lottoland’s operations did not infringe on regulations concerning unauthorised gambling.
The court also stated that while there are provisions for ISP blocking orders within the law, the GGL did not meet those requirements in this instance.
Speaking on the award of the lottery licence, Lottoland Deutschland MD Magnus von Zitzewitz said: “We are delighted that our licence application has finally been approved by the Joint Gaming Authority of the German federal states after intensive examination by the federal states.”