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DGAP-Ad-hoc: bet-at-home.com AG / Key word(s): Profit Warning bet-at-home.com AG: Company decides to temporarily discontinue offering online casino in Austria and to recognize further provisions due to player lawsuits for repayment of gaming losses Düsseldorf, 18 October 2021. bet-at-home.com AG (hereinafter also referred to as the "Company") had already announced on an ongoing basis that a Maltese Group company in Austria was facing legal claims from customers for reimbursement of gambling losses in the online casino. The bet-at-home.com AG Group still considers the online casino (de facto) monopoly of the national Austrian gambling regulation to be contrary to European law and accordingly considers itself to be a lawful online casino provider in Austria. Not least due to the necessity derived from the current European Court of Justice case law of a recurring review also by the Austrian courts, which in the opinion of the bet-at-home.com AG Group is currently not taking place to the required extent, the bet-at-home.com AG Group has so far assumed a positive development of case law, in particular at the higher courts in the appeal instances, until the end of the first half of 2022. However, due to a recent decision by the Austrian Supreme Court, it is now unclear whether the bet-at-home.com AG Group will be able to enforce its legal opinion in Austrian courts in the foreseeable future. The Management Board therefore decided today in a joint meeting with the Supervisory Board and with its approval to temporarily discontinue the online casino offering in Austria in a timely manner. This is because, although the bet-at-home.com AG Group also assumes that its actions are lawful under European law and that the lawsuits are also inadmissible under civil law, the continuation of the online casino offering in Austria before final legal clarification over a period of time that is currently no longer foreseeable would lead to a steadily increasing risk potential that appears indefensible overall. The decision on any resumption of the online casino offering in Austria will be made in the future depending on the development of the legal framework. The Maltese Group company will continue to use all available legal means to take action against the lawsuits filed in Austria. The Management Board also decided to recognize further provisions for the customer lawsuits for reimbursement of player losses that have been pending in Austria to date. As a result, the Company provisionally expects gross betting and gaming revenues of between EUR 93 million and EUR 98 million for the bet-at-home.com AG Group in fiscal year 2021 and negative EBITDA of between EUR -14 million and EUR -10 million, which includes expenses of EUR 24.6 million in connection with the Austrian customer lawsuits. Depending on the decision of the Austrian tax authorities, the Company assumes that gaming levies amounting to 40% of the relevant amounts will have to be refunded to the bet-at-hom.com AG Group on player losses to be reimbursed. However, due to legal uncertainties, these amounts are not used to reduce the aforementioned expenses and are not capitalized. For a more detailed economic and company law examination of the situation of the Maltese Group company concerned, the publication of the consolidated quarterly statement for the third quarter of 2021, which was scheduled for November 08, 2021, will be postponed to a later date to be named at short notice.
18-Oct-2021 CET/CEST The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. |
| Language: | English |
| Company: | bet-at-home.com AG |
| Tersteegenstrasse 30 | |
| 40474 Düsseldorf | |
| Germany | |
| Phone: | +49 211 17934 770 |
| Fax: | +49 211 17934 757 |
| E-mail: | ir@bet-at-home.com |
| Internet: | www.bet-at-home.ag |
| ISIN: | DE000A0DNAY5 |
| WKN: | A0DNAY |
| Listed: | Regulated Market in Frankfurt; Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange |
| EQS News ID: | 1241633 |
| End of Announcement | DGAP News Service |
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1241633 18-Oct-2021 CET/CEST
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