An Austrian litigation finance company charged William Hill and Mr Green for refusing to pay €500,000 in lawsuits related to illegal online gambling in the Austrian market.
Advofin, in collaboration with local law firms, has processed claims from over 2,600 clients relating to gambling on international sites operating in jurisdictions including Malta.
The company received claims from customers for more than 60 million euros. EGR it became known that 130 cases had been settled, of which 130 client claims for a total amount of EUR 3 million had been paid, and another 75 pending judgments in the amount of EUR 5.8 million had not yet been paid because they were not yet legally binding.
In conversation with EGR Advofin board member Stefan Bohar said: “We have not lost the case yet. We have 30 to 40 new people joining our offer and up to 1 million euros of claims per week.”
“However, we ran into a setback in that several UK licensed operators stopped paying claims despite an Austrian court having issued legally binding rulings requiring payment,” he adds.
EGR may show that these operators include William Hill and Mr Green, who is headquartered in Malta.
“The Austrian lawyers representing the two are basically telling us, 'OK, they don't pay, there's nothing we can do about it.' Sorry,” Bohar explained.
“What we had to do was to start the whole process of meeting these requirements across Europe, which means we are basically looking for assets and accounts that we can seize.
“For one of these companies, we even fulfilled the marketing costs that the company bought from a large Austrian TV channel. They basically bought TV time for their commercials and we fulfilled them,” he added.
Enforcement, as the process is known in Austria, occurs when the parties settle a court case or a legally binding verdict is issued against the other party, but the obligated party fails to fulfill its obligation to pay the claim.
In the event that the court decision is not paid by the interested party, the plaintiff is issued an enforcement document to enforce this payment throughout the European Union. In part, this includes identifying the assets owned by the infringer and confiscating them as payment.
However, Bohar mentioned several obstacles to the collection process caused by the firms' international operations.
“It's a tedious process to start with because quite often they don't have assets in Austria. The money that is paid to them is often transferred to one of the payment service providers or to one of the banks outside of Austria,” he explained.
“It would be much easier for us to carry out this collection procedure in Austria, but the money just goes to another country - the UK, Ireland or something else. You need to find a local lawyer who can set the wheels in motion and take the case to local courts across Europe. This is exactly what we are doing now. It just adds to the length of the entire recovery process for our clients, which is unfortunate, but these steps will definitely not stop us,” Bohar added.
Bohar argued that the companies continue to operate in Austria on a day-to-day basis despite court rulings, questioning the operators' compliance with Austrian law.
“This is not a company that operates on some distant Caribbean island, this is a company from England with a branch in Malta. They are a big advertiser now, especially at the European Championships, and just don't pay a legally binding judgment,” he explained.
“I find it embarrassing for them and they are probably trying to make a claim that they are above the law, but we will get to them eventually,” Bohar concluded.
One potential factor in the payment of claims is the close relationship between Austria and neighboring Germany, where rules allowing online casinos, sports betting and poker will go into effect on July 1.
“If, on the one hand, I want to obtain a license in Germany as an online casino operator, but I do not pay legally binding judgments in Austria, then this will not be good for the German regulators. This news will spread quickly,” Bohar added.
Mr. Green and parent company William Hill have not commented on the statements made at the time of this article's publication after being contacted by EGR.
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