Statement regarding ARD and Die ZEIT coverage on March 6

/in , /by

On March 6, 2025, ARD and Die ZEIT reported on online sports betting in Germany, mentioning a supposed “secret agreement” between sports betting providers and the federal states.

This claim is incorrect.

In fact, this agreement is a judicial settlement which was reached and recorded during a public hearing at the Darmstadt Administrative Court. Furthermore, the federal states have publicly disclosed the contents of this settlement in their interim report evaluating the State Treaty on Gambling. This report has been publicly accessible since June 2024 on the websites of the Conference of Interior Ministers and several state parliaments.

Additionally, a TV segment aired on March 6 as part of ARD’s “Monitor” program covering online gambling in Germany claimed that a student with limited financial resources was able to increase his deposit limit at Tipico within “just two seconds.” The segment implies that this procedure violated regulatory requirements. The impression was further intensified by stating that Tipico “declined to comment” when asked why this limit increase was granted.

This claim is incorrect.

Below is the original question (translated from German to English) by ARD Monitor and Tipico’s timely response:

ARD Monitor: In a test scenario, we asked a student with a low monthly income to increase his limit at Tipico. Within a few minutes, he received approval from your company for a monthly limit increase to 10,000 euros, even though this was clearly beyond his financial capabilities. Please provide a statement regarding this matter.

Tipico: We would be happy to investigate this case thoroughly. If you provide us with the relevant details, we can comment on why this limit increase was approved.

We received no further response with details from the editor.

In practice, all requested limit increases are reviewed according to the ancillary conditions stipulated in our license, with various verification methods available. The Schufa-G inquiry described in this report is one such method.

The Joint Gambling Authority of the Federal States (Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder, GGL) has published detailed information regarding the Schufa-G inquiry: GGL statement (in German)