Tipp24 SE / Key word(s): Miscellaneous

22.02.2012 / 17:16

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New brand: Lotto24


(Hamburg, 22 February 2012) Tipp24, Germany's leading online lottery broker
until the end of 2008, is re-launching its activities on the German market.
With immediate effect, German lottery players can once again conveniently
submit their tickets at any time of day via the new Lotto24.de website.

The re-launch in Germany was made possible by new gaming legislation in the
federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Following the failure of the German
State Treaty on Games of Chance in 2011, the ruling coalition in
Schleswig-Holstein passed its own gaming legislation which once again
allows the online brokerage of state-run lotteries. Operations will be
managed by Tipp24 Deutschland GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tipp24 SE.
It will be brokering tickets for its partner, NordwestLotto, the state
lottery company in Schleswig-Holstein.

Dr. Hans Cornehl, CEO of Tipp24 SE, states: 'Schleswig-Holstein has
re-opened the market for online brokerage. The other federal states must
now demonstrate that they can grant brokers of state-run lotteries equally
non-discriminatory market access in line with EU law.'

Following a long legal battle, Tipp24 is also launching its new Lotto24
brand. As Petra von Strombeck, Chief Marketing Officer of Tipp24 SE,
explains: 'With the new Lotto24 brand, customers will directly associate
our offering with lotteries. Tipp24 was a strong brand; Lotto24 will soon
be an even stronger brand in Germany.'

Lotto24 currently targets customers domiciled or habitually resident in
Schleswig Holstein. This must also be confirmed by the customer. Following
an extensive legal examination, however, the company assumes that now
Schleswig-Holstein has opened the market for online brokers, the bans in
Germany's other states are no longer applicable under EU law and
participation is therefore allowed throughout Germany. New national
legislation regarding online lottery brokerage is expected to be passed in
summer this year.


Political background: Schleswig-Holstein's state premier Carstensen already
expressed considerable reservations about the Draft State Treaty on Games
of Chance in 2006 - and has now been vindicated. The German gaming
legislation introduced in 2008 was rejected by the European Court of
Justice in 2010 and has so far led to lost revenues of around EUR 14
billion (approx. -30%) for the German state. After the majority of German
states declared that they wanted to make only minor amendments to the State
Treaty, the ruling parties in Schleswig-Holstein, the CDU and FDP, decided
to draft their own more liberal legislation. Following a positive
examination by the European Commission, the new state law was ratified by
Schleswig-Holstein's parliament in Kiel in September 2011.

The other 15 state premiers, however, could only agree on a Draft State
Treaty in late 2011. Prerequisite for ratification of the treaty by the
various state parliaments, however, is a 'final positive opinion' from
Brussels - something which is still missing. In summer, the European
Commission had heavily criticized the draft presented by the 15 states.
According to the draft, brokers of state-run lotteries would need to get 32
permits in 15 states, without there being any clear criteria or legal claim
to such permits. Germany's federal states are therefore once again clearly
contravening the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and the
demands of the European Commission.




About Tipp24 SE: Tipp24 SE (formerly Tipp24 AG) was founded in September
1999 and holds equity interests in a number of companies in Spain, Italy
and the UK, which enable participation in lottery-based games via the
Internet, especially via the websites www.ventura24.es, www.giochi24.it,
www.mylotto24.co.uk and www.tipp24.com. In Germany, Tipp24 Entertainment
GmbH operates the games platform www.tipp24games.de. From its foundation to
the end of 2008, Tipp24 SE brokered tickets worth over 1.5 billion euros to
the state lottery companies - in recent years over 330 million euros
annually. Following its successful IPO in 2005 (Prime Standard), the
company was admitted to the SDAX index in June 2009 and has been trading as
a European public limited company since December 2009.

Press contact:
Tipp24 SE
Isabelle Prchlik 
Corporate Communication Specialist
Tel.: +49 40 32 55 33-661
E-mail: presse@tipp24.de 
Internet: www.tipp24.de/presse/


End of Corporate News

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Language:    English                                               
Company:     Tipp24 SE                                             
             Straßenbahnring 11                                    
             20251 Hamburg                                         
             Germany                                               
Phone:       +49 (0)40 325533-0                                    
Fax:         +49 (0)40 325533-77                                   
E-mail:      office@tipp24.de                                      
Internet:    www.tipp24-se.de                                      
ISIN:        DE0007847147                                          
WKN:         784714                                                
Listed:      Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard);      
             Freiverkehr in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, München,  
             Stuttgart                                             
 
 
End of News    DGAP News-Service  
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