In our series ‘Top providers under the microscope’ we began with Stake. This time it is about a group whose name few people know, but whose brands almost everyone in Austria has already seen: Entain.
One group, many well-known brands
Entain plc is a corporate group listed on the London Stock Exchange and belongs there to the FTSE 100, the index of the largest British companies. Its registered office is on the Isle of Man. The group formerly operated as GVC Holdings and has been called Entain since 2020. Under this umbrella the group brings together more than 35 brands from sports betting, casino, poker and bingo.
The group has grown above all through acquisitions. In 2016 it took over the bwin.party group and with it the bwin brand together with the associated poker and casino brands. In 2018 the British Ladbrokes-Coral group was added. The origin even lay in the German-speaking area: the company was founded in 2004 to take over CasinoClub, then the leading German-language online provider.
The brands known in Austria
- bwin is the group’s flagship in continental Europe and is particularly strongly established in Austria and Germany. Through a single account, bwin offers sports betting, casino, poker and bingo.
- partypoker and partycasino are among the best-known platforms for online poker and classic casino games such as roulette and blackjack.
- CasinoClub was for years one of the largest German-language online casinos and stands at the historical origin of the group.
- There are also further brands such as Ladbrokes, Coral, Sportingbet as well as the bingo brands Foxy Bingo and Gala Bingo.
What they all have in common is the same technology in the background. The group operates a central platform, onto which the individual brands are placed only as a surface.
Where the brands are licensed
The group’s casino and poker offerings are operated predominantly out of Malta, under the supervision of the gambling authority there. Individual offerings historically also ran through Gibraltar. None of these casino brands holds a licence under the Austrian Gambling Act. That is precisely what matters for a reclaim.
What this means for Austrian players
In Austria, gambling such as online casino and poker may only be offered with a licence. Where this licence is missing, the gaming contract is void according to the settled line of the Austrian Supreme Court (OGH). The stakes were then collected without any legal basis and are in principle reclaimable, depending on the case up to thirty years retroactively. This concerns casino and poker losses with brands such as bwin, partypoker, partycasino and CasinoClub. Pure sports betting, by contrast, is permitted in Austria and is assessed separately.
There is an additional advantage. Unlike many purely offshore providers, Entain’s casino brands are based in the EU, and the group itself is a solvent, listed company. A judgment obtained can realistically be enforced against such an opponent. We explain why this difference is decisive in the article Why some online casinos are practically impossible to sue.
How seriously the courts take such claims is shown by developments in Germany. There, thousands of reclaim actions over historical bwin losses are pending. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has classified one of these cases as leading decision proceedings and set a hearing date for it on 17 September 2026.
How we proceed
The assessment of your case is free of charge. The proceedings against the provider are conducted by cooperating lawyers at our cost, and no upfront payment for lawyers is due from you. If successful, R. M. Prozessfinanzierung GmbH retains from 35 percent of the amount obtained, and the remaining amount is paid out to you. A condition for working together is that you stop playing with these providers. More on this on the page Online casino and gambling.
Player protection and help
If you feel that you no longer have your own gambling behaviour under control, you will find anonymous advice and concrete points of contact among the help services of the Federal Ministry of Finance. This help is independent of any reclaim.
Note
The information on companies, brands and figures in this article comes from publicly accessible internet research. We accept no liability for its accuracy or completeness.
Sources
- Entain plc, company and brand information, entaingroup.com
- Leading decision proceedings on online gambling, hearing date 17 September 2026 · Federal Court of Justice (BGH) · I ZR 216/25
- Joint Gambling Authority of the German states (GGL), whitelist of permitted providers, gluecksspiel-behoerde.de