US daily fantasy sports site DraftKings officially went live with a beta version in Germany on Thursday. Earlier this year, DraftKings announced it would be going live in Germany during Q1, thanks to a new skill-games license acquired in Malta. (Fantasy soccer site Oulala is the only other company known to have acquired this license.) The full suite of DraftKings fantasy contests will be available to the German population… “Germany is known for its passionate sports fans and we are pleased to welcome them to daily fantasy sports,” DraftKings Chief International Officer Jeffrey Haas said in a press release upon…

The European Commission has joined the chorus of critics of Germany’s stalled online gambling regulatory regime. Late last month, the EC issued a formal rebuke of Germany’s three-year-old federal interstate gambling treaty. It’s been nearly one year since Germany awarded 20 federal online sports betting licenses but legal challenges by rejected applicants have prevented any of these licenses from taking effect. This failure to launch loomed large in the EC’s shaming letter, but it was far from the only criticism. The EC also chastised the lack of transparency during the license application process and questioned the reasoning behind Germany’s decision…

Germany may have to rerun its online sports betting licensing process after a court found that it violated several laws and European Union (EU) edicts. The country began its process of allowing 20 licencees following the passage of the federal Interstate Gambling Treaty in 2012. Those licencees were announced by the Hesse Ministry in September 2014, but were immediately appealed by some of the 21 unsuccessful applicants. On Monday, the Administrative Court of Wiesbaden released its ruling on a challenge brought by, according to reports, an Austrian sports betting operator, finding that the licensing process had violated numerous laws, raised…