The ‘gaming heroes’ Werner Hansch and Marc Ellerbrock during their pitch in The Lion’s Den (Photo: RTL / Vox / Bernd-Michael Maurer)
The Zockerhelden portal wants to help gambling and loot box victims get justice and repayment. On board: reporter legend Werner Hansch.
Right in the opening episode of the anniversary season of The Lion’s Den This evening will be highly emotional: 86-year-old Werner Hansch, one of the oldest startup co-founders to date, will appear before the ‘Lions’ – in this case Carsten Maschmeyer, Dagmar Wöhrl, Ralf Dümmel, Judith Williams and Nils Glagau.
For decades, Hansch was one of the most distinctive sports reporter voices – at the Sportschau, at SAT.1 and in between as a commentator for FIFA 98 and FIFA 99Ever since he gambled away his house, his farm and his livelihood on horse racing, he has been a committed advocate of the risks and side effects of gambling and the resulting gambling addiction.
This fate brought Hansch together with lawyer Marc Ellerbrock, who together founded the Zockerhelden UG founded – with the prominent reporter as a partner and testimonial.
The portal advises, mediates and supports victims who want to recoup gambling losses of €5,000 and above – from those online casino, sports betting and poker providers who lacked the required license for the German market until 2021/22. The offer was therefore simply illegal at that time.
If the court decides in favor of the plaintiff, Zockerhelden receives a commission – the provider advertises an almost 100% success rate. The business idea is therefore similar to those service providers who, for example, sue for compensation for flight cancellations and delays on behalf of their clients.
However, chances of reimbursement are only available for ‘old cases’ – the model is therefore finite. In the future, Zockerhelden therefore does not only want to be active in the European region, but also tackle the issue of loot boxes in computer games – a billion-dollar market that continues to be criticized and which experts place at least close to gambling. In Austria, there have already been relevant rulings on this: In the absence of licenses, providers such as Sony Interactive and Electronic Arts had to transfer the stakes to Ultimate Team-Pay back customers.
Zockerhelden founder Ellerbrock on the show: “In terms of volume, this promises to be bigger than online sports betting or online casino games.”
The lawyer admits to GamesWirtschaftthat Zockerhelden has not yet pursued any active loot box cases because they want to wait and see how things develop in the neighboring country. But he also says: “The legal situation in Germany and Austria is largely parallel, especially in the area of gambling, as has already been seen in the online casino cases. In particular, the legal definition of online gambling in Austria and Germany is almost identical. We therefore assume that the development of case law in Austria will also have a certain precedent effect for Germany.”
The duo is hoping to receive €125,000 for a 15 percent stake in the company, meaning the startup’s valuation would be at least €833,000. How the pitch turned out and whether and if so which ‘lions’ will invest in the gaming heroes can be seen this Monday (September 2) from 8:15 p.m. on VOX and in the stream on RTL+ (Preview video).
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