Gibson v Betfair – Landmark gambling claim dismissed by English Court of Appeal

On 8 December 2025, the English Court of Appeal (CoA) dismissed the claim brought by gambler Lee Gibson, who sought to recover his GBP1.5 million gambling losses from Betfair. More details on the initial claim can be found in our earlier article.

In its judgment, the CoA held that there was “no justification for allowing the appeal against the conclusion that Betfair neither knew nor ought to have known that Mr Gibson was a problem gambler” (paragraph 42) and, importantly, commented that there was no policy reason why successful bets should be unenforceable (by the gambler against the operator) even if the operator is in breach of the LCCP: “it would in my judgment be a very odd conclusion that this section [33 Gambling Act] was intended to render all gambling contracts void if the operator was in any breach of their licensing conditions”(paragraph 60 of the judgment).

This is a very positive result for Operators, and it is now much more challenging for a gambler to recover their losses through the civil courts.

Should you wish to discuss the case in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact the authors of this article or your regular DLA Piper contact.