Sports betting operators — well, most of them, anyway — are rejoicing as Germany’s top-flight football leagues have announced plans to resume play by the second half of this month.

On Wednesday, Christian Seifert, managing director of the German Football League (DFL), announced that the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 seasons would resume “from mid-May.” The announcement was made following a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of Germany’s 16 states.

The matches will take place in empty stadiums, a scenario that Seifert called “not an ideal solution for anyone,” but given the risk of further transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus among large bodies of people, “it is the only option to preserve the leagues in their present form.”

The exact date for kickoff will be decided on Thursday during a video link-up of Bundesliga teams, but the league is under a ticking clock, as player contracts will expire at the end of June. There were nine match days left on the schedule when the Bundesliga was forced to call a halt to the proceedings on March 13.