Bet365 fined in Sweden over customer protection breaches
The British gambling operator has lost its appeal against fines totalling over €3.5m for breaching duty of care and deposit limit rules.
Key takeaways:
- Bet365 has lost its appeal against sanctions imposed by Sweden’s gambling regulator, with courts upholding findings that the operator committed serious and systematic breaches of duty of care rules and deposit limit requirements between 2019 and 2022.
- The operator was fined a total of SEK40m (€3.5m) plus SEK4m after allowing customers to select a “no limit” deposit option, which regulators said failed to meet legal requirements for setting a specific deposit cap.
- Although the violations were considered serious, bet365 avoided losing its Swedish licences after introducing stronger responsible gambling controls, including manual reviews of high-loss customers and enhanced monitoring of higher-risk player groups.
Sweden.- The gambling operator bet365 has lost its appeal against sanctions issued by Sweden’s gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, over breaches relating to customer protection measures and deposit limit requirements in the country. The Court of Appeal agreed with the Administrative Court’s previous assessment that Hillside (Gaming) ENC and Hillside (Sports) ENC, Bet365’s legal entities, had been guilty of serious violations of the duty of care and the rules on deposit limits in Sweden.
The UK-based operator received two penalties: a SEK40m (€3.5m) penalty related to its sports betting operation and a further SEK4m fine linked to the igaming arm. Both businesses were found to have failed to comply with rules concerning duty of care and deposit limits.
According to the regulator, the breaches took place between January 1 2019 and April 19 2022. During that period, customers were able to select a “no limit” option when setting deposit restrictions on their accounts. Although an undisclosed technical ceiling of SEK500m existed within the system, Spelinspektionen determined that this did not satisfy the legal requirement for customers to set a specific numerical deposit limit.
The scale of the hidden threshold is highlighted by bet365’s Swedish revenue figures. In 2021, the company generated gross gaming revenue (GGR) of SEK724.5m from sports betting and SEK69m from its gaming business. Had a single customer reached the technical cap, that spending alone would have represented an increase equivalent to around 63 per cent of the sports division’s annual GGR.
Despite concluding that the shortcomings were both serious and systematic, Spelinspektionen stopped short of revoking bet365’s licences. Instead, the regulator issued a warning, citing remedial measures introduced by the company during and after the investigation.
Under the enhanced controls, customers recording monthly losses of more than SEK10,000 are subject to manual review. Additional monitoring procedures have also been introduced for higher-risk groups, including players aged 18 to 24 and individuals returning after self-excluding from gambling. The regulator noted that bet365 has also taken action to suspend or restrict accounts once internal indicators identify heightened risk.
Co-operation with Spelinspektionen, alongside the corrective measures and statutory limits on financial sanctions, contributed to a reduction in the proposed penalties. The regulator had initially proposed sanctions of SEK65m and SEK14m, with Swedish law preventing fines from exceeding 10 per cent of an operator’s annual turnover.
Over the past year, operators including Betsson, ComeOn Group-owned Snabbare, Mr Green, ATG and Kanon Gaming have all faced attention from Spelinspektionen over compliance-related issues. Meanwhile, some aspects of Sweden’s gambling framework have drawn criticism from Sweden’s Trade Association for Online Gambling (BOS), which argues that certain regulatory measures lack sufficient evidence-based justification.
BOS has raised concerns that requirements may be contributing to stagnant channelisation rates, with an estimated 16 per cent of Swedish players now using unlicensed gambling platforms. Those concerns have gained further prominence amid reports that an unlicensed operator ranks among the three largest gambling businesses in the Swedish market.
FAQs
Why was bet365 fined in Sweden?
Swedish regulator Spelinspektionen found that bet365 failed to comply with duty of care obligations and deposit limit rules, allowing customers to choose a “no limit” option instead of setting a specific numerical deposit cap.
How much did bet365 have to pay in penalties in Sweden?
bet365 received two penalties: SEK40m for its sports betting business and SEK4m for its online gaming operation, totalling SEK44m.
