The court found that bet365 had used the athletes’ names and images without permission. 

Denmark.- The Maritime and Commercial High Court of Denmark has ordered the owner of bet365 to compensate several Danish athletes after it used their names and images without their permission in its marketing. Hillside must pay a combined DKK4.7m (€631,000) to the athletes in question.

The court found that the betting operator had posted images of the sportspeople on its social media content between February 21, 2019 and March 11, 2021. It also mentioned the athletes’ names.

Bet365 claimed that the images counted as editorial content, but the court ruled that they constituted marketing. Each athlete must be paid DKK50,000 per notice of remuneration, as set out in Denmark’s Marketing Act.

The sportsperson most featured was the Danish football player Christian Eriksen, who plays in the English Premier League for Manchester United. His name or image was found to have been used 29 times in bet365’s social media content during the period in question. He will be compensated to the tune of DKK1.5m as a result.

Other athletes involved include Denmark’s goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, now at OGN Nice in France but playing for Leicester City at the time. He will receive DKK500,000 after his rights were infringed 10 times. Meanwhile, Simon Kjær, captain of Denmark’s national football team, appeared six times and has been awarded DKK350,000.

The women’s football star Pernille Harder has been awarded DKK350,000 for seven breaches and the retired goalkeeping legend turned pundit Peter Schmeichel has been awarded DKK350,00 for seven. Bet365 was also ordered to pay DKK311,500 in legal costs for the Danish Players’ Association, Danish Elite Sports Athletes’ Association and Danish Handball Players’ Association.

Danish gambling regulator takes over anti-matchfixing platform

Last month, Spillemyndigheden took over responsibility for the country’s anti-match fixing platform. It now oversees Anti-Doping Denmark’s StopMatchfixing platform, through which people can make anonymous reports of suspected match-fixing.

The gambling regulator said the change in oversight would make it a “knowledge and information centre” for the battle against match-fixing. It will coordinate several forums and will be able to analyse data about suspicious bets and pass the information to relevant national and international bodies. It will seek to collaborate internationally with organisations involved in the same task