Dutch gambling regulator fines Unibet operator over unauthorised sports betting offerings
The KSA says Unibet offered prohibited bets on several occasions.
The Netherlands.- The Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has issued a penalty payment order totalling €450,000 against Kindred’s Dutch outfit Optdeck for offering unauthorised sports bets via its Unibet brand.
The KSA said that Unibet offered unauthorised sports bets on several occasions between October 2022 and May 2025. It’s imposing a penalty of €75,000 for each week in which a violation occurred for a maximum penalty of €450,000.
The violations relate to football bets on corner kicks and yellow cards, as well as bets on matches in which there were participants aged under 21. The KSA noted that these betting markets are prohibited in the Netherlands and says it repeatedly addressed Unibet about the betting options offered. The regulator said it had seen insufficient improvement and a real risk of recurrence from the operator.
“Under Dutch gambling law, betting on certain matches and event components is prohibited. This is to protect the integrity of the sport and these bets, and to prevent manipulation of these sports bets,” the regulator said.
Meanwhile, the KSA is to amend its Remote Gambling Licensing Policy Rules as it prepares to open licence renewal applications for the Netherlands’ online gambling market. The current five-year Dutch online gambling licences granted in September 2021 will expire on October 1, 2026, and the regulator has set out the criteria for renewal as well as detailing situations that could lead to refusal.
New rules include a requirement for applications to include a document explaining how providers plan to inform the KSA in a timely manner about important changes to their policies and operations.
A separate application procedure applies to applications for a follow-up licence by parties already active on the market. In this procedure, various aspects will be reassessed, including the addiction prevention policy and the recruitment and advertising policy. A new integration test will be conducted for the control database (CDB) component.
