William Hill subsidiaries fined for breaches of Swedish reporting obligations

Mr Green and Evoke will pay €138,000 in penalty fees.

Sweden.- William Hill’s Mr Green and Evoke subsidiaries have agreed to pay SEK1.5m €138,000 in combined penalty fees to Swedish regulator Spelinspektionen for breaches of reporting obligations. The regulator found that the operators had failed to report certain information in their biannual reports.

Swedish licensees must deliver reports every six months, no later than the 20th day of the month that the reporting period ends.

Mr Green, which has its own licence, and Evoke, which runs William Hill’s flagship brand along with Bertil, Mama Mia Bingo and Vinnarum, said it had not been “technically possible” to submit all of the information required. It also said that some documentation submitted had not been received by the regulator.

Both licensees are to be acquired by 888 Holdings as part of the UK company’s acquisition of William Hill’s European assets from Caesars.

Spelinspektionen put Mr Green and Evoke under supervision in September 2021 and received some of the required information on December 22, with more following on March 14, but said that some of the information provided differed from that previously reported.

The licensees said the differences were due to “technical errors” and different interpretations of the terminology used in the requirements.

They provided the example of a customer that reached their deposit limit on three separate occasions, noting that it was unclear whether such a case should be counted as one instance worth reporting or three. Meanwhile, for some two-part questions, the operators reported combined totals rather than two separate totals.

However, Spelinspektionen didn’t find that to be an excuse. It said: “Spelinspektionen considers that the lack of reporting has been going on for a long time and on five different occasions, and the information that has been provided despite technical difficulties has subsequently proved to be incorrect.”

It did note that steps had now been taken to resolve the issue and that it does not expect the problems to reoccur. The penalty fees agreed comprise SEK1m for Mr Green and SEK450,000 for Evoke.