Swedish court upholds fines against bet365

Sweden’s Administrative Court of Appeal has confirmed a total of SEK44 million in fines against Bet365’s subsidiary companies Hillside (Gaming) and Hillside (Sports) for breaching bank obligations for player protection and violating deposit limit laws. Hillside incurred a fine of SEK4 million while Hillside (Sports) was fined SEK40 million. These results came as a consequence of prior rulings made by the Swedish gambling authority, Spelinspektionen. The Swedish Gambling Act contains provisions that mandate operators of gambling establishments to monitor players continuously and intervene whenever necessary in case of any expected harm to gamblers caused by gambling activities. The investigation revealed that Hillside relied too heavily on automatic messages, including pop up messages, email reminders, and even reminders for expenditure, but was late in taking manual action and implementing strict restrictions despite signs of gambling problems. Between January 2019 and April 2022, Hillside allowed its clients to set up a “no limit” deposit option. The investigation was done on 10 clients who had the highest losses in the time period of 2 months in the 2021 calendar year, during which certain cases were analyzed for five customers in greater detail. Hillside claimed that its risk identification system was sufficiently effective, the sample was small, represented only a small proportion of its customers, and that regulatory guidance lacked clarity on intervention timing. The penalties were reduced from the regulator’s initial proposals: the gaming arm’s fine was set at SEK4 million, while the sports betting business’s original SEK65 million penalty was reduced to SEK40 million.