Betfair hit with $390K fine in Sweden

Spelinspektionen, the Swedish gambling regulator has been busy of late, issuing one financial penalty after the next. The regulator has now hit Betfair, a respected British company, with a SEK4m ($390,000) penalty over sports betting breaches.

According to the regulator, Betfair allowed customers to bet on a competition which is prohibited to wager on in the country. This is the Under-21 football league, which is not one of the authorized top two high league levels that customers and operators may participate in and offer betting activity on.

The breaches of which Spelinspektionen speaks are said to have occurred "systematically," which has been a contributing factor in the decision regarding the amount of the final penalty issued to the operator. Even though not much handle was generatedthrough the breaches, the Spelinspektionen said that the penalty would remain unchanged due to the seriousness of the offense.

Betfair has confirmed the breach and said that it had violated the specific rules that prohibit betting on the event, and particularly U21 Allsvenskan games through its dedicated Betfair exchange. The company, however, has made swift amendments and said that it no longer offers any such betting options. Furthermore, the operator confirmed that it has undertaken the necessary measures to ensure that similar breaches do not happen in future.

Spelinspektionen has acknowledged the steps that have been taken to ensure these measures and commended Betfair on the proactive approach the operator has demonstrated in ensuring that the mistake was remedied. The Spelinspektionen did explain that the prohibition was applied in order to protect young players and audiences from the pernicious influences of gambling that could lead to pathological issues later on.

The SEK4m penalty was awarded as part of standard regulatory enforcement action. Penalties in Sweden can be serious though as they could easily reach 10% of an operator’s revenue results. In this case, the Spelinspektionen could have taken the revenue for 2021, which stood at SEK4.35bn for Betfair in the country, meaning that a possible penalty of SEK435.5m was one of the possible options.

The regulator has been busy of late. Spelinspektionen has been targeting various companies in the market that it has considered being in breach of their stated license agreements, such as Spooniker Ltd, which was the subject of enforcement action several months ago. The regulator undertook a similar action against bet365’s Hillside Sports and Hillside Casino which were issued with a cumulative $7.7m penalty.

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