Leading global betting brand founded in 2000, bet365, had two of its Sweden-based subsidiaries fined a total of SEK79 million ($7.7 million) in 2023.
Following their appeal, the Administrative Court of Linköping decided to reduce the total fine to SEK44 million ($4.2 million) despite opposition from the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA).
SGA Punished Hillside (Gaming) and Hillside (Sports) for Violating Regulations
In April 2023, the SGA fined Hillside (Gaming) with SEK14 million ($1.34 million) for allegedly committing “serious violations of the duty of care and the regulations on deposit limits.”
Hillside (Gaming) provides casino betting options via the bet365.com platform.
Similarly, Hillside (Sports), which offers sports wagering using the same platform online, was found guilty of violating the same rules and was slapped with a penalty of SEK65 million ($6.23 million).
On June 13, Linköping’s court had the amounts of the fines lowered for the Stoke-on-Trent-based company.
Accordingly, Hillside (Gaming) will be penalized with a fee of SEK4 million ($383,000) while Hillside (Sports) will only be asked to pay a fine set at SEK40 million ($3.83 million).
Five Customer Accounts Do Not Represent the Majority
The impressive cut in bet365’s fines followed the company’s appeal of the regulator’s original decision.
bet365 used the small dataset argument, saying that five customer accounts were not representative of all of their business operations.
The group with more than 7,000 employees and 90+ million global customers also explained it was “not realistic” to expect that licensed companies operating large-scale operations with hundreds of thousands of customers would achieve a 100% compliance rate with the SGA’s “vaguely defined criteria.”
The group also called SGA’s approach as one that is sending “a skewed message to the market.”
According to Sweden’s laws, when deciding the penalty fee for bet365, the regulator took into consideration their net turnover.
Moreover, as per the same regulations, the maximum penalty fee a firm can receive cannot go over 10% of its annual net turnover.
In Hillside (Gaming)’s case, the 2021 (when the alleged violations took place) net sales of approximately SEK69 million were considered.
The SGA demanded a SEK5 million ($480,000) fine. However, the court instead ordered them to pay SEK4 million, down from the original SEK14 million penalty.
The figure is still a lot higher compared to the SEK490,000 ($47,000) that Hillside (Gaming) expected to be asked to pay after its appeal.
Hillside (Sports)’s original fine was set to SEK40 million based on the same 10% turnover calculus on a turnover of SEK720 million ($69 million).
The SGA wanted to slap the sports arm with a larger penalty fee than the one that was eventually levied.
The regulator asked for a cut to SEK52 million ($4.98 million), while bet365 was looking into a SEK5 million fine.
bet365 can ask for a second appeal in response to the administrative court’s decisions.
At the end of May, bet365 and the SGA had their appeals on a 2021 dispute rejected by Jönköping‘s Court of Appeal.
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