Bet365, GVC and The Stars Group among eight operators hit with Swedish penalties
Operators to pay €3.9m in penalty fees in total for offering betting on sporting events involving under-18 participants
Eight online gambling operators, including bet365 and GVC Holdings, have been hit with penalty fees totalling SEK41.2m (€3.9m) by the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) for offering betting on sporting events involving players under the age of 18.
Bet365, GVC, The Stars Group, Flutter Entertainment, Gaming Innovation Group (GiG), Bethard Group, Casinostugan Limited and Polar limited all received fines following an investigation by the Swedish gambling regulator.
Under Swedish law, licensed sports betting firms are not permitted to offer betting on sporting events where the majority of participants are under the age of 18.
In the case of bet365, the Swedish regulator found it had offered betting on five different under-19 football matches taking place between 11 April and 3 May involving teams including Throttur SR, Leiknur KB, Vasalunds IF and IFK Gothenberg.
In most of the decisions against the eight operators, the matches highlighted by the SGA involved the same under-19 teams.
Concerns about offering betting on these games were raised by the Swedish FA in May following the Swedish Premier League game between AIK and IFK Gothenburg on 29 April. Markets allegedly on offer included first scorer and whether a player will score two or three goals during the match.
Following the match, the SGA agreed to launch a “special supervision” investigation into the Swedish FA’s claims. At the time, Swedish Minister for Civil Affairs Ardalan Sherakabi attacked Sweden’s licensed sports betting operators, calling on them to take responsibility for the markets they offer to bettors.
The SGA has said that following its review, the eight operators involved have taken “various measures to ensure that betting takes place according to the game law”, including not offering markets on under-19 and under-21 games.
Betfair parent company Flutter Entertainment declined to comment when approached by EGR.
At present the SGA is currently working on several regulations aimed at stopping match fixing, measures which are expected to come into force by 2020.