Betfair International hit with SEK4m Swedish penalty over under-21 football betting breach
Flutter Entertainment brand in Swedish regulator’s crosshairs after 224 customers used betting exchange to wager on restricted competitions
Betfair International has been hit with a SEK4m fine (£311,528) by the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) over offering betting markets on under-21 football.
Under the Swedish Gambling Act, licensed operators are only permitted to offer markets on the top four divisions of domestic football, with operators barred from offering markets on the U21 Allsvenskan league.
According to the SGA, Betfair International offered markets on a total of 148 under-21 matches during 2021 and 2022 on its Spelbörsen betting exchange platform in Sweden.
During the period, 224 Swedish customers bet on 139 matches for a total collective stake of SEK1.1m, with Betfair International taking SEK5,354 in commission.
Betfair International said the markets on under-21 football had been allowed due to a “lack of routines” and the operator was dependent on a “high degree of manual work” to filter out offending competitions.
The firm also said the nature of the manual controls had allowed Swedish customers to access the markets.
In deciding its punishment, the SGA stated the violation constituted a serious matter and had occurred repeatedly over a long period of time, and added that in serious cases a licence revocation would be possible.
However, the regulator noted that Betfair International had taken measures to ensure these violations would not occur again, including improved internal processes and a restriction on betting markets.
These restrictions include only offering markets on the top two divisions of Swedish football to avoid any potential breach in the future.
In turn, the SGA decided that a warning and a SEK4m fine was a sufficient intervention in the matter.
The SEK4m fine was chosen calculated based on Betfair International’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) in 2021, which amounted to SEK32.8m.
The SGA can implement a maximum penalty of 10% of on turnover, but elected to measure the fine against the company’s GGR as Betfair International’s 2021 turnover amounted to SEK4.4bn.
EGR has approached Betfair International for comment, but has received no response at the time of publication of this article.