Betsson hit with £1.7m Swedish penalty over payments card bonus system

Betsson has been handed a SEK20m (£1.7m) penalty by the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) for offering unauthorised bonuses to Swedish players.

An SGA investigation centred around the use of the Betsson Mastercard and vouchers, offered by Swedish newsagents Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven.

Voucher codes obtained in branches of Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven across Sweden were only redeemable on the Betsson Nordic website, as both newsagents do not operate gambling terminals of their own.

Under this promotion, voucher codes with a value totalling SEK250,597 were issued and redeemed between March 2019 and November 2019.

In its assessment, the SGA said both Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven acted as unlicensed gaming agents for Betsson Nordic and that the vouchers offered “constitute a discount of financial incentive” to gamble online.

In October 2019, SGA regulators examined the use of the Betsson Mastercard, a limited-edition debit card offered by Betsson, which was designed to speed up payments on the Betsson Nordic brand.

The card was examined over claims its limited nature constituted a bonus or incentive. Responding to the regulator in March, Betsson denied these claims and agreed to widen the service to all customers.

In both cases, the SGA said the offers constitute a repeated bonus incentive, something which is currently prohibited under Swedish gambling law, issuing a penalty and a warning against Betsson.

Elsewhere, the SGA imposed a SEK400,000 (£34,000) penalty on Swedish-licensed operator Bethard for offering betting on two Swedish under-18 matches in June 2019.

Bethard was one of eight operators hit with multi-million-pound Swedish financial penalties by the regulator for offering betting on matches with a high proportion of players under the age of 18.

At the time, Bethard was issued with a larger fine of SEK2.5m (£213,000) and a warning by the Swedish regulator for offering illegal betting, but later contested the fine in the Swedish courts.

In April, the Swedish Administrative Court in Linköping completely dismissed Bethard’s fine and referred the case back to the SGA, registering a complaint against the regulator over its handling of the fine.

Following a substantial review of the court’s decision, the SGA acknowledged the violation was not serious, as well as the actions taken by Bethard in addressing the issue, and reduced the fine to SEK400,000 (£33,800).

Responding to its fine, a spokesperson for Betsson said the warning and penalty had come as a surprise to the firm, which had cooperated fully with the SGA since the investigation began.

Betsson confirmed it would appeal decisions made concerning both alleged breaches of Swedish gaming law.

“Betsson AB is of the view that the vouchers have been offered in line with the applicable law and that Betsson Nordic Ltd has not offered any commercial incentives or benefits connected to the Betsson Mastercard,” the company said in a statement provided to EGR.

Bethard did not comment on the SGA rulings after being approached by EGR.