Kindred Group fine for bonus breach halved on Swedish appeal
Judge agrees with regulator that Stockholm-listed operator committed bonus infringements but reduces SEK100m penalty
The Swedish Administrative Court has halved a SEK100m (£8.3m) fine issued to Kindred Group by the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) over bonus violations following a legal challenge.
The Stockholm-headquartered operator was issued with the SEK100m punishment in March 2020 for offering repeat bonuses to players.
At present, SGA legislation permits Sweden’s licensed online gambling operators to offer welcome bonuses only.
An SGA investigation found that Kindred had offered several unauthorised bonuses to customers in May and June of 2019. Kindred was also found to have offered games to consumers not covered by its Swedish operating licence, including lottery-based gaming.
At the time, Kindred changed its internal standards concerning bonusing but questioned whether the Swedish Gambling Act was creating “unnecessary ambiguity” for operators through its vague wording.
Initially responding to the SGA’s inquiry, Kindred asserted the incentives offered did not fit the definition of a bonus because they were not directly linked to the game, did not constitute a licensed activity, contained no financial incentive and were not built-in features.
The SGA singled out Kindred’s ‘Refer a Friend’ campaign, which paid out referral fees in the form of bonuses on some of the firm’s Sweden-facing websites.
Other incentives were identified in Kindred’s “high hand happy hours” poker bonus and bonus offers made on Twitter, as well as the offer of 10 bonus spins on Sundays.
Lottery-based promotions were also singled out by the SGA, as well as incentives contained within Kindred’s loyalty programme for online bingo.
Judges at the Swedish Administrative Court sided with the SGA in its interpretation of the bonusing rules but reduced the regulatory penalty to SEK50m on the grounds of Kindred’s high Swedish turnover.
“Overall, the Administrative Court finds that Spooniker [Kindred’s Swedish-facing subsidiary] has committed a relatively large number of serious infringements. The court therefore believes that the SGA has had reason to issue a warning with a penalty fee,” the SGA wrote.
Kindred Group has not commented on the court’s ruling at the time of publication after being contacted by EGR.
The reduced penalty marks the second time this week the Swedish Administrative Court has undermined the SGA with a conflicting ruling, having already handed Betsson Group victory in its appeal over a payments card ‘bonus’ system.