Betway loses appeal against €10k Swedish fine

Betway’s appeal against a fine imposed by Sweden’s gambling regulator, the Spelinspektionen, has been rejected by the Administrative Court in Linköping.

The Super Group sports betting and gaming brand’s case to the court was ‘rejected in its entirety’ by the court, upholding the SEK 100,000 (€9,800) fine imposed on the firm by the Swedish Gamlbling Inspectorate. 

Spelinspektionen imposed the financial penalty in December, ruling that Betway had violated Sweden’s ban on betting bonuses via a marketing campaign. 

Under Sweden’s Gambling Act, updated in 2019, betting firms are permitted to provide one bonus to customers as a welcome incentive, but can not act any further on this. 

“The court finds that Betway violated the bonus ban as a result of a marketing incident,” the Inspectorate explained.

“According to the court, the authority was justified in deciding on the reprimand and the penalty fee, even though Betway took corrective action when they discovered the infringement. The court also finds that the size of the penalty fee is proportionate.”

Although Betway took the case to the courts, Spelinspektionen had previously agreed to forgo the maximum penalty for the operator – a 10% penalty charge on its registered sales of SEK 1,21 billion (€118m), which would have been above its GGR of SEK 65 million (€6.3m).

The penalty was reduced due to the Inspectorate recognising the efforts Betway had made following the incident, which the firm stated was due to a back-end error which led to 53 players being credited with a match bonus.

Betway contacted all players that had received the bonus, finding that none had been ‘financially negatively affected’, and had also removed all bonus incentives from its Swedish back-office management system to avoid a repeat of the incident.