SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Spelinspektionen has tabled a SEK 13.5m (£1m) bill to Flutter and Betsson over various AML failures breaching Swedish regulations.
In particular, the culprits this time were Flutter’s subsidiary TSG Interactive PLC, Betsson’s Nordic division, and ComeOn Group’s Snabbare Ltd.
TSG Interactive PLC
TSG Interactive is an operator licensed in Malta, who is also part of The Stars Group – which in turn is owned by Flutter Entertainment.
According to Sweden’s gambling authority, the company inhibited major shortcomings when it comes to customer due diligence and the collection of information regarding money transfers.
Spelinspektionen was not satisfied with the collected evidence of transaction assessment, which led it to believe that TSG Interactive lacked the capabilities to determine whether the sources of customer income were legitimate or posed money laundering risks.
The infringement dates back to 2023, having been uncovered through a subsequent regulatory probe in May 2024.
Sweden adopted new penalty calculations in June 2024, which were meant to impact operators significantly more by making the fee a percentage of either their turnover or gross gambling revenue.
Due to the failings taking place prior to that change, the reciprocal monetary sanction – a total of SEK 7m – was administered under the old rules, with the maximum fee amount capped at €1m (approx. SEK 10.5m) purely for AML violations.
Betsson Nordics
Similarly to the previous case, Spelinspektionen conducted a routine check into Betsson Nordics’ customer due diligence process in May 2024.
The same methodology was used as before, where 10 customers active throughout 2023 were picked based on spend and age. Spelinspektionen found that four customers aged between 20 and 24 had accumulated total deposits of between SEK 133,584 and SEK 273, 699 within the span of six months.
Four others, aged between 25 and 29, had a total deposit amount of between SEK 274,640 and SEK 491,950, again in the span of a few months.
Driven by the belief that people that age usually do not have such amounts to spend on recreational gambling, Spelinspektionen determined that Betsson Nordics should’ve classified these customers as ‘high risk’ punters – something that the operator did not do.
The outcome was the same as in the case with TSG, a sanction of SEK 6.5m due to the failures occurring before June 2024.
Snabbare Ltd
The third operator of the trio is a subsidiary of ComeOn Group. Snabbare has been ComeOn’s Sweden-specific brand since 2017, operating under a dual Swedish and Maltese license.
Again, the company exhibited insufficient due diligence procedures throughout 2023, similar to the other two on the list. Only this time, Snabbare managed to get away with the smallest sanction of SEK 5.5m.
However, the igaming operator is a recurring character on Spelinspektionen’s regulatory sanctions list. Back in 2021, it was hit with a major penalty of SEK 65m (£5m) for offering players recurring bonuses when only one-time bonuses are allowed in Sweden.
That amount was calculated based on the company’s GGR for that year, as again, the €1m maximum cap was exclusive to AML violations, unlike bonus abuse failings. But again, as of June 2024, AML sanctions are now also based on total turnover/GGR.
