SBC News
Spelinspektionen fines bet365 operator Hillside SEK 44m over deposit limit failings but spares its Swedish licence
Sweden's gambling regulator issued a warning and penalty fees totalling SEK 44m to Hillside, the entity behind bet365, over a "no limit" deposit option offered between 2019 and 2022. The licences were not revoked because of corrective action.
Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has issued a warning and two penalty fees to Hillside, the operating and legal entity behind bet365. The sports betting arm was fined SEK 40m (about £3m) and the gaming arm SEK 4m, for violations related to customer care and deposit limits.
According to the regulator, the breaches took place between 1 January 2019 and 19 April 2022. During that period both sides of the business let players pick a "no limit" option when setting a deposit limit. A technical ceiling of SEK 500m did exist in the background, but Spelinspektionen found that this did not satisfy the statutory requirement to set an actual numeric limit. For context, bet365's gross gaming revenue in Sweden in 2021 was SEK 724.5m from sports and SEK 69m from gaming. A single player reaching the hidden ceiling would therefore have raised the company's total GGR by roughly 63%.
The regulator concluded that the failings were serious and systematic, yet it opted for a warning instead of revoking the licences. It pointed to corrective steps taken during and after the audit. Players who lose more than SEK 10,000 in a month now trigger a manual review, and earlier checks have been introduced for vulnerable groups, namely young adults aged 18 to 24 and self-excluded players who return. The operator is also said to have suspended or restricted accounts once internal high-risk triggers were logged.
Cooperation with the authority, these measures and the rule that sanction fees cannot exceed 10% of an operator's annual turnover brought the penalties down from SEK 65m and SEK 14m. bet365 declined to comment.
According to the Blask Index, bet365 is the fourth-largest operator in Sweden, behind state-owned ATG and Svenska Spel and the offshore NV casino. Spelinspektionen has pursued several licensed operators in recent months, including Betsson, ComeOn Group's Snabbare, Mr Green, ATG and Kanon Gaming.
Some of the rules the regulator enforces have been criticised by the trade association BOS for lacking an evidence base. BOS argues they contribute to stagnating channelisation, with around 16% of players still using unlicensed platforms.
Based on reporting by SBC News.