Betfred’s online brand will pay the Gambling Commission £900,000 after falling short on social responsibility licensing requirements.

The settlement follows an £825,000 penalty issued against Betfred back in December 2025 for similar infractions, though this failure landed at the feet of the company’s retail business.

Betfred’s business is split between two listed subsidiaries of Petfrie (Gibraltar) Ltd, which runs Betfred.com, and Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Ltd, which runs the company’s chain of over 1,400 betting shops across the UK.

The enforcement actions against Petfrie accuse the company of lacking ‘sufficient processes’ in place to identify indicators of gambling harm such as spend, patterns of spend, and time spent gambling.

“Diligent implementation of effective policies and procedures are the cornerstones of safer gambling in Britain,” said John Pierce, the Commission’s Director of Enforcement.

“The Commission found that Petfre didn’t have sufficiently effective procedures in place, meaning some customers displaying markers of harm were not contacted quickly enough.

“While the gaps we identified were unacceptable, the licensee acted swiftly to implement interim mitigating controls to address our immediate concerns. 

“They have since delivered an appropriate action plan and taken significant steps to assure the Commission that their current operating model meets our requirements.”

Betfred and Stakelogic end Commission’s enforcement dormance

Betfred.com has also been criticised for lacking processes to ensure immediate and automated action to minimise gambling harm.

A specific process cited by the Commission was a process in which a customer’s account would be flagged for a safer gambling review, but then subsequently not be flagged for further review for several days.

The Commission stated that this led to customers demonstrating further indicators of harem but not being interacted with promptly. The Commission cited one case in which a customer lost £17,900 within 24 hours without an additional interaction.

“The failure to implement an effective monitoring framework to identify and contact consumers at risk of harm at pace has resulted in a significant regulatory settlement,” Pierce added.

“We expect all operators to learn from this case and read the public statement to ensure they do not make the same mistakes.”

The Commission has been rather quiet on the enforcement front throughout 2026, in comparison to its years of peak activity undertaken in 2022-2025. 

This may be due to a leadership transition at the regulator, with Andrew Rhodes having stepped down as Chief Executive, followed by the departure of Executive Director for Policy and Research Tim Miller, announced yesterday. 

The regulator’s dry run of enforcement action has thoroughly come to an end in June with a £122,835 penalty issued to Malta-based slots developer Stakelogic for breaching responsible product design standards, followed by the Betfred settlement.

Betfred has been on the receiving end of Commission enforcement actions several times, though the settlements and penalties it has paid are eclipsed by the £17m and £19.2m paid by its high-street and online rivals Entain and Wiliam Hill in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Fred Done’s Warrington-headquartered betting businesses paid a £3.25m settlement to the Commission in 2023 over insufficient controls and poor record keeping in shops. 

Similar infractions were listed in the December 2025 enforcement also, while earlier in 2025 it was charged £240,000 for providing slot games that breached the Commission’s Remote Technical Standards (RTS).

“Following a review of our online business in 2024, we have agreed a settlement with the Gambling Commission,” a spokesperson for the company told SBC News.

“We fully co-operated with the investigation and swiftly put in an action plan to remedy the identified failings. Betfred is committed to ensuring a safe gambling experience for all our customers.”