Betway has been fined SEK 100,000 (€9,800) by Spelinspektionen, Sweden’s gambling inspectorate, for promoting an unauthorised bonus campaign to its customers.

Applied since January 2019, Sweden’s reformed Gaming Act permits licensed operators to offer one bonus to customers as a welcome incentive.

On 10 June 2021, Spelinspektionen was informed that Betway SE had contacted a segment of its customer base promoting a ‘200% match bonus offer’.

Betway SE admitted its fault, stating that the bonus campaign had occurred due to a ‘back-office error’ in the management of its smaller Swedish trademark’ which resulted in a total of 53 players being credited with the match bonus.

In its response, Betway said that it had contacted all players that were engaged with the bonus promotion in which ‘no player was financially negatively affected’.

Furthermore, the operator has removed all bonus incentives from its back-office management system for Sweden to avoid any further mistakes from occurring.

Reviewing the bonus breach, Spelinspektionen settled on a SEK 100,000 fine as Betway SE had proactively engaged in fixing its error that had been engaged by a small segment of players. 

However, in its case file Spelinspektionen reprimanded Betway, stating that the operator had avoided its maximum penalty of a fixed SEK 5,000 fine (€480) and 10% charge on a licensee’s registered turnover.

Closing its investigation, Spelinspektionen determined not to apply its maximum penalty, which would have seen it enforce a 10% penalty charge on Betway SE’s registered sales of SEK 1.21 billion (€118m) – as the fee would have been above Betway’s registered GGR of SEK 65 million (€6.3m).    

“When assessing the size of the penalty fee, the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate takes into account the seriousness of the infringement, how long it has lasted and Betway Limited’s revenue,”  Spelinspektionen concluded.

“The Swedish Gaming Inspectorate states, with reference to the mitigators circumstances referred to above, that it was a matter of a less serious infringement that has been going on for a short time. Against that background determines The Swedish Gaming Inspectorate fines SEK 100,000.”