Betway loses second appeal of Swedish bonus fine

Sweden’s Court of Appeal has dismissed Betway’s challenge to further expunge or reduce its historical SEK4.7m Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) fine for bonus violations.

The online operator was hit with a warning and a penalty of SEK5m in May 2019 for offering repeated bonuses to Swedish players, which is illegal under the country’s gambling laws.

Under Swedish law, a bonus can only be offered on initial registration with a licensed operator. Repeat bonuses are prohibited.

Bonuses are defined by the regulator as a “discount or similar financial incentive that is directly linked to the game”.

If a licensed operator violates these rules, it is liable for a fine and could even have its Swedish licence revoked.

The SGA originally fined Betway after regulators discovered the operator was offering repeat bonuses on deposits, including weekly free plays and recurring free spins.

When initially challenged about these offers, Betway said the repeat rewards conformed to the rules surrounding the use of bonuses by operators in the Swedish market.

The recurring bonuses and free spin offers were eventually discontinued by the operator to ensure compliance with Swedish regulations.

Betway then launched an appeal against the SEK5m SGA fine, which was partly overturned by judges at the Swedish Administrative Court in Linköping in June 2020.

Upholding the warning for bonus violations, the court reduced the fine to SEK4.7m after it adjudged the company’s turnover had been wrongly estimated by the SGA.

In Sweden, the maximum fine for a marketing breach is SEK5m, or 10% of an operator’s annual turnover.

Betway further appealed the reduced penalty as the case progressed to the country’s Court of Appeal, where the appeal was rejected.

“The Court of Appeal shares the assessment that the offers the company had for recurring bonuses for deposits and free games meant that the ban on more than one bonus in Section 9 of the Gaming Act has been violated and that the violation is serious,” the SGA said in a statement.

Elsewhere, the SGA has confirmed it will appeal Court of Appeal judgments over fines it levied at AG Communications Limited and Genesis Global after the pair successfully challenged the regulator’s rulings.

AG Communications and Genesis Global were fined SEK3m and SEK4m respectively in April 2019 for failing to connect to the mandatory Spelpaus self-exclusion database.

AG did not connect for a 33-day period, while Genesis failed to connect for nine days, resulting in SGA-enforced punishment.

Both firms launched appeals with the Administrative Court and the fines were reduced to SEK2m and SEK1.5m respectively on similar turnover grounds.

“The SGA does not share the Court of Appeal’s interpretation of the provisions on penalty fees,” said the regulator. “The penalty fees decided by the Court of Appeal are too low in relation to the seriousness of the infringement and the companies’ turnover.

“In order for penalty fees to be dissuasive and proportionate, it is necessary to take the companies’ turnover into account when determining the size of the penalty fee. The reasoning of the Court of Appeal therefore contradicts both the principle of proportionality and equal treatment,” it added.

The cases will now be passed to the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court for review.