BOS rings black-market alarm over new Swedish betting regulations

Swedish trade association BOS has criticised an incoming ban on several player-specific betting markets suggesting it could “decriminalise” match-fixing in the country’s lower-tier competitions. The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) unveiled the new standards on Tuesday, which will ban markets including penalties, red cards, bookings and more from January 2021. Speaking to EGR, BOS chief Gustaf Hoffstedt claimed the new rules would override prior 2019 legislation which made match-fixing illegal at all levels across Sweden. The new legislation applies to all bets offered via licensed operators across the top four divisions of all sports. “It is only illegal to fix matches that are offered in the licensed market,” said Hoffstedt. “By withdrawing or prohibiting licensed operators’ ability to offer bets on matches within these divisions, you simultaneously legalise that activity [match-fixing] at the same time. “These new standards will reverse the 2019 laws at lower-division level by removing betting markets offered by licensed operators and effectively placing them into the hands of their unlicensed counterparts in the black market,” Hoffstedt added.

The BOS CEO also bemoaned the ambiguity of the new measures. He said: “Licence holders are a little nervous about the new rules based on prior experience with other changes, since they now know they will receive hefty fines if their interpretation differs from the SGA’s. “It’s something we’re working on with them, to draw up a set of guidelines and remove the grey areas,” Hoffstedt added. Kindred Group’s Swedish country manager for Unibet Per Carlander said there was no evidence to suggest match-fixing in Sweden would decrease with the new standards. “As a heavily regulated and licensed Swedish operator, we see that further regulation in this area will drive customers towards non-licensed operators which do not have consumer protection standards or accountability within the Swedish system,” said Carlander. Betsson Group communications manager Robin Olenius echoed these comments, insisting that increased cooperation between operators and the regulator would prove more productive than an arbitrary ban. “We’ve offered betting on lower-division sports for a while now but it’s a very low profit margin business, so there’s not much profit to be had by the match-fixing groups,” said Olenius.