Sweden's Administrative Court of Appeal has upheld SEK44m in penalties against two bet365 entities, while the operator keeps its licences. Spelinspektionen's review covered 1 January 2019 to 19 April 2022.
Hillside (Sports) ENC carries SEK40m of the total and Hillside (Gaming) ENC SEK4m. Warnings against both companies stand. The regulator's case centred on how the companies responded to signs of harmful gambling and on mandatory deposit limits: customers could pick a 'no limit' option instead of a numerical cap. bet365 argued it had a hidden technical ceiling of SEK500m. The court did not accept that a limit the player cannot see and does not choose meets the requirement.
Spelinspektionen called the breaches serious and systematic, and licence review, including revocation, was on the table. It did not go that far because the companies had begun fixing the failures during the investigation, which left warnings, fines and additional requirements.
On the sums: the regulator set SEK65m and SEK14m in 2023. The Administrative Court cut them to SEK40m and SEK4m in June 2024, following a Supreme Administrative Court ruling on how the maximum penalty is calculated, moving the base from gross to net turnover. The appeal court agreed with the reduced figures. The companies must now monitor customers losing more than SEK10,000 a month, with particular attention to players aged 18 to 24 and to those returning after self-exclusion. A limit has to be legible to the player, and care measures have to stop risky behaviour rather than produce formal messages.
For the market, Sweden is judging the visible result of controls, not their design. The case lands as supervision tightens across Europe; Evolution's £6m UK settlement is one recent example, on different facts.
