Sportsbet has been fined by the Office of Liquor & Gaming NSW following an investigation revealing that the Flutter-owned online bookmaker had breached rules relating to the advertising of gambling products and services.
The company was brought to a Sydney court last week to face charges that prohibited promotions were sent to the bookmaker’s customers despite them having previously opted out of receiving any direct marketing or gambling promotions. The investigation found that the promotions ran from October to March of this year.
According to the details of the investigation, Sportsbet also had a ‘confusing functionality of the unsubscribe option’ which resulted in many customers failing to understand how to change their subscription preferences.
Sportsbet was also found to have used its social media accounts to promote certain products and services such as ‘Treasure Punt’ in a clear breach of licensing conditions.
According to the Betting and Racing Act 1998, it is an offence to ‘publish a gambling advertisement that offers any inducement to take part, or take part frequently, in any gambling activity, including an inducement to open a betting account’.
It is also illegal to issue gambling promotions or advertisements to any customer that has informed the operator that they do not wish to receive this type of direct marketing.
As a result, Sportsbet was fined $135,000 (US$98,600/€86,000) for the breaches of the act.
In a statement following the ruling, Liquor & Gaming’s Compliance Director Marcel Savary said:
“So far this year Liquor & Gaming NSW have started more than double the number of prosecutions compared to last year with 119 different counts of breaching the provisions brought against 14 operators, up from 31 counts against seven operators in 2020.Research by the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling in 2020 revealed the vast majority of the community is not happy with the current style of wagering advertising, with 81 per cent believing gambling advertising increases the risk of people developing a gambling problem.
Participation in most forms of gambling in NSW is declining but online betting is increasing with 70 per cent of all sports betting and 37 per cent of race betting now carried out online. Liquor & Gaming NSW consistently expresses concerns to industry about gambling advertising and will continue to monitor compliance with these laws and take strong action for serious and blatant offending.”
This isn’t the first time this year that Sportsbet has been in trouble. In May, the operator was fined $22,000 (US$16,000/€14,000) for a similar breach of rules.
Incredibly, this is also the second time in as many weeks that Flutter has placed its customers at risk with flagrant rule-breaking. Last week, Flutter’s Sky Vegas sent out promotional emails offering free spins to recovering gambling addicts who had opted out of all gambling activities. The UKGC has yet to comment on that particular case.
Gambling industry journalist with a background in online poker and trading. Covering the regulated U.S Sports industry and the exciting world of online poker.