The French gambling regulator l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has fined SPS Betting over its failure to correctly implement a self-exclusion system on iOS devices.
SPS Betting, which operates Kindred Group’s Unibet brand, was handed an €800,000 fine for failing to comply with the country’s self-exclusion system obligations. An ANJ sanctions committee released its ruling on the case on 3 March.
SPS Betting is incorporated in Malta where its main office is located. It holds three licences in the French market; online betting, online horseracing and online circle games. SPS Betting operates in the market through its brand and website Unibet.fr.
The ruling said the operator had faced a long-running “malfunction” on its Unibet platform across iOS operating systems. This impacted players’ ability to self-exclude between March 2021 and December 2022.
But during an update in late December 2022, the malfunction reappeared and remained until February 2023,
ANJ’s SPS Betting investigation
The ANJ received reports in 2021 that Unibet’s self-exclusion system was not functioning correctly on iOS devices.
This “malfunction” resulted in player self-exclusion requests expressed in days rather than months. As an example, this meant a player was blocked from playing for two days instead of two months.
The watchdog estimated 6,754 players were unable to self-exclude from the platform during this time.
France’s gambling act of 2010 sets out that players must be able to request a self-exclusion period of any length ranging from 24 hours to 12 months.
The ANJ has said that the length of time the malfunction was active and the “seriousness” of the flaw has resulted in SPS Betting receiving a fine of €800,000, as well as a public sanction.
The online betting operator must display the sanction and decision on its “Unibet.fr” website and the Unibet applications’ front pages from 17 to 31 March.
SPS Betting may appeal the decision with the Council of State within the next two months.
In its ruling, the ANJ sanction committee stated: “The size of the market share held by SPS Betting in the field of online sports betting and, to a lesser extent, in the field of online circle games, makes the company one of the major players in the online gaming and betting sector and also gives the breach it committed significant gravity.”