Kindred owned Spooniker Ltd gets hit with a record fine of by the Swedish regulator (SGA)

Kindred owned Spooniker Ltd gets hit with a record fine of by the Swedish regulator (SGA)

Yesterday, the Swedish Gambling Authorities (SGA) announced their decision to warn and sanction Spooniker Limited with €10,000,000.00. This is the biggest fine since the new regulations were introduced in Sweden and Spelinspektionen (SGA) justifies the big fine by pointing at the turnover and profits being made in Spoonikers holding company. Spooniker is owned by Kindred and is their subsidiary that is granted and holds the Swedish licenses for Kindred group’s entire portfolio of brands.

The reasons for this record fine are stated to be several things; A licensed gambling company in Sweden is only allowed to offers it’s customers a bonus once on their first play session. When checks were executed by the end of March 2019 the Swedish gambling authorities found Spooniker offered many other types of bonuses. When this was followed up on by SGA in May 2019, additional unlawful bonus offers were found. Spooniker was also found guilty of offering games for which they did not have the correct licenses.

1. Unlawful bonus offers (2019-03)
2. Unlawful bonus offers (2019-05)
3. Games offered without required/valid license

The reason for the size of the fine is related to the harch view SGA has on the use of bonuses and the size of the company that is found guilty. In the regulations, it’s stated that a sanction fee can not exceed 10% of the license holder’s turnover. SGA claims that the sanctions stand in relation to the number of times that infringements were found and to Spooniker’s high turnover and therefore felt the need to hit the company with the staggering €10 million euro fine.

Sanktionsavgiften ska uppgå till högst tio procent av licenshavarens omsättning. Med beaktande av antalet överträdelser och att de avser både bonuserbjudanden och otillåtna lotterier samt Spooniker Ltd:s höga omsättning leder detta till en hög sanktionsavgift.

Spooniker Ltd has a commercial license for betting and online gambling and provides games via their registered websites unibet.se, mariacasino.se, storspelare.se, bingo.se, igame.se

For more information about this case, you can contact the responsible press secretary My Hamrén, +46 765-330 174,  my.hamren@spelinspektionen.se