SEK44 million in penalties, but no loss of Swedish licences: that is the outcome for bet365 after an appeal court upheld warnings against the operator’s two Hillside companies. Hillside (Sports) ENC faces a SEK40 million fee and Hillside (Gaming) ENC SEK4 million. CasinoBeats and iGamingToday report that the licences remain in place following corrective steps during the regulator’s examination.

For esports bettors, the distinction matters: a major player-protection case has resulted in substantial financial sanctions and continuing oversight, rather than bet365 being forced out of the Swedish market. It is a different licensing story from the company’s licence renewal in the Netherlands, with Sweden’s decision centred on past compliance failures.

The case examined conduct from January 1, 2019, to April 19, 2022. During that period, customers could choose a deposit setting with no numerical limit instead of selecting a specific cap. bet365 argued that an invisible technical ceiling of SEK500 million applied, but Sweden’s gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, found that a limit customers could neither see nor choose did not meet the requirement for a player-selected cap.

Regulators also assessed how promptly the companies responded when customer activity suggested harmful gambling. The findings therefore covered more than a settings-menu problem: the case also concerned whether the companies’ customer-care response was adequate when risk indicators appeared. The distinction between an automated warning and a more meaningful response is central to other player-protection penalty cases.

The current total is lower than the fees Spelinspektionen originally imposed in 2023: SEK65 million against Hillside (Sports) ENC and SEK14 million against Hillside (Gaming) ENC.

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