French regulator, the ANJ has sanctioned Unibet with a record €800,000 fine over a malfunction in the firm’s self-exclusion system.
It led to players being able to access the firm’s products in spite of having previously been self-excluded from the operator.
The issue impacted iOS users from March 2021 to December 2022, before reappearing until February 2022, eventually being fixed by the firm and not reappearing.
The firm detailed that it was unable to identify the exact number of players that had been impacted by the malfunction.
ANJ’s report explained that SPS Betting, the company that operates Unibet.fr, did not contest the findings but said ANJ was unable to determine how many players had “actually suffered damage”.
Unibet underlined its belief that the numbers involved could “not have exceeded more than 100 players”, although it could not prove that was the case. On the other hand, SPS estimated that the malfunction was likely to have affected more than four 4,500 players over the period in question.
The ANJ stated on the incident: “It is also worth noting the ineffectiveness of the corrective measures it implemented, as they failed to quickly put an end to the malfunction observed. The ability for players to self-exclude is a crucial safeguard in online gambling.”
The failure comes after the group was fined twice in France, most recently for exceeding the country’s 85% return to player limits, and is a major player in the country’s online betting market, ANJ noted.
Unibet has two months to appeal the decision and for two weeks in March will display a message on its homepage highlighting the sanction.
On Thursday, 6 March, the FDJ outlined plans to publish its full-year 2024 results, presenting the first accounts of its significantly expanded business following the €2.45 billion acquisition of Kindred Group, the parent company of Unibet.
The results are set to shine a light on the new look Unibet group following the takeover from the FDJ.
