Sky Betting & Gaming fined £1.17m for marketing to vulnerable players

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has issued Bonne Terre Limited, trading as Sky Betting and Gaming (SBG), with a £1.17m fine after Sky Vegas sent promotional emails to players who had self-excluded or opted out of receiving marketing materials.

The Flutter-owned brand was found to have sent, on 2 November 2021, the Sky Vegas promotion offer of “Bet £5 get 100 free spins” to 41,395 self-excluded customers and 249,159 sign-ups who had unsubscribed from the operator’s marketing emails.

These actions breached the licence conditions by virtue of section 82(1) of the Gambling Act 2005, which aims to ensure that gambling in the UK is socially responsible.

In line with UKGC’s licensing, compliance and enforcement policy statement, it was decided that the operator would be issued a £1.17m fine under section 121(1) of the Act.

The regulator noted that the immediate remedial action was taken by the operator and that Sky Betting and Gaming had co-operated with the UKGC throughout the investigation.

Andrew Rhodes, the UKGC’s chief executive, said: “Self-excluded customers are likely to be suffering gambling harm and should absolutely not be sent direct marketing that could tempt them back into gambling.

“We would advise all operators to learn from Sky Betting and Gaming’s costly errors and ensure their systems are robust enough to always prevent the self-excluded, and those who have clearly rejected marketing, from receiving promotional material.”

Rhodes added: “This latest fine would have been a lot higher had Sky Betting and Gaming allowed any of the self-excluded customers to actually gamble, failed to cooperate, and not taken decisive action aimed at preventing a repeat.”

This punishment handed down to SBG comes after the UKGC issued a £9.4m fine to 888 last week.

Furthermore, the UKGC reached a £2m settlement with BetVictor  last month relating to social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings at the Gibraltar-based company.