Betsson AB’s subsidiary, BML Group, has been hit with a substantial penalty of €2.4 million (£2.1 million/$2.6 million) and prohibited from promoting their gambling offerings to Finnish citizens. Their actions violated Finnish lottery regulations.
Finnish law enforcement determined that BML had engaged in extensive marketing efforts aimed at Finnish players, employing various tactics to attract their attention. These actions contravened the Finnish Lottery Act, which mandates that Veikkaus, the nation’s gambling monopoly, holds exclusive advertising rights for gambling services directed at Finnish residents.
Authorities stated that BML was given ample opportunities to provide explanations and modify their practices to comply with the law. During the hearing, BML claimed to have implemented changes to their marketing strategies, but law enforcement maintained that their efforts continued to target Finnish players.
The police asserted that BML had generated significant profits through these activities and had consistently disregarded the regulations, despite prior attempts by authorities to intervene.
The national law enforcement agency assessed the actions taken by the firm to curtail its promotional efforts and deemed them as mitigating circumstances when establishing the conditional penalty amount.
The marketing prohibition encompasses all materials that directly or indirectly advertise the sale of gambling services in mainland Finland on Betsson’s BML website.
The restriction also covers any communication aimed at Finnish consumers, including the use of Finnish celebrities in campaigns appealing to consumers, podcasts targeting mainland Finland, and articles aimed at promoting gambling services in the country.
Moreover, the prohibition applies to marketing BML services on websites other than those owned and managed by the group, where the group provides financial benefits to marketers.
To adhere to the prohibition, BML must cease publishing new sales promotional materials targeting mainland Finland on its gambling website, remove all previously published sales promotional materials, and stop marketing on other websites.
As part of the decision, BML will also be added to the national law enforcement agency’s managed payment blocking list when the prohibition takes effect on June 3rd.
The agency stated: “If BML continues to target the marketing of gambling services to mainland Finland despite the prohibition, the agency will take action to enforce the imposed conditional penalty.”
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