France’s Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has fined Unibet (unibet.fr) a record €800,000 ($856,000) for a significant malfunction in its self-exclusion system that led to thousands of self-excluded players being able to access gambling services despite having signed out of the products.
The issue affected iOS users, lasted nearly two years and led to ANJ issuing its largest fine to date, as the ANJ was established in 2020 as the “unified authority” of French gambling.
The problem arose during the period of March 2021 to early December 2022, and was corrected by Unibet. However issues reappeared due to a technical malfunction from the end of December 2022 to February 2023.
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”.
It maintained that the numbers involved could “not have exceeded more than 100 players”, although it could not prove that was the case. SPS estimated that the malfunction was likely to have affected more than four 4,500 players over the period in question.
For its part ANJ estimated that 6,754 players who had requested self-exclusion were able to resume gambling after a few days, this was “a further indication of the seriousness of the breach committed by SPS Betting”.
ANJ added: “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 was also characterised by its duration and the fact that Unibet has already been fined twice in France, most recently for exceeding the country’s 85% return to player limits, and is a major actor 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, Groupe Française des Jeux (FDJ) will publish its full-year 2024 results, presenting the first accounts of its enlarged business following the €2.45 billion ($2.62 billion) acquisition of Kindred Group Plc, the parent company of Unibet.
Industry analysts and investors are eager to learn more about FDJ’s integration of Kindred’s assets and how the company is leveraging group-wide technology systems.
The integration also faces challenges related to cost controls and synergies, as the enlarged business prepares for heightened tax pressures in 2025 across its key markets in France, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
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