Player protection: Unibet fined by the ANJ
•
5 Mar 2025 •
Reading time: 3 minutes The French National Gaming Authority (ANJ) recently imposed a record €800,000 fine on SPS Betting, operator of the Unibet.fr website, for serious breaches of the self-exclusion system designed to protect vulnerable players.
Faulty self-exclusion system
In 2021, reports alerted the ANJ to a major malfunction in Unibet.fr’s self-exclusion system, affecting users of iOS devices. Self-exclusion requests expressed in months were automatically converted into days. As a result, a player wishing to self-exclude for 12 months found himself excluded for only 12 days. This bug potentially affected several thousand players, exposing them to increased risks of excessive gambling.
The initial problem lasted from 2 March 2021 to 11 December 2022 before being corrected. However, a software update reintroduced the error, again affecting iOS users from 29 December 2022 to 2 February 2023. In total, these malfunctions lasted almost 22 months, seriously compromising player protection.
A heavy penalty
In view of the seriousness and duration of these breaches, the ANJ Sanctions Committee has imposed an €800,000 fine on SPS Betting. This decision underlines the importance attached to the prevention of excessive gambling and the responsibility of online operators.
In addition to the fine, SPS Betting must publish the decision in the Official Journal of the French Republic and post a notice on Unibet.fr and its applications from 17 to 31 March 2025, informing users of the penalty. A non-anonymised publication will also be visible on the ANJ website for one year, until 3 March 2026.
SPS Betting has two months from the date of notification to contest this decision before the French Council of State.
Legal obligations of operators
Online gambling operators are required to offer players a self-exclusion mechanism enabling them to exclude themselves from gambling for a set period of time, ranging from 24 hours to 12 months. This mechanism is designed to offer a break to players who feel vulnerable to gambling or who want to take a step back.
A similar sanction in the Netherlands
In December 2024, Unibet, operated by Optdeck Service Limited, was sanctioned by the Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa) for allowing players on the Cruks self-exclusion register to access its services between November 2022 and January 2023. This infringement led to a fine of €400,000.
During the Football World Cup, a significant increase in traffic led to errors in the verification of Cruks at Unibet. To address these issues, the operator allowed players encountering registration errors to manually enter their Citizen Service Number (BSN). Unfortunately, this method allowed self-excluded players to access the games. The flaw was reported in July 2023 by a player who was able to bypass the self-exclusion.
Although Unibet quickly corrected the flaw, the Ksa deemed the breach serious enough to warrant a sanction. Optdeck Service Limited has accepted the €400,000 fine and has decided not to appeal, stating that it has taken corrective action to prevent this type of incident from happening again in the future.