Online sports betting operator SportsBet is set to pay monetary penalties and fines worth AU$3.7 million after violating the country’s legislation by sending over 150,000 emails and text messages promoting gambling to individuals who had already tried to exclude themselves from such kind of services.
The monetary penalty is being imposed at a time when local financial experts and suicide prevention counsellors have urged the authorities to fully suspend gambling advertising in the country.
The amount that is to be paid by the online sportsbook includes the largest penalty that has ever been imposed for violation of the Australian spam laws – AU$2.5 million – with the remainder including some refunds that SportsBet has agreed to pay to consumers who placed wagers after receiving the spam marketing messages. According to reports, about 37,000 individuals received the unwanted gambling advertising messages from SportsBet in the period from January 2020 to March 2021. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) revealed that the spam emails and text messages either informed customers about upcoming races or encouraged them to place bets by offering them some incentives.
ACMA also shared that SportsBet, which currently operates as a subsidiary of the Irish gambling giant Flutter Entertainment, also sent 3,000 marketing texts that did not offer customers the chance to unsubscribe.
As part of the actions against it, SportsBet has also agreed to appoint an independent auditor who would oversee refunds and monitor the company’s compliance with Australian anti-spam laws.
Spam Text Messages and Emails Encouraging Gambling Sent by SportsBet to about 37,000 Individuals
Nerida O’Loughlin, who chairs the Australian Communications and Media Authority, said that SportsBet continued to send spam to consumers even after the authority got in contact with it. She revealed that the sports betting operator was contacted by the ACMA on a number of occasions, which eventually resulted in the investigation to let the company know it may be experiencing problems to comply with the country’s legislation and it also failed to take adequate action to prevent that from happening.
According to Ms O’Loughlin, the fact that SportsBet is a large and sophisticated company suggests that the online sports betting operator should also have some effective compliance systems in place in order to make sure that the operator is in line with Australian spam laws and protects the interests of its customers.
A SportsBet spokesperson confirmed that the online bookmaker accepted the ACMA’s findings and apologised to the individuals who had been affected by the non-compliance. The spokesperson further shared that the issue resulted from systems and technical failures because of which not all customer unsubscribe requests were handled in a timely and adequate manner.
The gambling company’s representative revealed that all email marketing was suspended by SportsBet for several months, with the operator also implementing extensive system upgrades in order to make sure that all customers’ unsubscribe requests would be handled correctly. SportsBet also promised to make sure that past failures are not repeated again.
- Author
Olivia Cole
