Betway Hit By $400,000 Fine for English Premier League Children’s Advertising Breach

Betway have been slapped with a £400,000 fine by the United Kingdom Gaming Commission (UKGC) after the gambling site allowed its logo to be displayed on a Premier League club’s children’s page.

The London-based, iGaming company were found guilty of two breaches of the Social Responsibility Code of Practice (SRCP), and must now pay a £408,915 ($443,579) penalty for “marketing on the children’s pages of West Ham United Football Club’s website”.

The UKGC announcement revealed that the initial breach saw Betway’s logo “displayed on a webpage offering the opportunity to print a teddy bear for children to colour in” between April 2020 and November 2021.

The second instance saw “a logo with a link to the operator’s webpage” appear on the ‘Young Hammers at Home’ webpage between October and November last year.

According to the UKGC, which oversees all areas of gambling in the UK, “Both advertisements breached Commission rules stating gambling advertising must be socially responsible.”

According to Leanne Oxley, Gambling Commission Director of Enforcement: “Protecting children from gambling harm is at the heart of what we do. Although there is no suggestion that the operator was deliberately targeting children, or that children had been allowed to gamble, we take the breach of any rules aimed at protecting children extremely seriously.”

Oxley noted the “remedial actions since taken” by Betway, but advised “all operators to learn from this case and ensure that they take responsibility and have the correct processes in place” regarding advertising on sites aimed at children.

Betway were previously hit by a monster £11.6million ($12.62million) fine in March 2020 for “systemic historical failings in the way Betway identified and interacted with customers who were at risk of money laundering and problem gambling.”

The UKGC stated at the time: “These failings stemmed from inadequate anti-money laundering and social responsibility policies and processes and senior management oversight.”

The UKGC has been on a major blitz this year, with 888 (£9.4million), BetVictor ($2million) Genesis Global (£3.8million) and SkyBetting and Gaming (£1.17million) all being fined for various breaches.

The biggest fine of all, however, was reserved for partypoker-owners Entain, who were slapped with a record £17 million fine for offenses relating to anti-money laundering and social responsibility processes.

A UKGC press release said: “Entain Group will pay £14 million for failures at its online business LC International Limited which runs 13 websites including ladbrokes.com, coral.co.uk and foxybingo.com. It will also pay £3 million for failures at its Ladbrokes Betting & Gaming Limited operation which runs 2,746 gambling premises across Britain. All £17 million will be directed towards socially responsible purposes as part of a regulatory settlement.”