On January 22, 2025, SPS Betting was hit with a hefty fine by the French National Gambling Authority’s (ANJ) Sanctions Committee. The self-exclusion mechanism on the Unibet website and app malfunctioned, resulting in the €800,000 punishment. The ANJ found that many self-excluded players had been able to continue gambling due to a technical glitch, which was against player protection laws.
The issue initially arose in 2021 when ANJ investigations found that iOS users were impacted by a technological glitch on Unibet.fr. Requests for self-exclusion, which were meant to stop gambling for weeks or months, were inadvertently cut down to days. For instance, a player who chose a twelve-month exclusion was only blocked for a total of twelve days.
This failure undermined a critical responsible gambling measure designed for individuals who need to step away from betting. French regulations mandate that online gambling platforms provide players with a self-exclusion option, allowing them to choose durations between 24 hours and 12 months.
Extended Malfunction and Penalties
The malfunction persisted from March 2, 2021, to December 11, 2022, before being fixed. However, a system update reintroduced the issue for iOS users between December 29, 2022, and February 2, 2023. In total, the failure lasted nearly 22 months, affecting thousands of players.
Due to the severity and duration of these breaches, the Sanctions Committee imposed the following penalties:
- €800,000 fine
- Publication of the ruling in the Official Journal of the French Republic
- Mandatory notice on the Unibet.fr homepage and app from March 17-31, 2025, linking to the ANJ press release
- Non-anonymized publication of the decision on the ANJ website until March 3, 2026
SPS Betting has the right to appeal this ruling to the Conseil d’État within two months of notification.
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