The United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that it has penalized Betfred’s parent company, Petfre Limited, over regulatory failures. Among other things, the operator failed to properly inform players of their net position.
Betfred’s Operator Breached the RTS
In its latest announcement, the UKGC said that it has issued a GBP 240,000 ($324,000) penalty to Gibraltar-based Petfre Limited, which operates the betfred.com and oddsking.com gaming websites. As mentioned, the company’s brands violated the UK’s gambling rules by exposing customers to a greater risk of harm.
One of Petfre’s Remote Technical Standards (RTS) failings included offering games that failed to properly inform gamblers of their net position. For context, the UK mandates that all gaming sessions must display a customer’s net position, providing full transparency as to how much they’ve won or lost since starting to play.
In addition to that, the UKGC understood that some games framed losses as wins, celebrating prizes that failed to make up for the sum players wagered. Per the RTS, all gaming systems “must not celebrate a return which is less than or equal to the total stake gambled.”
The UKGC elaborated that this rule stems from concerns about the fairness of celebratory effects when a player has, in fact, lost more money than they’ve won. The regulator also noted that celebrating losses can negatively impact a player’s ability to gauge their net position and therefore make ill-informed choices.
The UKGC noted that Petfre Limited took immediate action to take down all affected games and ensure its business was compliant with the rules once it was notified of its shortcomings.
The Penalty Sends a Message to the Wider Industry
According to the UKGC, this wasn’t the first time Petfre Limited has been scrutinized by the authority. The regulator cited a case from 2022 when the company had to pay a staggering GBP 2.87 million penalty due to serious social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failures.
Commenting on the latest fine, the UKGC’s director of enforcement, John Pierce, said that games and features should clearly inform players about their net position, lest they expose consumers to greater risk of harm.
Pierce acknowledged the operator’s swift remediation measures. However, he also acknowledged the severity of the failings, which is why the UKGC decided to impose a fine.
While we acknowledge the operator acted swiftly to remove the affected games, this enforcement action should serve as a clear signal to the wider industry to review and strengthen their compliance practices — and to ensure that gameplay is fair and consumers are not exposed to unnecessary risk.
John Pierce, director of enforcement, UKGC
In other news, the UKGC just published a report on its spending, saying that it has increased by GBP 14.4 million (approximately $19.4 million) over the last year due to a sharp spike in legal spending, related to several lawsuits.