Swedish operators hit back at plans to ban player-specific betting markets
Government proposals to shut down individual player markets in football and ice hockey are slammed by BOS but supported by Svenska Spel
Swedish trade association BOS has warned that licensed operators could be forced to shut down their sportsbooks if the government goes ahead with plans to ban player-specific betting markets.
The Swedish Gambling Authority, under pressure from Sweden’s social security minister Ardalan Shekarabi, is expected to propose a ban on player-specific betting markets across football and ice hockey.
Shekarabi has questioned whether betting on yellow cards, corners and throw-in markets are too open to manipulation following meetings with the Swedish Football Association and Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
“[A ban] is the government’s goal and the aim is for the regulations….to come into force in the first half of 2020,” Shekarabi told Swedish news outlet Dagens Nyheter.
Gustaf Hoffstedt, secretary general of operator trade body BOS, has pushed back on the proposals, insisting it would actually make fixing more likely by pushing betting activity to the black market.
Gustaf Hoffstedt
“This just means that you hand over an even bigger part of the gaming market to the unlicensed companies and also surrender the opportunity to fight match fixing,” Hoffstedt said.
“The licensed companies monitor these bets and cooperate with law enforcement agencies. If you do not get this opportunity, the gambling market becomes blind to the offences,” he added.
Hoffstedt also warned that Sweden’s regulated operators could be forced to switch off their sportsbooks as a result – just as Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) did in July due to “compliance uncertainty”.
In contrast, former monopoly operator Svenska Spel welcomed a potential ban, describing the government proposals as “common sense”.
“There is no reason for gaming companies to make it easy for the match fixers,” said Svenska Spel CEO Patrik Hofbauer.
Patrik Hofbauer
“This type of event is very easy to manipulate, because they do not depend on the entire team effort, because it can be controlled by a single player.
“As a fresh example of this, we have the all-Swedish match between Kalmar and Elfsborg earlier this year, where a player is suspected of having drawn a yellow card while his relatives bet on this to happen,” he added.
The Swedish Football Association suggested that a record number of matches have been manipulated by match-fixers in Sweden this season, having investigated 45 games to date.