‘Spamming’ Sportsbet cops record $2.5m fine

Online gambling company Sportsbet has been fined a record $2.5m for spamming customers trying to unsubscribe from its platform.

Sportsbet, owned by Irish group Flutter Entertainment, said it had apologised to its customers and has agreed to pay compensation on top of a $2.5m fine.

Online gambling company Sportsbet has been fined a record $2.5m for spamming customers trying to unsubscribe from its platform. Sportsbet also has paid $1.5m of refunds to customers.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said the $2.5m fine was the biggest it had issued for spamming in Australia.

ACMA’s investigation found Sportsbet had sent more than 150,000 marketing text messages and emails to more than 37,000 consumers who had tried to unsubscribe. Sportsbet also sent more than 3,000 marketing texts that had no unsubscribe function.

These texts and emails were sent between January 2020 and March 2021 and offered consumers incentives to place bets or contained alerts about upcoming races.

ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the scale and duration of Sportsbet’s conduct was deeply concerning, particularly given the potential harms involved with gambling.

“We received complaints from people stating they were experiencing gambling-related problems and were trying to manage the issue by unsubscribing from Sportsbet’s promotions,” Ms O’Loughlin said.

“Sportsbet’s failures in this matter had the real potential to contribute to financial and emotional harm to these people and their families.”

The ACMA said it had accepted a three-year court-enforceable undertaking from Sportsbet which committed to appointing an independent arbiter to oversee refunds to customers who lost money on bets associated with the spam. This was expected to total around $1.2m.

Sportsbet also must appoint an independent consultant to review its procedures, policies, training and systems, and implement recommendations from the audit.

Ms O’Loughlin said she was disappointed Sportsbet did not act as soon as they were aware of the problem.

Sportsbet, owned by Irish group Flutter Entertainment, said it had apologised to its customers and has agreed to pay compensation on top of a $2.5m fine.

Sportsbet – Australia’s biggest online betting company – is known for its aggressive and irreverent advertising, a formula that has seen it gain market share from more traditional bookmakers such as ASX-listed gaming giant, Tabcorp.

The online betting agency is now the biggest media advertiser in the country, cementing its number one status as consolidation sweeps across the $4bn online betting industry, lifting its market share from about 25 to almost 40 per cent after subsuming rival BetEasy in a $US12bn merger between Flutter Entertainment.

Sportsbet said it had completed “extensive system upgrades” to ensure “past failings are not repeated”. “Sportsbet accepts the ACMA’s findings and apologises to customers who were affected by this issue,” a Sportsbet spokesman said.

“The noncompliance resulted from technical and systems failures that regrettably meant not all customer unsubscribe requests were actioned in a timely manner.

“Affected customers eligible to receive compensation will be contacted directly. Sportsbet takes these matters extremely seriously and is committed to ensuring that past failings are not repeated.”

The company said it had suspended all email marketing for “several months” to ensure “all unsubscribe requests are now correctly actioned” and said it co-operated with ACMA throughout its investigation.

While the fine is the biggest ACMA has issue for spamming, it is slightly less than the $2.53m penalty it whacked on Telstra late last year for breaching privacy rules after the telco failed to correctly upload 50,000 silent phone numbers to the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND), allowing them to be published in public directories.

Over the past 18 months businesses have paid nearly $3.4 m in ACMA-issued infringement notices for breaking spam and telemarketing laws.