LeoVegas has scored a major win in court recently that paved the way for the company to finally obtain a coveted extension of its Swedish online gambling license to five years.
The company’s CEO, Gustaf Hagman, said in a statement distributed to media outlets earlier today that the granted license extension was “an affirmation that we conduct a professional and responsible operation.”
LeoVegas was among the first online gambling operators to be granted a license by the Swedish Gambling Authority, Spelinspektionen. The company received its license in November 2018 as Sweden was gearing up preparations for the enforcement of its new gambling law.
The Scandinavian nation’s new gambling regulatory regime took effect on January 1, 2019. Under the new rules, only companies licensed by the local regulator are allowed to conduct betting and gaming activities on the territory of Sweden.
While LeoVegas was among the first international operators to obtain licenses from Spelinspektionen, the mobile-focused gambling company only received a two-year authorization to operate in the newly reorganized Swedish market. Most of the other operators that were allowed to enter the local iGaming space received five-year licenses from the local regulator.
Spelinspektionen said that it granted LeoVegas a shorter-term license due to its fine in the United Kingdom in the spring of 2018. The UK Gambling Commission slapped a £600,000 fine on the online gambling operator for a series of transgressions.
The majority of LeoVegas’ failings related to the company’s self-exclusion controls. Among other things, the Gambling Commission had discovered that the operator had sent marketing materials to gamblers who had signed up to its self-exclusion system to encourage them to gamble.
The License Extension
After being issued a two-year license in Sweden, LeoVegas turned to court in hopes to have it extended to a full term of five years. The company appealed Spelinspektionen’s decision in the Administrative Court in Linköping.
Earlier this month, the court ruled that LeoVegas was eligible to the full five-year license term. The court said in its ruling that it found merit in the operator’s argument that the violations of its UK license terms occurred in 2016 and that it has since then taken appropriate measures to address the issues in its self-exclusion controls and ensure compliance.
Following the court’s ruling, LeoVegas announced today that its license has been extended to five years. Commenting on today’s announcement, the company’s Chief Executive said that the Administrative Court’s ruling represented an “affirmation that we conduct a professional and responsible operation.”
Mr. Hagman went on that the “extended license gives us confidence in the Swedish licensing system and the Swedish market where we continue to take market shares.”
LeoVegas secured entry into another major European market this year. In July, the company announced that it was given the green light to conduct online gaming and betting activities in Spain. LeoVegas’ Spanish website went live shortly after it obtained its license from the local regulator, the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling.
Source: LeoVegas Press Office
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on the day’s top casino news stories
