Swedish court reverses decision to revoke Vivaro’s licence

Last month, Swedish regulator Spelinspektionen revoked the licence after Vivaro did not commence activities in the country within a year of receiving its licence.

Vivaro, which received licences for both online betting and online gaming on 3 June 2020, said it had planned to begin operating from late August, saying that a number of factors had prevented it from launching earlier than this.

The operator said the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and the impact it had on staff was the primary reason why its launch had been delayed. 

In addition, conflict between Armenia – where the business is headquartered – and Azerbaijan disrupted operations, with 50 staff called up to Armenian armed forces.

Vivaro set this out in a formal appeal against the ruling, arguing that it was more reasonable to give it another chance to commence gaming operations than to revoke its licence.

The Administrative Court agreed and reversed the original decision by Spelinspektionen to revoke the licence, instead issuing Vivaro with a warning.

Sweden’s Gaming Act permitted Spelinspektionen to issue a warning if a revocation would be “disproportionate”, but the regulator initially said that a warning would not be sufficient.

Fair Play Bets last month also had its licence revoked for the same reason, but at the time of writing, there is no word on whether this decision will be revoked.