Northern Territory penalises Sportsbet for targeting self-excluded players

The Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission has ordered Flutter Entertainment-owned Sportsbet to pay AU$92,000 (US$60,527) for breaching rules by marketing gambling services to self-excluded consumers.

Sportsbet self-reported the breach to the state commission, admitting it sent the text messages to 30 self-excluded players and 24 customers taking a break from gambling, on 2 October 2024.

The operator said it quickly identified the issue and put in place measures to prevent similar faults in the future. It added one player who was messaged flagged the issue to Sportsbet but did not pursue a formal complaint.  

Ruling on the case, the Commission referenced both the Racing and Wagering Act of 2024 (RWA) and Northern Territory Code of Practice for Responsible Service of Online Gambling 2019.

Code section 4.6 requires licensees to have in place measures to ensure marketing materials are not set to self-excluded consumers. Meanwhile, section 5.6 states licensees must not directly market to players after they close their account. In addition, section 8.9 requires operators to stop sending marketing to anyone who opts out within 24 hours.

As for the RWA, this states that licensees in the Northern Territory must fully comply with the state’s code. Those that breach rules could face a maximum penalty of 2,500 ‘penalty units’, depending on the offence.

The maximum penalty for this breach is 1,000 penalty units. However, Sportsbet’s penalty was set at 500 units, which equates to AU$92,500.

This is payable within 28 days of the notice, which was dated 19 June but was only made public on 25 June. “The penalty is intended to reflect the seriousness of the violation, while also acknowledging the licensee’s efforts to address the issue responsibly,” the Commission said.

Where did Sportsbet go wrong?

Analysing the case, the Commission said Sportsbet had been using a third-party communications platform to send SMS messages.

On the day the messages were sent, Sportsbet was using this platform to train staff on SMS campaigns. However, two new employees accessed and edited the same live campaign at the same time, with one failing to apply the correct filters for distribution.

This led to messages with a survey participation link being sent to an intended group of 747 people, plus a broader group of customers who were not eligible. Within this latter group were the self-excluded players and those taking a gambling break.

But Sportsbet said if the unintended recipients attempted to access the content, they would not have been able to. It added that its marketing operations team quickly identified the error and halted the send-out, preventing a further 48,891 messages from reaching unintended recipients.

The operator said it has updated its procedures to prevent training in live campaigns and added segmentation controls to templates. It is also working with its platform partner to reduce the risk of further errors.

Northern Territory opts for reduced penalty

Ruling on the case, the Commission said that Sportsbet breached the Code of Practice by sending messages to excluded players. As such, this also place the operator in breach of the RWA.

The Commission acknowledged this was not intentional and that improvements have been made. As such, it settled in a reduced financial penalty for Sportsbet.

The maximum penalty for this breach is 1,000 penalty units. However, Sportsbet’s penalty was set at 500 units.