SBC News

The incoming regulatory chief for the French betting industry will not shy away from further tightening of the screws on online bookmakers.

Pascal Chevremont was nominated by the French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to take on the presidency of the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), the National Gambling Authority, earlier this month.

The veteran civil servant made his case for candidacy to a committee of the National Assembly on 17 June. Legislators subsequently appointed him to take on the lead regulatory role for the French betting industry.

In his statement to the committee, Chevremont made it clear that he would make it a priority for the ANJ to assert its control over French betting and gaming and further clamp down on illegal activity.

“The gambling sector is rife with contradictions,” Chevremont told the committee during his confirmation hearing.

“The internal security code establishes the principle of a ban on activities, and yet they are practiced by one in two Fre..

Sweden’s channelisation rate in 2025 dropped to 84% as the country, like many others across Europe, continues to battle the threat of the black market.

The 84% figure, representing a 1% year-on-year drop, serves as the proposed indicator for the national budget bill and is an average derived from two main measurement methods – player surveys, which estimated an 89% channelisation rate, and internet traffic turnover estimates, which estimated 78%.

Spelinspektionen, the Swedish Gambling Authority, highlighted that players who are self-excluded or suspended from licensed sites are the main perpetrators of using unlicensed platforms.

Other reasons given for punters using the black market were players believing that they have a higher chance of winning or those looking for games unavailable in the Swedish market.

A few black market bettors in Sweden (6%) interestingly used the reasoning of unlicensed operators offering skin betting.

Skin betting uses virtual cosmetic items from comp..

The Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) has continued its strong compliance focus, this time taking aim at Betnation for failures related to the Cruks self-exclusion system.

The KSA issued Smart Gaming, the operator of Betnation, an official warning after it failed to verify whether a group of players were on the Cruks exclusion register between January and March 2026.

As a result, these players were able to gamble without being checked, including one who had previously self-excluded.

The regulator said in a statement: “The KSA considers it highly reprehensible that the Cruks checks were not carried out. Players who register themselves in Cruks do so to protect themselves and must be able to assume that, as a result, they cannot gamble at licensed providers.”

Betnation attributed the failure to a ‘technical error’ which meant the checks were not performed.

The operator said that it manually checked the players affected. However, it was unable to determine whether a small group of playe..

Sweden’s Administrative Court has made decisions regarding fines that two different operators – Videoslots and LeoVegas – received from Spelinspektionen last year in relation to the duty of care.

Roar Vegas, trading as LeoVegas, saw its March 2025 warning and SEK 8m penalty fee (approximately €734,000) for ‘deficiencies in the duty of care’ from the Swedish gambling regulator overruled by the court.

The court stated that LeoVegas ‘has not clearly and distinctly breached the duty of care’ and so the decision from Spelinspektionen was annulled.

However, the Administrative Court took the opposite stance with the decision regarding Videoslots, which received a warning and a SEK 12m sanction fee (approximately €1.1m) for ‘deficiencies in the duty of care’ in April last year.

The court noted that it shared the regulator’s assessment of Videoslots that, for the majority of players examined, the company ‘clearly and distinctly breached its duty of care’ and so rejected its appeal, finding ..

France’s leading addiction network, Fédération Addiction, has called for a complete ban on athletes and sports personalities promoting sports betting.

In a statement, the organisation set out 15 urgent measures to regulate the sports betting sector, with the ban on those involved in sports promoting gambling one of the most striking.

Among the other proposals are calls for banning advertising during live sports broadcasts; a halt to the expansion of the market until player protection, prevention, and support mechanisms have been significantly strengthened; a ban on gambling sponsorships in sport; and a removal of offers, bonuses and incentives that encourage more betting or higher stakes.

It comes ahead of France’s first game in the 2026 World Cup later tonight, as Les Blues head into the tournament as joint-favourites in their bid to win the Jules Rimet Trophy for a third time.

Another gambling-related gripe in France

However, it is not the first time concerns have been raised ar..

711 Group has reiterated that it has ‘always acted in good faith and within the legal framework in place at the time’ in the Dutch iGaming market after receiving a fine of almost €900,000 from Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) for duty of care violations.

In a statement to iGaming Expert, Tom De Backer, Group CEO and Co-Founder, said that the operator is investigating its potential next steps and remains committed to ‘strengthening and optimising’ its duty of care and responsible gambling measures.

711 BV was fined a total of €886,000 by the KSA for failing to comply with the duty of care after an investigation by the Dutch gambling regulator discovered failures from February 2022 to June 2024.

Ten player files were requested by the regulator as part of its investigation, from individuals who suffered high losses, gambled for a high number of days and placed bets at night, with violations found in all files.

Michel Groothuizen, Chair of the KSA, said: “We have observed that not all provider..

Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has called out TOTO Online for its use of role models in advertising as part of a World Cup marketing campaign on social media, but the operator initially thought the ads were compliant until the regulator’s intervention.

The KSA’s criticism comes as the Dutch government considers an outright ban on gambling advertising and bonuses in the Netherlands iGaming market, as well as strong rumours surrounding plans to increase the minimum gambling age.

A release from the KSA noted that TOTO Online ‘promoted via the social media channels of eight professional football clubs that people could win a club shirt signed by players if they placed a bet of five euros at TOTO Online’.

The regulator viewed this as using role models for promotional purposes, which is not permitted, since former professional footballers were being used in advertising.

The KSA said in a statement: “It was precisely the involvement of these players that made the campaign attractive to support..