Legislation
Sweden – Spelinspektionen clarifies scope of 2021 restrictions
By Lewis - 3 December 2020
Spelinspektionen has confirmed that regulations set to come into force on January 1, 2021, will apply only to competitions played in Sweden.
Alongside clarification concerning betting on participants under the age of 18, Spelinspektionen has said the new regulations extend to esports betting and prohibit betting on Swedish football leagues outside the country’s top four tiers.
According to the impending rules, betting cannot be offered on an individual performance in a match, competition or tournament by a participant who at the time of the offer of betting is under 18 years.
‘Individual performance’ refers to all performance performed by an individual practitioner such as goal shooting, scoring, winning a race, winning balls, games, sets, matches and tournaments, but also double errors, trampling, loss of points, missed penalties or the like.
This means all betting that refers to practitioners who are under 18 years of age in an individual sport such as a singles matches in tennis, badminton or table tennis as well as individual disciplines in athletics, skiing and shooting are prohibited according to the regulations.
The same applies to betting on individual performances performed by riders, dog handlers and drivers in motorsport who are under 18 years of age. However, it is permissible to offer betting on a practitioner who is over 18 years of age in a singles match, even if the opponent is under 18 years of age.
In the case of double matches, the regulations prohibit betting on performances in the match performed by a single player who is under 18 years of age, as well as on a pair where both players are under 18 years of age.
Betting on a performance by a pair consisting of a player under the age of 18 and a player over the age of 18 is allowed if the betting refers to the pair’s performance. On the other hand, betting on performances that only concern the minor player in the pair is not.
In competitions, races or tournaments where both athletes under the age of 18 and athletes over the age of 18 participate, it is permitted to offer betting on the athletes over the age of 18, provided that the majority (more than 50 per cent) of practitioners are over 18 years of age.
No later than March 31 each year can a licence holder send the Swedish Gambling Authority a report of the previous year’s recorded and suspected manipulations of sports results.
