Summary
- Entain subsidiary hit with fine in Australia
- Neds lured customers through welcome bonuses
- Commission issues A$26,690 fine
Gaming giant Entain is in hot water. The Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC) has leveled a A$26,690 fine on the British biggie stating that the company had violated gaming regulations.
According to the Racing Commission, Entain is liable for the fine as it recently advertised sign-up bonuses for new player accounts. The infringement of the commission’s code was brought to light by an inspector who was an event attendee on July 31, 2021 at the Fanny Bay Racecourse.
The gaming code says that offering credit or rewards to induce any person to open a betting account is unlawful. On further investigation, it was found that Entain’s subsidiary bookmaker company Neds is deeply involved in the fiasco. The NTRC’s associate was given a Neds Business card with a QR code promising an ‘extra cash reward’ on creating a new account which exposed the infraction.
As a response to the commission’s inquiries, Neds delegated the weight of the crisis to affiliate operatives known as Business Development Managers (BDMs) in Australia. However, to salvage the situation, Neds argued that while BDMs offered matched deposits to their existing customers, they did so after confirming their association with the company through Customer Support.
However, the commission refused to consider it as a viable way around the laws. In their overruling opinion, the NTRC stated that even if the bonus was credited days or weeks after the customers had created an account; it was an unlawful infringement of the territory policies as Neds still lured in new customers via the QR codes on the cards given out by the affiliate operatives.
Neds’ argument did little to hide the primary motivation for this scheme which was to attract new subscribers via these special promotions. The Racing Commission decided to hand out a fine to send a strong message to Entain and its subsidiaries.
This incident was an expose of Entain’s tactics to attract new players in Australia via the reward scheme. While the A$26,690 fine does send a message to Entain and its subsidiaries, it is nothing but a small slap on the wrist for the gambling powerhouse.
With an impressive market cap of about $13.5 billion and a prospective acquisition of Balkan-based Olympic Entertainment’s online gaming business, Entain has big plans in the pipeline for the coming years and will be unfazed by the minor fine imposed by the NTRC.
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