Betway; a global online gambling Company registered in Malta and owned by Supergroup has been issued a warning by the Swedish Gambling Inspectorate (Spelinspektionen) for reporting negative equity. (Spelinspektionen will be referred to as SGI for this post)
Betway’s annual report and auditor’s report in 2020, showed a loss of €50.3m and negative equity of €4.8m while its parent Company; Betway Group Limited, reported a loss of €42.4m but positive equity of €49.9m, its subgroup, Betway Limited Consolidated Limited Group, also reported a loss of €60.4m and negative equity of €13.8m.
Betway, while addressing the negative equity and how to improve on it at the behest of the SGI, submitted a capital guarantee from its parent company; Betway Group Limited. The conclusion from SGI following their submission was that Betway did not demonstrate financial independence and thus is completely dependent on the support of the parent company and that it lacks its own capital base, also the capital guarantee submitted, compensates only partially for the negative equity.
Betway being a Malta registered company is regulated by the Malta Companies Act, and according to the Act, a negative capital report can only be allowed when a company can provide proof, that it can continue to conduct business.
SGI issued a warning to Betway for failing to comply with Swedish license stipulations regarding minimum equity, which violated chapter 4; section 1, section 3 of the Swedish Gambling Act, which allows licenses to be granted only to operators that are suitable and can prove their ability to conduct business. However, the SGI only assessed this violation to be minor, hence the warning.
Betway was also fined in December 2021 the sum of SEK100,000 by SGI for accidentally making a bonus campaign available to all customers, rather than to the customers that had signed up to one of their minor brands.
