Bet365 to Pay Compensation to 23 Danish Athletes

bet365 has been forced to pay out over half a million pounds to 23 Danish athletes. This compensation is due after the company used the names and photographs of the athletes on its social media accounts without their consent.

The Bet365 Court Case

The court case was ruled on at the maritime and commercial court in Denmark. bet365 argued that the names and photographs were simply editorial content. Under Danish law, this type of editorial content is not subject to payment.

However, the court ruled against this argument. They found that the images were used for marketing and so this needed the consent of the athletes involved.

Who Will Receive Compensation?

The court ordered bet365 to pay out DKK 4.7m which is around £550,000 in total. The athlete who will receive the largest sum of money is Christian Eriksen, the 31-year-old midfielder for Manchester United. He will be awarded around DKK 1.45m which is around £169,600.

The athletes that compensation will be paid to are very diverse. Other athletes that will benefit include the former goalkeeper at Manchester City, Leeds United and Leicester City, Kasper Schmeichel. The centre-back footballer for AC Milan, Simon Kjaer and the Olympic badminton champion, Victor Axelsen, are also set to receive a pay-out.

Other Pay-outs By Bet355

This is not the first time bet365 has found itself in trouble in the Scandinavian countries. The company was found to have violated Dutch laws around advertising in March and it was fined €400,000 by the Dutch Gaming Authority, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA).

In April 2023, the firm was also fined by the Swedish Gambling Regulator for social responsibility failures. It stated that the company had not taken enough action to protect vulnerable players from online gambling on its platform. This included failing to help gamblers set loss limits and a lack of putting limits on customer accounts.

They were issued two fines for these practices. This included a fine of SEK 14 million, around €1,233,437, to Hillside Gaming and SEK 65 million, around €5,726,671, to Hillside Sports. Hillside is the Malta-based operating company of bet365.