Flutter Entertainment’s Australian sports betting brand, Sportsbet, has been handed an AUD$92,500 penalty by the Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission for sending marketing material to self-excluded players.

The operator self-reported the breach to the regulator, admitting that it had sent text messages to 30 players who had self-excluded themselves and 124 players who were on a timeout from gambling on 2 October 2024.

This incident occurred when the operator was training new staff members on how to run text marketing campaigns on a third-party marketing platform.

Two of the new employees accessed and edited the same marketing campaign, with one failing to add the correct filters for distribution. As a result, messages containing a survey participation link were sent to the intended 747 customers, as well as a broader group of customers that included self-excluded players.

However, Sportsbet noted that if self-excluded players tried to access the content, they would not have been able to. It added that its marketing team quickly identified the error and halted further messages being sent.

Since then, the operator has updated its procedures to prevent training staff from using live campaigns and added segmentation controls to templates. Sportsbet is also working with the third-party platform partner to reduce the risk of this happening again.

In its ruling, the commission stated that Sportsbet had, by its own admission, breached Clause 4.6 and Clause 8.9 of the Northern Territory Code of Practice for Responsible Service of Online Gambling 2019.

These clauses stipulate that licensees must have measures in place to prevent marketing materials from being sent to self-excluded consumers, and that operators must cease sending marketing materials to anyone who opts out within 24 hours.

The commission also referenced the Racing and Wagering Act of 2024 in its ruling. This act states that licensees in the Northern Territory must fully comply with the state’s code. Those found to be in breach of the breach rules could face a maximum penalty of 2,500 penalty units, depending on the offence.

In deciding on the penalty issued to Sportsbet, the commission acknowledged that the sending of these marketing materials was not intentional and that improvements have been made to prevent it from happening again.

As a result, the commission decided to impose a reduced penalty of 500 penalty units on Sportsbet, which equates to AUD$92,500.