Aussie bookmaker PlayUp offered bets to customers who had asked to be excluded due to gambling problems, according to the Guardian Australia.
Allowing people to self-exclude is required under the code of conduct for online bookies in the Northern Territory, where PlayUp is licensed, and also forms part of national legislation introduced to parliament last month by Communications Minister Paul Fletcher.
The new law will make it a crime if a bookie fails to ban people who self-exclude. It was needed because of “growing community concerns about the rapid growth and high rate of harm caused by online gambling,” Fletcher told parliament last month.
PlayUp CEO Daniel Simic said in the past it was possible
to unintentionally offer bets to people who had excluded themselves because the group held several licenses, were run as separate businesses, and were not allowed to share data with each other. PlayUp has since merged it into a single company, which should alleviate the issue.
Simic denied talk that the company had a shortage of cash, telling the Guardian it was turning over more than $300 million (U.S.$205.7 million) a year and was on track for a share market float in the U.S. in the first half of next year.
Conceived as a sports betting technology company, PlayUp was initially backed by a group of wealthy investors including Alex Turnbull, son of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The company went into liquidation in 2016. The following year, Simic bought PlayUp’s assets, including the name, from the liquidators.
Last year it attempted a stock exchange that was cancelled after the ASX raised concerns about the company’s suitability for listing.
Under Simic, PlayUp bought other bookmakers, including Classicbet, Best Bet, Madbookie and most recently TopBetta. It also holds its own license under the PlayUp Interactive name. Last month the various companies integrated into one operation.
“We just rolled them in one at a time,” Simic said. “It’s all run by one team now.”
In August, Andrew Parramore, PlayUp’s chief operating officer, said the issue of gamblers who had excluded themselves from one license continuing to bet with another needed to be fixed as part of the move to one operating platform.
“How do we handle clients that are self-excluded on one platform under TopBetta license while actively betting on our other platform under the PlayUp Interactive license,” he said.
Asked if he was aware of customers betting with one platform while excluded on another, Simic knew of only one case and it was resolved.
“But it wasn’t a planned issue. And even if it was, we haven’t actually technically done anything wrong. Each license has got its own list and we’re not supposed to be sharing data.”
Simic added that talk of a cash flow problem stemmed from disgruntled former employees. He hopes to raise US$40 million from investors to list PlayUp on the Nasdaq in the first half of next year, valuing the company at about US$200 million.
