The Administrative Court of Linköping in Sweden has overturned a Spelinspektionen decision to grant four igaming operators one-year licences for the market by issuing the quartet each with three-year certifications.
The four operators, Ellmount Gaming, Aspire Global, Gaming Innovation Group’s (GiG) MT SecureTrade and Hero Gaming, had previously been issued with one-year licenses following a number of concerns relating to the companies’ finances.
Following the decision from the Administrative Court of Linköping, Ellmount has had its certification extended through to January 2022 after the court refused to grant a five-year license.
Aspire Global has, however, only been granted an operating license which will be applicable from 1 January to 31 December, 2019. The operator has since argued that even though its AG Communications subsidiary had been the applicant, it would have access to the business’ full resources.
The operator had previously argued that Spelinspektionen had failed to fully conduct due diligence procedures on the wider business. But despite this, the court has stated that the support of the larger business meant that limiting its licence to just a year was unjustified.
The court took a similar approach with GiG’s appeal, which also emphasised the financial strength of its parent company.
Hero Gaming’s appeal against Spelinspektionen, which cited a contravention of European Union legislation, was rejected however its claim based upon the strength of its parent company was subsequently accepted.
As such, the trio had their operating licences extended to 31 December, 2021.
