KSA Addresses Marketing Violations Involving TonyBet, BetCity and Kansino

By Kolade Abisoye - 6 Mar, 2026 More about the author

Business, Companies

Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has issued formal statements on marketing incidents involving TonyBet, BetCity and Kansino. This followed advertisements to vulnerable groups, including young adults aged 18 to 24.

Regulations in the Netherlands prohibit licensed operators from directing promotional content towards younger audiences and players demonstrating at-risk gambling behaviour.

Promotional emails and interface messages trigger regulator response

One of the incidents involved TonyBet, which sent promotional emails to groups of young adult players on two occasions. The operator ascribed the issue to a system error that misclassified those recipients as standard adult players, allowing the marketing emails to be sent.

BetCity also reported a breach after a promotional message was displayed through its gaming interface to all players, including young adults. However, they mentioned that the affected group could not take part in the promotional offer.

Both companies disclosed the incidents to the regulator themselves. According to KSA, the operators implemented corrective steps shortly after identifying the problems.

Additional safeguards were introduced into their marketing systems and a four-eyes review principle to prevent future occurrences.

Advertising in mobile games flagged as separate breach

Furthermore, Kansino was involved in placing advertisements inside mobile gaming applications. Dutch rules prohibit gambling operators from running recruitment or promotional campaigns within online games unless they are licensed gambling products. The company reported that it detected the ads shortly after placement and removed them immediately.

Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) implored operators to exercise caution when using marketing and software tools, so vulnerable groups are not targeted through errors or negligence.

The regulator plans to continue monitoring operator conduct across the Dutch market and prevent any future cases.