Spelinspektionen Issues Ban Against Novatech Casino Sites

Sweden’s gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, has issued a prohibition order against five online casino domains operated by Novatech, concluding that the sites had been accepting Swedish players without holding a national licence. The Spelinspektionen Novatech ban follows a focused investigation carried out in February 2026 and adds to a growing list of enforcement actions targeting offshore operators that serve regulated markets without authorisation.

Five Domains, One Operator

The sites at the centre of the case are qbet.com, mangacasino.com, slotexpress.com, 55bet.com, and 30bet.com. All five are linked to Novatech, and all five were examined as part of the same investigation. The regulator’s goal was to determine whether these platforms were directing services toward Swedish consumers and allowing them to register and play despite the absence of a Swedish licence.

Spelinspektionen’s review took place over several days in February. During that period, investigators assessed the platforms across three specific areas: how users registered, how the brands were marketed, and whether the sites could be accessed and used from Sweden in practice.

How the Investigation Was Conducted

The registration process was one of the first things the regulator looked at. Investigators found that when users connected from Swedish IP addresses, the sites automatically populated Sweden as the country of registration. No restriction was in place to block that process or redirect Swedish users. In the regulator’s view, this indicated the platforms had not taken meaningful steps to exclude Swedish residents from signing up.

Marketing activity was also examined. Spelinspektionen found that promotional content linked to the Novatech brands had appeared on Swedish-language websites. Investigators also noted the use of content creators on streaming platforms to promote gambling products to Swedish-speaking audiences. Both channels pointed to deliberate efforts to reach consumers in the Swedish market.

To confirm what the technical and marketing evidence suggested, the authority carried out a covert test. An investigator accessed qbet.com from Sweden and completed the account registration process. No geo-block, licence check, or country restriction prevented the account from being opened. That test result was included as part of the evidence presented in the final decision.

How Spelinspektionen Decided to Ban Novatech

Spelinspektionen’s came to a straightforward conclusion. The sites had been made available to players in Sweden in a way that fell outside the national regulatory framework, and the operator had not demonstrated any effort to comply with local rules. The prohibition order requires Novatech to stop offering gambling services to Swedish users through the five identified domains.

The regulator pointed to consumer protection as a central concern. Sweden’s licensing system exists to ensure that players have access to responsible gambling tools, identity verification, and marketing limits that are legally required of all authorised operators. When a company operates outside that system while still serving Swedish customers, those protections are not guaranteed. That gap, in Spelinspektionen’s view, justifies enforcement.

A Second Regulator Was Already Watching

The Swedish case did not develop in isolation. Earlier in the same week, the Dutch gambling regulator, the Kansspelautoriteit, announced a separate financial penalty against Novatech. The Dutch authority reached a similar conclusion, that Novatech had offered gambling services to players in the Netherlands without holding the required licence. The two proceedings are independent of each other, but the timing makes the pattern hard to ignore.

Operators that appear on the radar of one European regulator often attract attention from others. Novatech now has enforcement actions on record in both Sweden and the Netherlands within the same week, which puts the company under significant pressure to either exit regulated markets or pursue licensing in the jurisdictions where it has been active.

What Comes Next

For players in Sweden, the ban means the five Novatech sites should no longer be accessible or accepting registrations. Moreover, for the operator, compliance with the prohibition order is the immediate requirement. Failure to comply would likely lead to further action, potentially including financial penalties.

The Spelinspektionen Novatech ban is part of a broader enforcement pattern across Europe. Regulators in Sweden, the Netherlands, and several other markets have made it clear that operating without a licence while actively targeting local players is not a grey area. The tools used in this case, including covert registrations and marketing audits, are now standard parts of how regulators build these cases, and operators that rely on ambiguity to stay in regulated markets are finding that ambiguity is no longer a reliable strategy.