SIS faces UK scrutiny over reported 2022 Santeda deal and offshore gambling links

Sports Information Services (SIS) is under closer attention in the UK gambling market after reporting on a 2022 commercial agreement with Curaçao-based operator Santeda International B.V. For PSPs and suppliers, the point is not just the operator link-up itself, but the usual hard questions that follow: who approved it, what data could be used where, and whether the commercial setup matched local licensing rules.

1. According to reporting tied to the Casino Secrets data leak, SIS agreed in 2022 to supply services to websites associated with Santeda for an initial two-year period. The documents reportedly included automatic renewal unless either side terminated the contract.
2. The reported deal also said SIS would receive a percentage of revenue generated from losing bets placed through Santeda brands. SIS has not publicly confirmed how much revenue was generated under the arrangement, and the reporting does not make clear whether the contract is still active.
3. The available reporting does not establish that SIS shareholders approved the Santeda agreement or directed its terms. Entain has expressly said it was not a party to the commercial or customer arrangements negotiated by SIS, and said it raised concerns after the relationship became known.
4. The reported contract appears to have been a business-to-business supply agreement, not an arrangement for SIS to operate the gambling sites itself. SIS says its services cover horse racing, greyhound racing, virtual racing, competitive gaming and numbers products, and that it works with operators internationally and provides hundreds of thousands of betting events each year.
5. One key detail in the reporting is that the contract did not permit SIS data to be used in the UK. Even so, the Guardian reported that SIS supplied information to several Santeda-linked websites that its earlier investigations had found were accessible to UK customers. Under UK law, an operator needs a Gambling Commission operating licence to provide commercial gambling to consumers in Great Britain; an overseas licence does not, by itself, authorise that activity.

Santeda’s regulatory profile is also part of the picture. Spain’s Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego, or DGOJ, issued a formal administrative sanction against San...