Norwegian state-owned gambling operator Norsk Tipping has announced the appointment of Trond Bentestuen as its new chief executive.
Bentestuen will replace Vegar Strand, who became acting CEO in the summer after the exit of Tonje Sagstuen. It has not yet been decided when Bentestuen will commence his new role at Norsk Tipping.
An experienced executive, Bentestuen will join after three years as CEO at building materials company Løvenskiold Handel. He also served as CEO of Norwegian supermarket chain REMA 1000 Norge.
Earlier in his career, he worked in several roles at DNB during over 10 years with the financial services company. This included spells as group executive vice president of both personal banking and wealth management and insurance.
“Norsk Tipping is a unique company with a very special social mission,” Bentestuen said in a post on LinkedIn. “Namely, to ensure responsible gaming and the prevention of gambling addiction are combined with efficient operations that ensure that as much of the revenue as possible goes to good causes.
“Society has decided that this balancing act is best solved within the framework of the exclusive rights model. At the same time, Norsk Tipping should deliver world-class offers and services. It will be fun to work with.”
Bentestuen backed to steady the ship
Norsk Tipping Chairperson Sylvia Brustad welcomed the appointment. She said Bentestuen’s management experience and personal qualities made him the right person to take on the role.
“Trond’s broad management experience and personal qualities make me confident that he is the right person for Norsk Tipping to deliver on the adopted main ambitions of a society without gambling problems, world-class digital customer experiences and strong power to change,” Brustad said.
He will join after what has been a tumultuous year for the operator. Norsk Tipping has faced a series of regulatory charges in relation to issues with its operations and activities.
Concerns first came to light back in February when the Norwegian Lottery Authority (Lotteritilsynet) contacted the operator over failings with self-exclusion. At the time, the regulator said players had not been able to self-exclude for a five-month period in 2024. This led to a penalty of NOK36 million (£2.6 million/$3.5 million).
Another issue cropped up in May when the regulator investigated Norsk Tipping over a tip-off that a minor had transferred money to the platform. However, worse was still to come for the operator.
Norsk Tipping forced to ‘rebuild trust’
In June, Sagstuen resigned as CEO after the operator published incorrect prize amounts for the Eurojackpot draw. Thousands of customers were given false expectations that they had won larger amounts of money, with the issue put down to human error. Strand stepped in as interim CEO, pledging to “rebuild trust” in the monopoly operator.
However, this was not the end of the issues for Norsk Tipping. In September, it was handed a NOK46 million penalty over a technical failing for Eurojackpot and Lotto. Lotteritilsynet found players in cooperatives, gaming clubs and cooperative banks had more chance of winning than they should have had.
Norsk Tipping was also fined NOK2.5 million in 2024 after it mistakenly paid a player NOK25 million in incorrect winnings. Other penalties over other issues may follow, with the operator potentially facing further punishment over its conduct.
Norsk Tipping working ‘purposefully’ to address concerns
Earlier in December, Strand said the operator had begun work on addressing the operational faults flagged by auditors. He said the company had rolled out measures across 22 of the 25 recommendations made by the consultancy.
In October, KPMG and PwC published separate reports on Norsk Tipping following a series of major errors. The main finding of PwC’s report was the operator had prioritised innovation and new developments “at the expense of quality and control”.
Within its report, KPMG criticised Norsk Tipping’s business procedures. It said “deficiencies” in technological professional management and the overall understanding of technical risk and complexity had led to issues with technical competence, capacity and understanding of roles and responsibilities.
While Norsk Tipping is awaiting a final report into the issues, Strand said the operator had put in place several actions to address the concerns. These included a “thorough review” of its organisational model, an improved systems for developers and testers and a new system for supplier management.
Trond Bentestuen will replace Vegar Strand, who became acting CEO in the summer after the exit of Tonje Sagstuen.