Bet365 has once again found itself in hot water in New Jersey, facing penalties for failing to adhere to the state’s stringent sports betting regulations. The English company, which operates its online sports betting and iGaming services in New Jersey through a partnership with the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, has been hit with a $33,000 fine by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE).
The DGE revealed that bet365 mistakenly listed a mixed martial arts (MMA) match that had already concluded a week prior on their sportsbook, allowing customers to place bets on a replay of the event. Additionally, bet365 was found to have accepted wagers on other prohibited sporting events over the course of nearly a year, from February 3, 2022, to January 23, 2023.
Mary Jo Flaherty, the DGE’s Interim Director since longtime Director David Rebuck’s retirement in March, noted that bet365 had taken remedial actions following the violations. The DGE subsequently decided to settle the matter, resulting in the $33,000 penalty. Flaherty’s official order stated, “Having considered the Stipulation of Settlement which the parties executed and finding sufficient legal and factual support for the recommended penalty therein, I hereby order that the settlement be adopted and that a civil penalty in the amount of $33,000 be imposed upon bet365.”
This fine will be directed to the DGE’s Revenue Unit. The penalty follows closely on the heels of a more significant sanction, in which bet365 was mandated to return over half a million dollars to bettors. This came after a DGE investigation determined that the sportsbook had changed odds in its favor post-wagering on nearly 200 bets. The probe found that bet365 had altered the odds for 13 events, effectively reducing the payouts on 199 winning bets. As a result, the affected bettors were compensated with restitution totaling $519,323.32—the amount they would have won if bet365 had not unlawfully adjusted the odds.
Bet365 contended that the initial odds were posted in error. However, the DGE maintained that any modifications to wagers must receive regulatory approval. The regulatory body’s report noted, “The failure of bet365’s internal software coupled with its manual trading errors caused its system to be unable to ensure the accuracy of its data feeds. These failures are both problematic as to bet365’s business ability to conduct online gaming and the integrity and reliability of its operational systems, and therefore unacceptable as they resulted in misleading wagering information that was relied upon by its patrons and ultimately led to incorrect payouts for numerous patrons.”
The trustworthiness of the sports betting industry, which has expanded to nearly 40 U.S. jurisdictions, remains under scrutiny. Critics charge that operators limit successful bettors while exploiting those who are less fortunate. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is currently investigating how online sportsbooks decide when to restrict customers, though operators have been reticent to disclose their strategies. A question-and-answer session with licensees is scheduled to address these issues next month.
Meanwhile, the transparency of online casino games has come into question in Connecticut. DraftKings was found running an online slot with a 0% payout rate, prompting the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection to intervene and order the company to refund nearly $24,000 in bets. DraftKings attributed the issue to a programming error, which made the slot unwinnable.
