Repeat offense

Bet365 has had another April Groundhog Day with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) after the regulator ordered the UK-based online gambling firm to pay out $519,323 to affected bettors after voiding their winning wagers.

ordering the operator to honor the 199 bets it voided to NJ bettors

The order comes one year after Bet365 found itself in similar trouble with the DGE for voiding 101 bets and, despite claiming it offered incorrect odds, had to pony up $13,776.25. This year, the DGE’s beef is bigger, and it still isn’t buying Bet365’s incorrect odds excuse, ordering the operator to honor the 199 bets it voided to NJ bettors.

The DGE wrote Bet365 on July 22, requesting the payouts for 13 sporting events that happened December 2020 through November 2022. It appears the DGE rumbled Bet365 as far back as April 2022 during a routine audit.

Question of honor

While the majority of the DGE’s contemporaries in other states allow operators to void bets offered with “obvious errors,” the NJ regulator typically requires operators “to honor all bets taken at any odds.”

According to the letter sent to Bet365, during the April 2022 audit the DGE discovered the UK brand “unilaterally revised odds for a significant number of wagers over an extended period of time,” without seeking the regulator’s approval.

While Bet365 tried to push the fact the DGE approved its House Rules, which includes its right to revise odds posted in “obvious error,” the UK brand ignored the regulator’s “express statement and caveat” that the voiding of any wager is prohibited without prior approval.

Bet365’s attempt to blame internal software failures and manual trading mistakes for the incorrect odds it offered also didn’t wash with the DGE.

problematic as to Bet365’s business ability to conduct online gaming”

DGE Interim Director Mary Jo Flaherty wrote the failures “are both problematic as to Bet365’s business ability to conduct online gaming and the integrity and reliability of its operational systems.” Flaherty added the failures were ultimately “unacceptable as they resulted in misleading wagering information that was relied upon by its patrons”

Final warning?

Bet365 offered the dodgy odds on an unlucky 13 mixed bag of sporting events, from a table tennis match on Christmas Day 2020, to a November 2022 NFL game between the Tennessee Titans and Green Bay Packers.

Flaherty ended the DGE’s letter to Bet365 with a strong warning that its betting void violations “cannot be tolerated” in New Jersey. She stated the violations “impact adversely upon Bet365’s business abilities and casino experience” and revealed its conduct in dealing with regulations was “impermissible.”