Posted on: August 6, 2024, 10:54h.
Last updated on: August 6, 2024, 10:54h.
Bet365 has been ordered to pay bettors in New Jersey more than a half-million dollars in back bets.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) said an audit of bet365’s sports betting operations conducted in April 2022 determined that the online sportsbook unilaterally revised odds on 13 sporting events without approval from the state regulatory agency. The odds adjustments reduced how nearly 200 winning bets were paid.
DGE auditors found that bet365 regularly altered odds on accepted bets in the house’s favor. That violates New Jersey’s sports betting regulations and warrants regulatory recourse.
“Bet365 violated Division regulations by unilaterally revising odds on accepted wagers without prior Division approval,” the action in lieu of complaint read.
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,” the New Jersey DGE statement continued. “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 lead to incorrect payouts for numerous patrons.”
Bet365 is a British-based gambling firm privately owned by the billionaire Coates family.
Sportsbook Claims Erroneous Odds
Bet365 operates online sports betting in New Jersey through a partnership with Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City. The online sportsbook responded to the DGE action by claiming that it incurred several “obvious error” situations during the events in question.
The online sportsbook said its published House Rules state that bettors should be aware that the operation reserves the right to correct “incorrect prices published due to human or technical error or issues outside our control.” The DGE said while it approved of bet365’s House Rules during its licensing application, state regulations require that sportsbooks notify the regulatory upon any adjustment of odds on a facilitated wager.
“Once bet365 accepted the wagers, even using odds it considered to be ‘incorrect,’ its only recourse was to seek Division permission to alter or void the wagers,” the DGE filing explained.
Bettor Restitution
In its order, the DGE instructed bet365 to honor all 199 winning wagers in their full amount owed based on the odds that the original bets were placed. The aggregate total is $519,323.32.
The DGE gave bet365 10 days to make the bettors full from the July 22 date of the action letter, meaning the outstanding wins should have now been paid. The DGE has also ordered bet365 to submit to the agency a report of its efforts to identify and rectify its odds-making failures within 20 days of the letter.
These types of multiple and serious violations cannot be tolerated in the New Jersey gaming regulatory system,” DGE Deputy Director Louis Rogacki wrote.
Calling bet365’s actions “totally unacceptable,” Rogacki warned the online sportsbook that “no further such violations related to the unilateral voiding of wagers will be tolerated” in what is seemingly a threat to the company’s New Jersey sports betting license.
