The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) has sent Bet365 a letter ordering the company to pay bettors a total of $519,323.32 for 199 winning wagers from December 2020 to November 2022, after the operator was found to be altering odds on sporting events without informing the state regulator.
The regulator has ordered Bet365 to pay its customers winnings related to the original odds, not the changed odds. Bettors have likely already received their winnings since the letter was sent on July 22, as the operator had 10 days from the time of the letter to pay the bettors.
As reported by the regulator, a routine audit in April 2022 found the operator “unilaterally revised odds” for a “significant number of wagers” it had accepted. The DGE said bet365 claimed the odds during 13 sporting events were “incorrect” and had been posted in an “obvious error.” Bet365 added that the move was allowed under House Rules, which state that “human or technical error or issues outside our control” are permissible reasons for changing odds.
However, the DGE noted the “caveat” that bet365 was prohibited from voiding any wager without prior Division approval. “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 regulator said in its letter.
“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 DGE noted.
The failures took place over two years. The DGE has also ordered bet365 to submit a full report of all errors to “identify and rectify” the failures of its internal software systems resolve manual trading errors and ensure data feed accuracy.
Mary Jo Flaherty
“These types of multiple and serious violations cannot be tolerated in the New Jersey gaming regulatory system,” Mary Jo Flaherty, the DGE’s interim director, said in the letter.
The regulator further cautioned the operator that in the event of any further such violations, it would take action to impose penalties warranted by the nature and extent of that conduct, “and such imposition will fully reflect the prior course of violative conduct detailed herein.”
Not all state regulators require betting apps to receive regulatory approval for odds changes when there’s an “obvious error.” However, New Jersey’s regulations surrounding this issue are relatively unique compared with other jurisdictions, which likely played a role in bet365’s repeated violations.
