British sports betting operator bet365 has been fined for the second time in recent months by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE).
The regulator handed down a $33,000 punishment for seven infractions between February 2022 and January 2023. That included allowing bets on MMA events that had already finished, bets on New Jersey college football, and still offering pre-match bets hours into the sporting event’s start.
The affected bets totaled some $257,000. Bet365 says it refunded all bettors who were affected, and paid out some as winners.
In late July, the NJDGE told bet365 to pay back more than $500,000 to bettors that had received payouts at adjusted odds in rare or contentious circumstances, or when it had made an error.
The sportsbook is required by its New Jersey license to report such odds changes to the regulator. But it failed to do so.
The Incidents
Between February 3, 2022, and January 3, 2023, bet365 accepted more than $250,000 in wagers that it eventually refunded.
The first incident was a college basketball game between the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and the University of Arkansas Little Rock. The match was moved forward an hour for scheduling reasons with the NCAA, but bet365 missed the boat and continued to allow pre-match futures bets on the game up until an hour in.
It settled $5,000 in bets at adjusted odds. But once again, it did not contact the regulator for approval.
Weeks later, bet365 accepted $60,000 in wagers on events hours after they had already occurred. The events in question were the Honda Classic golf tournament and two Bellator MMA events. It voided and refunded all such bets in those instances.
The sportsbook was also fined for accepting bets on sports matches prohibited by New Jersey gambling regulations. It took two bets on Rutgers University’s college football team, despite bets on in-state college teams not being allowed in the Garden State.
Later in 2022, it allowed betting on a dozen exhibition soccer matches in Europe, with 200 bets totaling $15,500 placed. The operator paid out $5,000 in wins and refunded the rest once it realized the mistake.
In the most egregious case, Bet365 New Jersey took a live, in-play bet on an English Premier League soccer match in January 2019 – nine minutes after it finished. One canny bettor noticed the mistake and put down $163,00 on a bet for which they knew the outcome. Bet365 voided the wager and refunded the bettor.
Bet365‘s Position
The operator told New Jersey authorities a mix of human error, technological malfunctions, and software glitches led to the mistaken bets. It says it has retrained workers and fixed its systems.
The sportsbook is not the only one in New Jersey in recent years to make such a mistake. In 2024, FanDuel was also fined by Garden State regulators for taking bets on MMA events that had already happened.
British operator Bet365 has been expanding across the U.S. sports betting market in recent years. It now operates in a dozen legal state markets, including New Jersey, since 2021.
Its CEO and owner, Denise Coates, has several times been the UK’s biggest taxpayer, and the firm is the biggest employer in her hometown of Stoke on Trent, England. In April 2024, the operator was fined £582,000 ($760,000) by the UK Gambling Commission for various compliance and regulatory failings.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
