New Jersey fines sports betting firms for taking bets after games had already ended

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does, it can seem like a dream come true for sports gamblers: being able to bet on a game after it has already ended.

And it has happened again in Atlantic City, where a sportsbook has been fined for taking $25,000 worth of bets on college basketball and hockey games and boxing matches after they were over.

In action made public last week, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement fined William Hill Sportsbook $20,000 for bets it wrongly took in 2022 and 2023.

The company voided most of the bets after discovering the errors. But others had already been paid out to customers.

William Hill operates retail sportsbooks in Atlantic City at the Caesars, Harrah’s and Tropicana casinos. The casinos’ parent company, Caesars Entertainment, did not respond to messages seeking comment Friday and Monday.

According to documents from the enforcement division, on Feb. 23 and 24, 2022, it took 42 bets via in-person kiosks on 12 college basketball games after the results were already known. William Hill paid just over $5,000 to customers on six bets before it became aware of the error. The remainder of the bets were voided and the customers’ initial wagers were returned to them.

William Hill blamed the error on a sportsbook content supplier, London-based OpenBet, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Similar errors allowed illegal bets on two boxing matches. On June 11, 2022, William Hill took bets on a Chris Kongo-Sebastian Formella boxing match that it had advertised as starting at noon. However, the match began at 11:15 a.m. and concluded at 11:55 a.m. On April 15, 2023, William Hill took bets on a Denzel Bentley-Kieran Smith fight after it, too, had already ended. The company listed the fight as a noon start, but it began at 11:55 a.m. and ended just 45 seconds later with a knockout.

The division also fined Amelco, a London-based sports betting technology company, $10,000 for violations including allowing sportsbook PlayUp to take a bet in March 2022 on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg becoming the next U.S. president. Although recent court decisions allowed political betting in last month’s election, it was not allowed at the time the bet was made.

PlayUp utilized Amelco and Sportradar as its sportsbook providers. In documents filed with the enforcement division, Amelco said Sportradar listed the U.S. presidential election under a category of bets that Amelco marked as “true,” automatically listing it on its menu of betting markets.

Amelco told the division its own trading team failed to recognize the U.S. election as an event that was not authorized to be bet upon.

Sportradar said it does not label any of the betting markets in its data feed as authorized or unauthorized, adding it is the responsibility of each sports betting company to make sure they only offer bets that comply with local laws.

Sportradar also noted that the division did not assess a fine against it, adding that Amelco was “solely liable” for the violation.

PlayUp also accepted two bets worth nearly $700 on a Seton Hall University basketball game on Jan. 18, 2023, in violation of a state law prohibiting bets on New Jersey college teams.

PlayUp and Amelco did not respond to requests for comment Monday. The $1 bet on Buttigieg was voided.

It’s not the first time this has happened.

In November 2021, the division fined the Malta-based sports betting technology company Kambi Group and Chicago-based Rush Street Interactive $1,000 apiece for taking bets on a British soccer game that was already over. And in September, it fined bet365 $33,000 for taking bets on already-completed basketball, golf and mixed martial arts events.

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Follow Wayne Parry on X at https://x.com/WayneParryAC.