FanDuel Hit with Fine Sports Betting

FanDuel Fined for Accepting Bets on Past Martial Arts Fights

By Blake Roberts Founder & Editor in Chief Updated: 24 July 2024

Blake Roberts Founder & Editor in Chief

Blake Roberts is the founder of Betting.US and is currently heading the creative team as Editor in Chief. Born and raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Blake is a great sports fan, with football and basketball being his favorite. He’s our trusted voice for all betting-related matters.

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It has been reported that sportsbook giant, FanDuel, has been hit with a fine and forced to pay out thousands of dollars after accepting bets on martial arts fights that were already over.

The sports betting operator received a relatively small fine of $2,000 but had to pay out over $230,000 in wagers after it accepted bets on fights that had taken place the previous week.

The fine was issued to the operators by regulators in New Jersey, and the incident took place on April 1st, 2022. According to reports, the operator accepts more than 30 bets on Professional Fighters League fights that had already taken place on March 25th, a week earlier. Despite this, the fights were promoted as being live events.

Not Notified by Data-Feed Providers

In a recent letter, the New Jersey Division of Gaming said that the sportsbook operator had not been notified by its data-feed providers that the matches were actually pre-recorded and not live. As a result, the operator’s trading team created betting markets manually from information received from the PFL.

New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Gina DeAnnuntis wrote in the letter,

FanDuel confirmed that its traders failed to confirm with PFL that the event had previously occurred and was being presented via a tape delay.

As a result of the oversight, a total of 26 bets were placed online with a further eight bets being placed through retail sportsbooks.

The total amount bet on the fights came to nearly $191,000. The error only came to light after a notification was received by FanDuel from the International Betting Integrity Association, which is responsible for monitoring bets for any suspicious activity.

The association contacted FanDuel to advise that the events in question had already taken place. This then led to the operators having to pay out just over $231,000 in wagers.

Updating Internal Controls

After issuing the fine to FanDuel, operators stated that the company must update its internal controls to ensure such an incident does not occur again in the future. The fine was issued back in January of this year but has only recently been made public.

According to reports, there have been other similar incidents in the past where bets have been accepted for sports events that have already taken place. This included an incident involving Kambi Group and Rush Street Interactive in 2021.

In that incident, dozens of bettors placed bets on a British football game that had already taken place the previous day. The wagers related to Marcus Rashford from Manchester United scoring a goal in a game against Liverpool. All bets were eventually canceled, and the two companies received a fine of $1000 each.

Many believe that, as a result of incidents such as these, sportsbook operators will be under increased scrutiny from regulators moving forward. Many sportsbooks have already been hit with huge fines over recent years due to regulatory breaches, and regulators across the country are becoming increasingly stringent about these oversights.