(AP) Atlantic City, New Jersey Being able to wager on a game after it has already concluded is not something that happens very often, but when it does, it might seem like a sports gambler’s paradise.
Another instance of this occurred in Atlantic City, where a bookmaker was punished for accepting $25,000 in wagers on boxing contests, college basketball games, and hockey games after they had ended.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement fined William Hill Sportsbook $20,000 for placing incorrect bets in 2022 and 2023 in a decision made public last week.
After identifying the mistakes, the business canceled the majority of the wagers. Others, however, had already been paid to clients.
In Atlantic City, William Hill runs retail sportsbooks at the Tropicana, Caesars, and Harrah’s casinos. Messages for comment on Friday and Monday were not answered by Caesars Entertainment, the parent firm of the casinos.
Documents from the enforcement division show that on February 23 and 24, 2022, 42 wagers were placed on 12 college basketball games through in-person kiosks after the outcomes were known. Before realizing the mistake, William Hill paid out just over $5,000 to consumers on six bets. The customers received their original wagers back, and the remaining bets were void.
A request for comment on Monday was not immediately answered by London-based OpenBet, the sportsbook content provider that William Hill blamed for the incident.
Illegal wagers on two boxing fights were made possible by similar mistakes. William Hill advertised that a boxing contest between Chris Kongo and Sebastian Formella would begin at noon on June 11, 2022, and it accepted wagers on the bout. But the game started at 11:15 a.m. and ended at 11:55 a.m. William Hill placed wagers on a bout between Denzel Bentley and Kieran Smith on April 15, 2023, after it had also concluded. The bout started at 11:55 a.m. and finished with a knockout 45 seconds later, despite the corporation listing it as a noon start.
Amelco, a sports betting technology business based in London, was also fined $10,000 by the division for infractions, which included permitting sportsbook PlayUp to wager on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s election as the future president of the United States in March 2022. Political betting was prohibited at the time the wager was placed, but recent court rulings permitted it during last month’s election.
Sportradar and Amelco served as PlayUp’s sportsbook suppliers. Amelco accused Sportadar of incorrectly categorizing the U.S. presidential election as an authorized betting market in documents submitted to the enforcement division.
In addition, PlayUp violated a state statute that forbids wagers on New Jersey college teams by accepting two wagers totaling about $700 on a basketball game at Seton Hall University on January 18, 2023.
Requests for comment on Monday were not immediately answered by any of the three businesses. Buttigieg’s $1 wager was canceled.
This is not the first instance of it.
The division penalized Rush Street Interactive of Chicago and Kambi Group, a sports betting technology company based in Malta, $1,000 each in November 2021 for placing wagers on a British soccer match that had already ended. Additionally, it fined bet365 $33,000 in September for placing wagers on mixed martial arts, basketball, and golf events that had previously concluded.
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Wayne Parry can be followed on X at https://x.com/WayneParryAC.
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