The biggest sports betting operator in Australia, Sportsbet, has faced an AU$13,0000 monetary penalty as a result of its failure to intervene at the time when a new customer went on a 24-hour betting spree several years ago.
Late last week, the Northern Territory Racing Commission published a decision notice, saying that Sportsbet was found to have allowed one of its consumers to deposit over AU$15,000 within 24 hours less than a week after the customer created their betting account with the operator in October 2019.
As a result of an investigation, the Northern Territory’s gambling regulatory body found that the company, which is currently the largest commercial sportsbook on the territory of Australia, failed to intervene until the customer in question reached the so-called “red flag” threshold after depositing over AU$20,000 in a single month. The fact that the punter managed to reach the aforementioned milestone in less than a week after he opened the account with Sportsbet was even more concerning.
It was exactly the customer who filed a complaint against the sportsbook operator, hoping that the NT Racing Commission would find that some of the wagers they placed in the period from October 1st and October 6th, 2019 were illegal, so the company would have to return some or all the customer’s money back to them. The complainant also filed a similar action against British online gambling operator bet365.
The investigation of the Northern Territory’s gambling watchdog found that Sportsbet took the correct action, eventually, but it failed to escalate the concerning punter behaviour quickly enough, which resulted in them losing thousands of dollars in their 24-hour betting spree.
Sportsbet Failed to Act in Time and Protect Punter from Losing Massive Amount of Money
Sportsbet currently holds approximately half of the betting market in Australia. In 2022, the British gambling giant that owns the brand – Flutter Entertainment – reported an annual profit of AU$1.5 billion and has also been quite vocal about its new customer protection technology, which is aimed at making the overall gambling experience of its customers safer.
A spokesperson for Sportsbet shared that the Northern Territory Racing Commission acknowledged that the sports betting company took suitable steps when suspending the customer’s account despite the delay. They also highlighted that the operator’s customer protection policies had developed since the complainant lodged their proceedings against the company. Sportsbet’s spokesperson further noted that the company’ recognised its failure to engage with the problem earlier but its safer gambling technology and its practices had advanced over the three-and-a-half years since the aforementioned matter occurred.
This is not the first time that Sportsbet faces a monetary penalty over some transgressions. In 2022, it was forced to pay a record infringement notice estimated at AU$2.5 million after the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that it had targetted over 37,000 self-excluded customers with more than 150,000 marketing text messages.
In February 2023, the gambling watchdog of the Northern Territory admitted that it had imposed much less in fines on sports betting operators in comparison to the size of the AU$50-million industry it is regulating. For the time being, the Northern Territory Racing Commission is the body that regulates almost all sportsbooks in Australia. The fine threshold remains one of the issues that are set to be addressed by the five-year gambling legislation review of the Northern Territory’s Government.
No gambling operator has been suspended by the Commission since 2018 but the regulator has noted that the threat of suspension seemed enough to improve the behaviour of gambling companies.
- Author
Olivia Cole
