Lucky Break on Prop Bet Leads to Two Penalties in New Jersey

Imagine the results are just out, and you are still able to bet. It’s more or less every bettor’s dream, and it’s precisely what happened in New Jersey, with 86 fortuitous bettors able to place a bunch of split-second wagers on an event that had already been completed. Unfortunately, this is not something that regulators appreciate.

The 86 people had their bets voided, and the two companies involved in the case received penalties from the state’s gaming regulators. The case was detailed earlier this month in documents released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) which weighed in on the situation. 

The regulator’s investigation concluded with two fines issued to Kambi Group, a Maltese operator, and Rush Street Interactive, operating out of Chicago. Both were fined $1,000 each.

Proposition Bets Are Best

The case with the 86 bettors involves a special prop bet made on whether Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford would be able to score against Liverpool and dates back to May 13, 2021. Rashford did, and that was good news for anyone who wagered on it, but a mistake on the end of Kambi had the event listed as starting on May 14. 

As a result, sharp bettors thought that they had gotten their hands on a value betting situation, knowing that the operator messed up. However, the mistake was on the supplier’s end, which automatically challenged the validity of the wagers. 

Regulators usually treat such cases differently, but the majority agree that any wagers predicated on incorrect information must be voided. Some operators have tried honoring wagers in situations like these, thinking that it will be the lesser evil, but as watchdogs have pointedly noted, the goal is to avoid situations such as those.

The bets didn’t result in much profit for either party. Collectively the 86 gamblers bagged $15,000, perhaps realizing that betting too much would be cheeky or might even alert the companies to what was going on. 

A Bit of a Faux Pas on Kambi and Rush Street’s Part

And while voiding the wager is definitely the right thing to do in certain cases, RSI and Kambi jumped the gun on this one and did not seek an official approval by New Jersey’s enforcement division, prompting a bit of a kerfuffle. 

However, Rush Street Interactive did report the issue to the regulator, as the company is required per the license agreement. A company spokesperson, Lisa Johnson, had this to add:

“Our partners and we take compliance seriously, and after the partner informed us that one of their millions of betting markets was left open after the European soccer game concluded, RSI self-reported to the NJDGE and agreed to pay the $1,000 penalty.”

RSI spokesperson Lisa Johnson

Kambi took the news proactively, using the case to improve its own quality assurance processes for members of its trading team. Moving forward, all members are required to get secondary approval from a supervisor before they can punch in any data manually.