Fanatics Sportsbook Faces Adjudicatory Hearing in Massachusetts For Collegiate Wager Violation

Fanatics Sportsbook is dealing with an adjudicatory hearing in Massachusetts following a forbidden collegiate wager offense that happened in December. Betting on in-state college groups not involved in a collegiate competition is not allowed in the Old Bay State.


Still, a $50 futures wager was put on college football's Fenway Bowl between Boston College and SMU at 5:55 p.m. on Dec. 5. Upon discovering the substantial wager on December 6, Fanatics promptly notified the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, canceled the bet, and refunded the $50 to the client.


Fanatics informed the MGC that a toggle switch enabling or disallowing collegiate wagering was erroneously turned on by a brand-new worker, and Fanatics did not carry out a second level of validation.


The video game was arranged for Dec. 28 so the mistake was captured weeks ahead of time, and the infraction was dealt with in-house at Fanatics.


'Human mistake'


The hearing, where Fanatics can provide evidence, will happen in February. The commission could choose to take legal action and/or fine the online sportsbook.


The event was discussed at the MGC's conference last month, however no ruling was made and it didn't appear like much would come of it at the time.


However, after getting a report from the examinations and enforcement bureau on Thursday, the commissioners decided they required questions responded to on how the "human error" happened, what was done to the worker who made the error, and what actions Fanatics has taken to make sure it doesn't take place again.


"I'm kind of thinking about just how much of this is automated and how much is human error," Commissioner Jordan Maynard stated. "The toggle switch on and off for college sports has troubled me from The first day. Seeing how we can alleviate those moving forward for them is something of interest to me.