Underdog and bet365 fined over North Carolina betting breaches
North Carolina gambling regulators have fined Underdog and bet365 a combined $250,000 for separate sports betting compliance breaches involving underage gambling and self-excluded customers.
Underdog agreed to pay $175,000 after failing to properly verify the age and identity of 38 sportsbook accounts.
Eight of those accounts subsequently placed bets despite belonging to customers aged under 21, with this the legal betting age in North Carolina.
The failures occurred while Underdog was operating a conventional sportsbook in the state.
The company subsequently surrendered its North Carolina sportsbook licence in December as part of what it described as a business decision and has increasingly focused on fantasy sports and prediction-market products.
Underdog self-reported the violations and cooperated with the regulator’s investigation.
Separately, bet365 has paid a $75,000 civil penalty after improperly contacting customers enrolled in gambling self-exclusion programmes.
The global betting operator sent a push notification to account holders who were on its self-exclusion list, while other excluded customers were also contacted.
Regulators were told a technical problem meant the self-exclusion list was not correctly added to bet365’s platform for a limited period.
bet365 self-reported the incident, fixed the technical problem, introduced additional training and updated its documentation processes.
The penalties were disclosed during a meeting of the North Carolina State Lottery Commission.
The Commission is also considering another potentially significant change involving prediction markets.
Officials are considering prohibiting gaming regulators from personally trading sports event contracts offered by prediction-market platforms where those contracts overlap with sports regulated by the Commission.
Chief regulatory officer Eric Snider said the proposal was intended to address potential conflicts arising from regulators’ access to non-public information.
“It’s not a blanket prohibition on Kalshi or Polymarket or any of these federally licensed prediction markets,” Snider said.
“It’s focused on those sports event contracts.”
The Commission is expected to consider adoption of the policy in December, with this just the latest in a string of concerns being brought forward by regulators surrounding prediction markets.
