Three wagers totaling $11 are going to cost FanDuel $10,000 in fines.
On Thursday, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) voted to enforce the recommendation from the group’s Investigation and Enforcement Bureau (IEB), but not without some feedback.
FanDuel allowed three wagers on BC March Madness futures
The wagers in question were three wagers on Boston College’s men’s basketball team’s performance in the NCAA Men’s National Championship tournament. While the ban on wagering on in-state college teams is lifted in Massachusetts for specialty tournaments, such as March Madness, that ban is only supposed to be lifted once a team is officially in the field.
In this instance, when FanDuel opened the betting action on the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) tournament, it inadvertently opened the wagering opportunity on March Madness even though Boston College was not technically in the field.
In the end, the wagers were flagged, voided, refunded and self-reported to the MGC. In this instance, Boston College did not make the NCAA tournament, instead playing through two rounds of the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) before being eliminated.
Commissioners offer feedback on future violations
During conversations about the recommendation, Commissioner Bradford Hill erroneously said he believed this team was clearly going to the tournament, but noted that there are often instances where itis clear a team is one of the top teams that year and will be receiving an at-large bid into the field. With that in mind, he wants regulators to look at the phrasing of the regulation to see if there is room to allow for futures wagers in certain circumstances.
Commissioner Nakisha Skinner also had feedback for the IEB, asking if $10,000 is the floor for fines when it comes to regulatory violations. She acknowledged the commissioners told the team they wanted to set a certain tone when it comes to violations.
“Even though the commission has set a high priority for statutory violations, I do want to recognize this was an incident that involved three wagers for a total of $11. And I just want to make sure as we go forward with any recommendation from the IEB we consider these circumstances and, sort of, the degree of violations,” she suggested. She went on to emphasize she wants to ensure the penalty is “proportionate” to the violation.
MGC in the process of determining several regulatory fines
The MGC levied a $10,000 penalty against Fanatics for taking a $50 wager on a Boston College football game in December 2023.
Skinner’s concerns are top of mind for the commission, which has to consider several upcoming cases regarding sports betting operator violations. Most notably, the group recently concluded a hearing regarding DraftKings violating the state ban on credit card funding for over a year. DraftKings argued it did not understand the scope of the statute included credit car deposits placed in states besides Massachusetts, but several commissioners pushed back, noting that, in their mind, the language of the statute was crystal clear.
