FanDuel forced to pay out more than $230,000 in wagers for accepting bets on pre-recorded PFL fights
FanDuel has found itself in hot water. The prominent sportsbook company was penalized for accepting wagers on mixed martial arts bouts that had already happened a week prior.
In 2022, FanDuel accepted bets on PFL bouts that were supposed to be broadcast on April 1 but had actually taken place on March 25. The PFL Challengers Series card was aired on Fubo TV with a tape delay. As a result, after taking 34 bets, it was fined $2,000 and had to reimburse more than $230,000 in wagers.
FanDuel agreed to pay the punishment, which was imposed by New Jersey gambling regulators. However, the company did not release a statement about the penalty.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement revealed in a letter released on Monday that FanDuel claimed it was unaware that the PFL card was pre-recorded and would only air later, having received no notification from its data-feed sources. In light of this, FanDuel used data from PFL to establish manual betting markets.
The New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Gina DeAnnuntis recently released a statement, saying:
''FanDuel confirmed that its traders failed to confirm with PFL that the event had previously occurred and was being presented via a tape delay.'' [H/t: MMA Fighting]
FanDuel reported to the authorities that it received $190,904 in betting on the events on April 1, 2022, including 26 online and eight retail wagers. The International Betting Integrity Association, which monitors sports betting transactions and looks for unusual or suspicious conduct, then notified FanDuel that the events it was selling odds on had already taken place.
The state claimed that FanDuel paid out $231,094 for the wagers. The regulators issued the penalties on January 2, but they weren't made public until this week. The authorities also mandated FanDuel to update its internal controls to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
Dana White mocks PFL following UFC 300 in Las Vegas
Dana White poked fun at PFL after the organization seemingly had a rough week back in April. PFL put on an event in Las Vegas the day before UFC 300, the milestone pay-per-view which went down at the T-Mobile Arena in Sin City.
During the UFC 300 post-fight press conference, White was asked about the PFL event that took place one day prior. The UFC CEO pounced on the opportunity to mock the rival organization, revealing that they were selling "buy two, get two" tickets on fight week:
''You know PFLator [PFL-Bellator] was here [in Las Vegas] on Friday... I didn't know until fu**ing Friday. They were selling tickets buy two, get two free. I'm not busting on them, that's a f**ing fact. They put out a memo buy two, get two free. You're having a bad fu**ing week if those are the memos you're putting out. There were more people in my fu**ing green room tonight than there were at the [PFL] fight."
Check out Dana White's comments below (19:43):