Tabcorp fined A$262,000 by ACMA over online in-play betting violations
Operator to pay nine-figure penalty after accepting more than 850 in-play bets across 69 tennis matches over a six- month period in 2023
Tabcorp has been fined A$262,000 (£133,857) by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) over “concerning” in-play betting violations.
The ACMA’s investigation found the operator accepted 854 in-play bets across 69 tennis matches between April and October 2023.
Online in-play wagers, classed as any bet placed on a sporting event after it has commenced, is prohibited in Australia under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.
Tabcorp self-reported it had accepted in-play bets on five sporting events between 7 April and 15 May 2023 to the Victorian Gaming and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC), with the regulator then informing ACMA on 9 October 2023.
Subsequently, Tabcorp advised it had accepted 35 in-play bets on one event in April 2023, and that between May 2023 and October 2023, 828 in-play bets were accepted across 69 events on 45 individual days.
On 5 July 2024, the operator further communicated it had accepted nine in-play bets on one event at the end of June, although these were placed via its customer call centre and not online.
Tabcorp attributed the violation to a technical bug in its operating system, which first occured in April 2023 but was not fixed until October the same year.
Tabcorp claimed the issue arose due to a “mix of reasons, including human error, system error and inaccurate information from third-party providers”.
The tech error, as per ACMA’s investigation, was ruled as the group’s third-party partner was “sending messages for time change and live activation simultaneously, instead of sending these as separate messages”.
In turn, this caused markets for these events to miss the live activation message as Tabcorp’s systems could not handle receiving two messages at the same time.
While the fix was put in place in October 2023, Tabcorp confirmed further errors occurred after that date as 13 in-play bets across two events were approved.
This was escalated to the third-party partner, with a further fix made in January 2024 to increase the separation from pre-match to in-play events from 2.25 seconds to 2.5 seconds.
Tabcorp also completed an internal investigation and likewise its third-party supplier conducted its own review.
The ACMA also noted Tabcorp voided the bets in question, minimising the loss to consumers.
On top of paying the fine, Tabcorp has also advised ACMA about controls it has put in place to limit the risk of in-play bets being accepted in the future.
The company had previously been formally warned by the ACMA in November 2021 for accepting in-play bets on a US college basketball game.
ACMA member Carolyn Lidgerwood said: “In-play betting increases access to gambling opportunities and exacerbates the risks of gambling harm, as people can place bets with high frequency on multiple outcomes during sporting events.
“There has been significant growth in online sports betting in recent years and it’s important all online wagering services have systems in place so illegal in-play bets are not accepted.
“Tabcorp is a major wagering operator and it is concerning it took some six months for the system error to be identified and fixed.”
Back in August, Tabcorp was handed a A$4.6m (£2.4m) fine by the VGCCC over repeated responsible gambling and gambling-related harm prevention failings within the state.
This followed on from an A$370,000 penalty issued by the same regulator in June for allowing minors to gamble.