PointsBet Canada is facing a five-day licence suspension from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) for failing to report suspicious bets placed on former NBA player Jontay Porter in 2024.
In a first for Ontario’s regulated iGaming industry, the provincial gambling regulator has issued a Notice of Proposed Order to suspend PointsBet’s iGaming registration for a period of five days.
The suspension is the result of PointsBet’s alleged systemic failure to properly monitor, detect, document and report suspicious betting patterns related to the 2024 bet-rigging scheme involving former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who was given a lifetime ban for serious violations of the NBA’s gambling rules.
In early 2024, after allegations of insider betting emerged involving Porter, the AGCO directed all Ontario-regulated sportsbooks to confirm whether they had offered bets on Porter and if they had detected and reported any suspicious betting activity.
PointsBet, after significant delay, advised the AGCO it had not offered any such bets.
Last October, the public release of a US Department of Justice indictment revealed the Porter case formed part of a broader insider betting scheme.
The AGCO required all regulated operators to reconfirm whether any suspicious betting had occurred on Porter markets. In response to this further inquiry – eighteen months after its initial response – PointsBet acknowledged for the first time that it had indeed offered betting on Porter in those games.
Upon obtaining and reviewing PointsBet’s wagering data, the AGCO confirmed the indications of suspicious betting that was central to the scheme uncovered in 2024.
“Safeguarding the integrity of sports and Ontario’s sports betting market is a top priority for the AGCO,” said Dr. Karin Schnarr, AGCO CEO and Registrar. “We require all operators to have robust systems and comprehensive staff training in place to reliably detect and report suspicious activity. Our regulatory framework is clear – operators must be equipped to detect and effectively respond to integrity risks, and we will take appropriate action when these standards are not met.”
This is not the first time the AGCO has sanctioned PointsBet.
In May 2022, the AGCO issued the operator a monetary penalty for advertising and inducement-related violations and in November 2023, another monetary penalty for violations of Ontario’s responsible gambling standards.
PointsBet has the the right to appeal the AGCO’s action within 15 days to the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT), an adjudicative body that is part of Tribunals Ontario and independent of the AGCO.
Shares in Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) closed 1.10 per cent lower at A$0.90 per share in Sydney earlier Friday.