North Carolina Fines Underdog $175,000 Over 38 Underage Accounts and bet365 $75,000 Over a Self-Exclusion Push

North Carolina's regulator has settled two self-reported cases: Underdog let 38 under-21s open sportsbook accounts, and bet365 sent a push notification to people on the state's self-exclusion list. Underdog left the market in December, which makes its fine a bill for a business that no longer operates there.

• The North Carolina State Lottery Commission fined Underdog Sports Wagering $175,000 and bet365 $75,000 at its meeting on 23 September, according to Covers
• Underdog self-reported that it failed to verify the age and identity of 38 accounts held by people under 21, eight of which placed bets, and settled the fine after cooperating with the investigation, Covers reported
• bet365 sent a push notification to account holders on the state's self-exclusion list after a technical issue left the list off its platform for "a limited amount of time", according to the same account; it also self-reported and has updated its training and documentation
• Underdog stopped taking sports bets in North Carolina on 16 December 2025, the Commission said at the time, having announced it would cease operating in the state
• The same meeting considered a policy revision on game play and wagering by commissioners and staff, which Covers says would bar commissioners from trading sports event contracts on prediction markets

Two Self-Reported Failures, Two Settlements

The enforcement update was presented to the North Carolina State Lottery Commission on 23 September by Eric Snider, its chief regulatory officer, under an agenda item naming Underdog Sports Wagering, LLC and Hillside (North Carolina), LLC, which trades as bet365. The Commission, which regulates online sports betting in North Carolina alongside the state lottery, has not yet published a written decision; the details below are from Covers' report of the meeting.

The larger penalty, $175,000, was for Underdog. The operator self-reported that it had failed to verify the age and identity of 38 accounts, allowing people under 21, the state's minimum age for sports betting, to access its sportsbook. Eight of those accounts placed bets. Underdog cooperated with the investigation and agreed the fine as a settlement, according to Covers.

bet365's $75,000 penalty concerned a single push notification. According to the regulator's account as reported by Covers, a technical issue meant the self-exclusion list was not applied to bet365's platform "for a limited amount of time", and during that window a push notification reached account holders who had excluded themselves. bet365 self-reported the breach, cooperated, and has since introduced new training and updated its documentation processes.

Underdog Was Already Gone

Underdog announced in December 2025 that it would stop offering sports wagering in North Carolina. The Commission told customers at the time that the operator would stop accepting bets on 16 December, expected to settle all open wagers by 18 December, and would convert unused balances into withdrawable funds. Covers describes the exit as a "business decision" and reports that North Carolina was Underdog's only jurisdiction for a traditional sportsbook.

The same agenda carried proposed revisions to the Commission's policy on game play and wagering compliance for commissioners and staff. Covers reports that the change would prohibit commissioners from trading sports event contracts offered by prediction markets, citing the potential conflict with their oversight role. North Carolina raised its sports betting tax to 23% this summer and added a first-of-its-kind levy on prediction markets, which Nevada later filed as evidence in its dispute with Kalshi.

Age Verification at Account Opening Is the Control That Should Never Fail

Of the two cases, Underdog's is the more serious in kind. Know-your-customer checks at account opening are the point at which a licensed sportsbook is supposed to be stronger than the unlicensed market, and 38 under-21 accounts getting through, eight of them to the point of betting, is a failure of that core control rather than of an edge case. The fine works out at about $4,600 per account. Whether that deters anyone depends on who pays it: Underdog has no sportsbook business left in the state to protect, so the settlement closes a file more than it changes behaviour. The self-report and cooperation plainly counted in its favour, and the regulator has not said how the accounts were identified or when.

One Push Notification to the Excluded Is One Too Many

bet365's breach looks smaller in scale, but it lands on the group a licensed market most needs to protect. A self-exclusion list only works if it is applied everywhere the operator touches the customer, and outbound messaging is often where it falls out, as regulators in Australia found with Dabble's 839 messages to self-excluded people this month. North Carolina has not said how many people received the notification or how long the gap lasted. A $75,000 settlement for a self-reported, short-lived technical failure signals that the Commission will fine even when an operator comes forward, which is the right incentive as long as the penalty for not coming forward is visibly larger.

Both penalties are modest against the size of the operators involved. What they establish, two and a half years into North Carolina's online market, is that its regulator is now publishing enforcement outcomes on age checks and self-exclusion, and that coming forward reduces the bill but does not remove it.