The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has fined Score Media and Gaming Inc., operator of theScore.Bet, CAD 200,000 after the sportsbook showed a customer cash-out offers that it then refused to pay.
The penalty is the largest monetary sanction available to the regulator. It relates to how the operator’s cash-out feature, which lets customers settle a bet early for a set amount, was presented to a customer.
The case concerned a single bet placed on 14 March 2025. The AGCO found that neither of two cash-out offers made to the customer could have been honoured as displayed.
What happened
- The customer placed a $1,000 parlay on NHL, NBA and NCAA basketball games taking place that day; a full win would have returned more than $1 million
- With one leg left, theScore.Bet offered a cash-out of about $380,000; the customer accepted straight away, but automated checks rejected it because the odds had moved
- Four minutes later a second offer of almost $100,000 was made and accepted, and was also not honoured
- The final leg lost and the customer received nothing
The regulator’s finding
The AGCO said the offers breached Standard 4.07 of the Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming, which prohibits operators from presenting players with outcomes, prizes or features that cannot be achieved. Chief executive Dr Karin Schnarr said operators must ensure that the opportunities they display can be honoured as described.
theScore has 15 days to ask for a hearing before the Licence Appeal Tribunal.
Other Ontario penalties this year
The fine follows a CAD 350,000 penalty against FanDuel over suspicious betting and a CAD 70,000 fine for supplier Booming Games over prohibited auto-play functionality. Together the cases cover both operators and suppliers, and range from betting integrity to game design and the way offers are shown to players.
