Fanatics Sportsbook has been fined $20,000 in Colorado after sending promotional messages to a customer who had enrolled in the state’s sports betting self-exclusion program.
The Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission approved a settlement with the operator in August after an investigation found two separate instances in which members of Fanatics’ VIP team contacted the excluded customer with promotional offers. Fanatics acknowledged the violations and agreed to the financial penalty and additional compliance measures.
The customer entered Colorado’s self-exclusion program on January 15, 2026, choosing a five-year exclusion period. The first prohibited contact occurred on February 1, when a Fanatics VIP representative sent the individual a promotional text message.
Fanatics identified the problem shortly afterward and distributed additional guidance to its VIP staff on February 4. However, another member of the VIP team contacted the same customer with a second promotional offer on February 17.
Colorado regulators concluded that the two messages breached state requirements governing responsible gambling programs. Operators are required to prevent marketing and other gambling-related outreach to customers registered for self-exclusion.
The Colorado Division of Gaming said penalties are determined individually under its progressive disciplinary framework, taking into account factors including the number of violations, previous compliance history and steps taken by an operator to address a problem. Repeated breaches can result in penalties of up to $25,000 for each violation.
Beyond the $20,000 fine, Fanatics must review its self-exclusion procedures and determine whether other excluded customers received similar communications between January 1, 2024 and March 1, 2026. The sportsbook must provide the results of that audit to regulators.
The company also agreed to strengthen responsible gambling and regulatory-risk training for its VIP employees and provide evidence of the updated training program. Fanatics has since retrained staff and introduced changes to its product interface designed to reduce the risk of similar contacts occurring again.
Fanatics said it identified and reported the incident to regulators itself. Although the customer received the promotional messages, the underlying self-exclusion remained active, meaning the individual could not use the sportsbook to place wagers.
The case has also prompted discussion about whether financial penalties alone are an adequate response to responsible gambling failures. Jamie Glick, executive director of the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado, argued that the effectiveness of enforcement should ultimately be judged by whether it changes operator practices and prevents future incidents rather than simply by the dollar value of a fine.
Fanatics entered Colorado’s sports betting market in December 2023 following its acquisition of PointsBet’s US operations.