Pinnacle's policies regarding suspicious matches

We have provided some information to help address some of the negative feedback we regularly receive regarding our policy on cancelling bets. We hope you find this useful and our processes and reasons behind the policy become a little more transparent after reading.

Why do sportsbooks have an integrity department?

• To build a safer and more trustworthy platform to bet on.
• It's an increasingly important part of applying for and keeping operating licenses.
• It is in everyone’s collective interest to uncover the ‘match-fixers’.
• To have a department that operates independently from the trade floor, which ultimately makes the decisions regarding the cancelling of bets.

How do we decide when a match is suspicious?

In the extreme case where Pinnacle cancels a match, we are required to justify this decision to our licensors. This is a vital part of our operating license as gaming regulators work for the clients in this respect, not for the sportsbooks. So if a customer can prove that the sportsbook has done wrong by them, the gaming authority can revoke the operator’s license.

Line movement alone is not a good measure of if a match is fixed. All markets differ in liquidity and occasionally a €50 bet can move a line; conversely, sometimes a line can take €10,000 and barely move at all. It is much more relevant to take into consideration the accounts that are betting.

In a similar vein, the odds dropping and then a contestant playing badly is not enough evidence of match-fixing. It is indeed suspicious and may warrant further investigation, but in order to cancel a match, Pinnacle needs to show why WE think the match is not being played on a fair basis.

Making decisions based on third-party conjecture is dangerous and has no legal standing. It is much more appropriate to alert the relevant governing bodies, data companies, and national platforms of what we see, and work together to combat match-fixing.

The passing of information around this integrity community can slow down our grading process, but we feel it is worth taking our time to make the correct decision.

Please note that we do not declare that any match is ‘fixed’. We simply report suspicious betting activity to the relevant authorities, while adhering to all data protection rules.

FAQs

• Why do you only cancel losing bets?
• This isn’t true. When we decide to cancel bets on a match, we cancel all pending bets, including those on derivatives and props.
• Why do you only cancel bets after the event has finished?
• Again, this is not strictly true. As soon as we have gathered all the data required to make an informed decision, we take action. Cancelling any given match is a serious process and requires several senior people to sign off on it.
• Why did you cancel my bets when I did nothing wrong?
• We do not doubt that your bets were placed in good faith; however, we have seen a general pattern of bets on this match that lead us to believe beyond reasonable doubt that the match will not be played on a fair basis. The only fair course of action is to cancel the match in its entirety.
• Another sportsbook did not cancel my bets, why did you?
• As previously stated, we base our decision on the information that we are privy too. Pinnacle does take into consideration the feedback we receive from others within the integrity industry; however, the resolution from other sportsbooks can only go so far as to influence our own decision. This situation is rare as, in general, sportsbooks work together on cases such as this.
• Did you cancel the match because you opened a terrible line and were going to lose money?
• The scenario of Pinnacle opening a weak line in a lower liquidity market and then cancelling a large amount of winning bets after the fact is not feasible. We would NEVER cancel those bets as the risk to losing our operating license is worth infinitely more. We fully accept opening weak lines, this is part of the business.

Pinnacle has over 20 years' worth of experience in the betting industry and we have worked hard to build a solid reputation built on trust and integrity. We hope you trust us to be making the correct decision and we hope this clears up some concerns you might have.