FanDuel will pay Iowa regulators $95,000 after acknowledging that its sportsbook offered wagers the state had not approved. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission approved the stipulated agreement with Betfair Interactive US LLC, FanDuel Sportsbook’s operator.
The case covers two compliance violations. During the period involved, Betfair held licenses for retail sports betting at Diamond Jo Dubuque and Diamond Jo Worth while also running FanDuel’s licensed online sportsbook in Iowa.
FanDuel faces mounting scrutiny over Iowa betting compliance
The larger penalty arose from wagers on the Philippines-based Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League. FanDuel told regulators on May 7, 2025, that it had offered MPBL betting from June 4, 2024, through April 2, 2025.
Iowa permits wagering on international professional basketball leagues only when they are their country’s top tier and are sanctioned or recognized by FIBA. The MPBL did not qualify.
Customers made 21,638 straight, parlay and round-robin bets containing MPBL selections, producing $1,189,640.93 in handle and an initial FanDuel profit of $60,692.19. FanDuel later reviewed its basketball offerings and strengthened its process for checking international leagues.
The company refunded affected Iowa customers’ net losses while leaving winning payouts intact. On July 9, 2025, FanDuel returned $154,898.99 to 1,665 customers and adjusted its July revenue filing by negative $60,110.03.
A separate commission review on July 8, 2025, found FanDuel’s Iowa retail sportsbooks had taken wagers involving yellow and red cards in international soccer. Iowa prohibits proposition bets tied to officiating decisions, including soccer cards.
FanDuel pulled those markets and began changing its filtering process. They had not appeared on its Iowa mobile sportsbook. Regulators identified one affected $134.58 parlay. Because FanDuel could not identify the bettor, it surrendered $44.86 through Iowa’s unclaimed-property process. FanDuel stopped operating Iowa retail sportsbooks on April 15, 2026.
The latest action follows a separate $125,000 Iowa penalty reported in July 2025 covering five counts involving unauthorized wagers and responsible-gambling requirements. Commission official Daryle Olsen said at that hearing:
“Five counts within a very short period of time is just too much, you know, and so I know they’re dealing with a big volume. I believe FanDuel is our number two operator in the state. But we just expect more.
“I think in fairness, the Commission has to look at how we treat our out-of-state operators versus our brick-and-mortar casinos, because we need to be consistent, and that’s all we’re trying to do. We expect more.
“I think our job is to tell them what we expect, lay out the concerns, and then hopefully they go back and fix it, and we don’t have to deal with this again.”
FanDuel spokesperson Ben Roth said then: “We take responsibility for the matters represented in the settlement before the Commission today and understand that we did not meet the high standard that we hold for ourselves.
“In response to the issues before you today, FanDuel has worked to remediate the various root causes through a combination of manual remediation efforts.
“That includes increased training, more detailed checklists and runbooks for the deployment of content, and of course, automation wherever possible to avoid the potential for manual error.
“FanDuel has addressed each issue by ensuring that no impacted customer has been adversely affected by these issues, and FanDuel has disgorged itself of any resulting revenue as a result of these.”
Under the new settlement, Betfair accepted a $50,000 penalty for the basketball violation and $45,000 for the soccer markets. The money goes to Iowa’s general fund. Betfair CFO David Jennings signed the agreement July 24, 2026, and commission Chair Amy Burkhart approved it July 27.
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