Tennessee online sports betting operator ZenSports is facing scrutiny

In Tennessee, online sports betting operator ZenSports is facing scrutiny for a recent regulatory fine and allegedly limiting a high-stakes bettor. ZenSports received a $60,000 fine from the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council (SWC) for having insufficient funds in their reserve account needed to cover winning bets. The SWC is the sports betting regulator in Tennessee. During a meeting in May, the SWC reported that ZenSports had an insufficiency of hundreds of thousands of dollars in its cash reserves. Due to concerns within the company, ZenSports’ operating license was only renewed on a conditional basis in June. They still need to go through an audit with the SWC in the coming months. ZenSports chief compliance officer Eddie Ponce had this to say.

“We added staff to our finance area, and now they’re manually reviewing on a daily basis … regrettably, we didn’t have that in place,” said Eddie Ponce. “We’ve reinvested more into that area, and we’re incredibly confident it will not happen again, so I can assure you, you will not be seeing us on this issue in the future.”

A high-stakes bettor was extremely frustrated with ZenSports

Recently, a report from The Center Square detailed the case of one bettor named Felix Baum. Allegedly, Baum was offered a lucrative sign-up offer by ZenSports which he accepted, Baum noted that he would regularly go on the platform to wager tens of thousands of dollars per bet. However, he would usually run into unusual activity when trying to withdraw funds from his account. His requests did not go through initially and he was eventually contacted by ZenSports’ chief operating officer to keep the money in his account. Eventually, Baum says he was able to get his funds but he was then limited to much smaller wagers on the app. 

It’s not uncommon for betting apps to limit winning bettors. However, the COO reaching out to a bettor advising him to keep the funds in his account is out of the ordinary. Additionally, ZenSports sent the tax form for his winnings late and Baum had to refile his taxes because of it. Tennessee online betting operator ZenSports has some explaining to do.