Inquiry into Kyle Hudson’s death

Kyle Hudson was just 18 when one of his betting accounts was given a monthly deposit limit of $1 million, but two years later another bookmaker blacklisted him not for his own safety, but because he won too much.

Entain, the British-based company that operates Ladbrokes and Neds in Australia, found that the university student in the grip of a gambling addiction was betting “on both sides of the line”, so staff ensured his account was kept away from promotions such as bonus betting to protect their profits.

On the second day of the inquest into Hudson’s suicide on July 6, 2021, the Victorian Coroner’s Court also heard evidence that when he was just 18, Hudson was able to set a $1 million monthly deposit limit on his account at online sports betting company bet365, no questions asked.

Michael Horton, chief executive of overseas bet365-based Hillside (Australian New Media) Pty Limited, told the inquiry that when Hudson opened his account in 2018, the $1 million monthly deposit was a pre-populated value in the drop-down menu for any user making an account.

“Do you agree that a deposit limit of $1 million per month is not an effective tool for an 18-year-old to manage his gambling?” asked Stephanie Clancy, the attorney assisting the coroner.

Horton responded, “Yes,” and noted that the million-dollar deposit option has since been removed.

Victorian coroner Paul Lawrie is investigating several factors, including Hudson’s frequent interactions with online betting agencies and how his gambling history may have contributed to his decision to end his life when he was just 22 years old.

Christina Baek, chief compliance officer at Australia’s $6 billion Entain Group, said the investigation had blocked Hudson’s access to bonus bets and promotional offers after staff determined his behavior was “not in keeping with the spirit of the promotional offer” and admitted he had used the benefits to his advantage.

“After all, [Hudson was] Using a combination of a bonus and his own money, Baek said he bets that both parties will ultimately make a win or profit.

“Where we see customers using them [bonuses] “We usually impose a promotional restriction in some sort of systemic or complex way.”

The inquest was told that Hudson, who had four accounts with Ladbrokes and Neds, used bonus promotions around 12 times over 16 months to hedge his bets, which led to the company placing him on “promotions limited status”.

Internal records shown to the investigation also revealed that Entain staff moved Hudson to “challenging” status overnight; this is a label often given to clients who have achieved a high level of winning in a particular sport or market.

In Hudson’s case, it was a streak of betting on women’s basketball.

The inquest was told that while Hudson’s privileges and bonus bets were quickly restricted, staff never placed a deposit limit on his gambling and continued to take his money until his death, despite betting thousands of dollars on bets for several weeks.

The company also failed to act when he became increasingly distraught after promotional restrictions were placed on his account.

The inquest heard that rather than viewing Hudson’s repeated and distressed demands for his bonuses to be reinstated as a red flag, Entain saw it as an attempt to restart his previous training.

In a series of emails read in court, Hudson repeatedly asked when promotions and bonus bets would be restored to his account.

“How can I get my account reactivated with promotions?” he wrote in an email. “I’ve been loyal and spent a lot of money on this account. I don’t know how else to do it.”

“I want to know why and how I can change this because I have tried and tried,” he wrote in another email.

Two months before he committed suicide, Hudson wrote in another email: “I was wondering what my threshold for getting promotions back would be?”

An Entain representative told him “the account will remain restricted until we see a reasonable betting pattern.”

On the first day of the inquest on Monday, the court was told that Hudson had placed around $900,000 worth of bets in his lifetime; these bets involved repeated betting and re-betting between 2017 and 2021.

Hudson’s excessive gambling triggered a behavior warning at Sportsbet on average every six weeks; Documents submitted to the court showed he placed almost 1,000 bets in his first six months of operation at the betting giant.

Once, Sportsbet’s internal alarm was triggered after depositing $3,000 in a week. Over a four-year period, Hudson was contacted directly 37 times following internal warnings about his behavior.

During the same period, it was fueled by nearly 500 incentives from various gambling companies, including more than 300 from Sportsbet.

Sportsbet customer operations manager Sarah Rizzo said Monday that the company’s procedures have changed since Hudson’s death in 2021 and that his behavior will now trigger 70 warnings, some of which could lead to deposit blocks and mandatory deposit limits.

On the day he committed suicide at the family home in Melbourne’s inner-west, Hudson placed two online bets worth more than $6000.

Hours after losing both bets, he Googled suicide methods on his laptop.

Hudson’s mother found her son dead in the shed that evening and tried desperately to revive him.