New FanDuel sportsbook refusing to pay customer due to "glitch"

[The Buzz]

It's a whole new world for the sports betting market in the U.S., with more than 30 new land-based sportsbooks opening in New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia and Mississippi since PASPA was abolished by the U.S. Supreme Court back in May.

As expected, there have been some early growing pains at many of these books, but what happened on Sunday at the new FanDuel sportsbook at the Meadowlands in New Jersey is starting to get some unwanted attention.

With the Denver Broncos trailing their NFL Week 2 game against the Oakland Raiders, 19-17, with 1:10 left to play, a bettor placed a live wager on the Broncos to win at odds of 750-to-1. If you know anything about live betting odds, these odds were clearly a mistake. Chances are, the odds were probably supposed to more like 7.5-to-1, not 750. Nonetheless, the bettor had a ticket in his hand that would turn his $100 bet into $82,610 if the Broncos won.

From News 12 in New Jersey:

The Broncos ended up winning with only 10 seconds left in the game. But when Prince went up to the window to collect his winnings, he said that the teller would not pay out the bet.

“They said their system had a glitch in it and they’re not obligated to pay for glitches,” Prince says.

Prince says that instead he was offered $500 and skybox seats for three Giants games. But Prince says that he declined.

“The other guy said, ‘You should take what we give you because we don’t have to give you [anything] at all.’ I said, ‘Wow, for real?’” Prince says.

A spokesperson for FanDuel says that the company is currently investigating the matter.

But Prince says that he feels cheated.

“The government is taxing it now so I thought it would be a better situation. You'd rather go to the corner bookies now. You're not getting paid here,” he says.

Prince says that he plans on getting an attorney involved. He says that he will also contact the New Jersey Division of Gaming to make a complaint.

From SportsHandle.com:

According to the New Jersey Department of Gaming’s Emergency Rules, which went into effect earlier this year, FanDuel has five calendar days to resolve the situation. From Section 13:69N-1.2(e):

A sports pool operator shall investigate each patron complaint and provide a response to the patron within five calendar days. For complaints that cannot be resolved to the satisfaction of the patron, related to patron accounts, settlement of wagers, and/or illegal activity, a copy of the complaint and licensee’s response including all relevant documentation shall be provided to the Division or New Jersey Racing Commission as applicable.

Here's a link to the story: http://newjersey.news12.com/story/39...PXgEqe.twitter

Buzzy thinks Mr. Prince should have jumped at the $500 and tickets to the next three Giants' game. What do our sportsbetting experts on the forum think?

[TheGooner]

If there has been a clear and obvious pricing error - and the sportsbook has this explained in their T&Cs - then the sportsbook usually can settle the wager at the correct price in European / Australiasian jurisdictions. There is plenty of precedent for this in most countries with established betting.

Given the situation, just one score behind with 70 seconds left in the game I would agree that 7-1 or 8-1 is correct, not 800-1, and I am sure that there will be hundreds of examples in their own odds that show this sort of pricing.

Yes - the punter should probably accept the settlement with the "sweetener" as it's likely the best deal.

But who knows how the US legal system will rule in this case - common-sense is NOT as common as most people think when getting into a court room.

[baldidiot]

In this UK this could easily be covered by a palpable error clause in the terms.

Like gooner says though, the US is a whole different ball game when it comes to lawsuits (remember the guy who sued mcdonalds for not telling him his coffee would be hot...).

[Progger]

http://newjersey.news12.com/story/39...on-sports-bets

The negative press will cost more than this, much more.
Greedy company had the opportunity to turn a misstake to more customers and cash...

[PromoteCasino]

The negative press will cost more than this, much more.
Greedy company had the opportunity to turn a misstake to more customers and cash...

Possibly, but if they paid him out on this bet that would set a president for future errors. We all know in the USA that they quote previous cases to determine liability. Of course, they can stress in their terms any pricing error will not be honored.

[Sherlock]

http://newjersey.news12.com/story/39...on-sports-bets

The negative press will cost more than this, much more.
Greedy company had the opportunity to turn a misstake to more customers and cash...

There is no greed involved. Common live betting mistake. Odds 750-1 would be appropriate at 1:10 to go, Oak 1st down, 10 point lead and Denver 3 timeouts or something like that.

Errors in live betting simply happen. 99% of bookies cancel the wager. The only one who I know who do not are Thegreek and used to be Pinnacle (but they close the account right after that or gave a bettor choice: keep acct open and cancel or pay out and close).

I do not comment what is right or wrong but daily are many wagers cancelled and daily the savvy bettors try their luck and have a shot on bookies. It is a normal pro-gambling game. Cheater (the bettor) is trying to make money on crooks (the casino). He knows very well he might be caught. If the bettor is unlucky and his bet is cancelled he might up and there get a bonus: attention of press.

The bookie was relatively nice in terms of industry standards.

[The Buzz]

Here is FanDuel's statement regarding the matter:

“The wager in question involved an obvious pricing error inadvertently generated by our in-game pricing system. Specifically, near the end of the Sunday afternoon game between the Denver Broncos and the Oakland Raiders, the odds for the Broncos (who had the ball and were trailing by two points at the time) to win were +340 (bet $100 to win $340). The next play, the Broncos completed a 26 yard pass to position themselves to attempt a 36 yard field goal to take the lead in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, clearly positioning the Broncos as the favorite to win. At that moment in the game, our system updated the odds and erroneously posted a price of +75,000 on the Broncos to win the game (bet $100 to win $75,000) when the correct odds for the Broncos to win the game at that point in time were -600 (i.e., bet $600 to win $100). A small number of bets were made at the erroneous price over an 18 second period. We honored all such bets on the Broncos to win the game at the accurate market price in accordance with our house rules and industry practice, which specifically address such obvious pricing errors. We have reached out to all impacted customers and apologized for the error.”

https://newsroom.fanduel.com/2018/09...rs-vs-broncos/

[LeeGwilliam]

Well, they've set a terrible precedent and paid it out.

https://newsroom.fanduel.com/2018/09...pricing-error/

[Sherlock]

They have not set a precedent. Precedents have been set long time ago. Bet365 for example is doing exactly the same for over a decade.

[LeeGwilliam]

They have not set a precedent. Precedents have been set long time ago. Bet365 for example is doing exactly the same for over a decade.

It's a relatively new vertical in a relatively new market and a relatively new operator - that's mostly why I was calling this a precedent, as had already been noted in the thread before they made this decision - it's not the norm to pay out in this situation.

[Sherlock]

I do not know what you call a "vertical". US market is old market and nothing changes with legalization of it. Bovada is thrilling and they just confirmed to me they are not going anywhere. I doubt Bovada as US leader is doing something else than either cancelling obvious errors or honoring the bets at the correct odds.

From the 2 choices: cancelling the bet or getting at least something the Fanduel has chosen the one more favorable for the bettor.

I hope that we all agree that it is not realistic to expect when bookie sets odds instead of -100000/1.001 to +100000/1000.0 (an usual error) and someone bets 1 million on it, that the casino has to bankrupt or pay 1 billion.

[LeeGwilliam]

I doubt Bovada as US leader is doing something else than either cancelling obvious errors or honoring the bets at the correct odds.

This was the point I was trying to make, it's normal for the bookie to cancel when there's an error...

We seem to be making the same argument from the opposite ends of the different tennis courts Sherlock!