Man thought he won $82,610 on a $110 bet. But FanDuel won’t pay, citing ‘obvious pricing errors’
A New Jersey man said he plans to hire an attorney after a sportsbook refused to pay out the $80,000-plus he claims he won for a $110 bet on the Denver Broncos.
“They said their system had a glitch in it and they’re not obligated to pay for glitches,” Neward resident Anthony Prince told News 12 New Jersey, of FanDuel Sportsbook.
Prince placed the bet at the Meadowlands Racetrack with 1 minute, 10 seconds remaining in the Broncos’ game against the Oakland Raiders. Denver trailed by two but had just moved to within range for a possible game-winning field goal.
FanDuel attempted to update its live odds to show the Broncos as a -600 favorite, but an error caused Denver to remain listed as +75,000 underdogs. So Prince’s ticket showed his potential winnings to be $82,610 instead of the net $18.35 he would have won with the correct odds.
According to Price, FanDuel offered him $500 and skybox tickets for three New York Giants games, but he turned down the offer.
“The other guy said, ‘You should take what we give you because we don’t have to give you [anything] at all,’” Price told News 12. “I said, ‘Wow, for real?’”
FanDuel’s house rules state that “where a blatant or palpable error is made in offers made ... bets may be settled at the correct price at the time at which the bet was placed.”
About the Broncos game, the company said in a statement: “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.”
The matter is under investigation by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. Its regulations state that “a wagering operator shall not unilaterally rescind any wager ... without the prior approval of the Division.”
News 12 also reported of two other men who bet on the same game at around the same time using the FanDuel app. They have a screenshot that shows the app initially indicating they won $56,000; the amount was later changed to $12.
“I don’t want to place any more bets with them, just because of that simple fact that they can just adjust the outcome after the fact,” one of the men, Chris Calcano, said. “It didn’t make any sense to me.”
Prince also suggested he might take his business elsewhere in the future.
“You’d rather go to the corner bookies now,” he told News 12. “You’re not getting paid here.”
Twitter: @chewkiii
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