Getty Images
Traina Thoughts: FanDuel Refuses to Pay Man Who Won (Questionable) Wager
1. Legalized sports betting is off to a rough start in New Jersey.
A man who placed an in-game bet on the Broncos to beat the Raiders on Sunday says FanDuel, operating out of the Meadowlands, has refused to pay him.
Now, the man clearly got a wrong line on the game because he got Denver at +75,000 while they were only down by two points with 70 seconds remaining in the game. Clearly, that was not the right line, but you know how the saying goes: "A bet is a bet."
But when the guy in question bets $110 to win $82,610, the sportsbooks don't want to honor that tradition.
FanDuel has yet to officially comment on the story, but the bettor claims he was told the system "had a glitch."
Glitch or not, FanDuel should pay for several reasons. One, they took the bet at the window. So while this was a computer glitch, the person involved in the transaction was too clueless to realize it was a bad line. Two, it's going to be a terrible look for FanDuel if it doesn't pay the bet. Three, with sports betting just becoming legalized in New Jersey, this still could scare off potential customers.
And memo to FanDuel: If a guy is entitled to $82,000 in cash and you offer $500 and tickets to a New York Giants game instead, you might as well spit in his face.
UPDATE: FanDuel has released the following statement about the incident: "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."
2. ESPN put together a new broadcast crew for Monday Night Football, but it hasn't helped the ratings so far.
3. Impressive job by Cubs analyst Jim DeShaies on Tuesday night, when predicted Kris Bryant's home run a second before it happened.
4. R.I.P.
5. Everyone knows the Orioles have had a historically bad season, but here's a stat to show you just how bad: Baltimore is SIXTY games behind the Red Sox. The last team to trail by 60 or more games in the division was the 1962 New York Mets.
MLB
6. The latest SI Media Podcast features an interview with Gus Johnson. The Fox Sports lead college football and college basketball play-by-play man covered many topics in the wide-ranging conversation, including:
- Why he gave up Twitter
- Being a fan favorite
- Critics who say he's too loud and over the top
- His overall philosophy when calling a game
- His first big break
- His famous NCAA Tournament calls
- Whether all his calls are spontaneous
- The longevity of good play-by-play broadcasters
- His favorite sport to cover
- His favorite analysts who he's worked with
- Whether he misses calling NFL action
- His opinion on players taking a knee during the national anthem
- His biggest pet peeve with college football
- Not loving the "Gus-gasm" phrase
- His biggest on-air gaffe, which involved quite a mix up of people
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on iTunes.
7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: Jack Ryan meets Dwight Schrute in this great mashup.
Traina Thoughts is the best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts right here.And make sure to listen to and subscribe to the SI Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina.
IN CLOSING: People are worried we may not survive a Donald Trump presidency. I'm worried we may not survive Clay Matthews's roughing-the-passer penalty.
