A New Jersey bettor placed a $110 wager at the FanDuel Sportsbook when they posted an incorrect line. The bet would have won $82,000. FanDuel refused to honor the bet, saying the bad odds were due to a glitch and that they were not required to pay out the winnings on "obvious pricing errors." Rules vary from book to book — some outlets offer similar policies to FanDuel's argument, while other books operate with the understanding that "tickets go as written." On Thursday, FanDuel announced that it had reversed course, and would honor the $82,000 payout. UPDATE: On Thursday, FanDuel announced that the company would honor Prince's $82,000 payout, as well as the payouts of other bettors that got a ticket at the erroneously inflated price. "Above all else, sports betting is supposed to be fun," the company said in a statement Thursday. "As a result of a pricing error this weekend, it wasn't for some of our customers." EARLIER: After the Supreme Court's decision to lift the federal ban on sports betting, states have been eager to get in on the action. But as one New Jersey gambler found out the hard way, some kinks are still being worked out. According to News 12 New Jersey, Anthony Prince placed a $110 in-game wager on the Denver Broncos on Sunday at the FanDuel Sportsbook at the Meadowlands Racetrack. At the time of his bet, the Broncos were down 19-17, but driving for the game-winning field goal. As David Purdum wrote at ESPN, FanDuel had attempted to update the live odds to make the Broncos -600 favorites to win the game after moving into the red zone in the game's final seconds, but due to an error in the live-odds feed, the Broncos posted as 750/1 underdogs instead. Prince caught the line at the right moment, placing a $110 bet that would have netted $82,610. But after Denver sent the game-winning field goal through the uprights, Prince was informed that his wager would not be paid out. Instead, FanDuel offered him approximately $500, along with tickets to three Giants games. "They said their system had a glitch in it and they're not obligated to pay for glitches," Prince told News 12 New Jersey. Prince said that he planned on getting an attorney to help with the matter, and was not inclined to accept FanDuel's offer of tickets and a $500 payout. "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?'" FanDuel responded in a statement, saying it was well within its rights due to the glitch. "A small number of bets were made at the erroneous price over an 18-second period," FanDuel said. "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." Different sportsbooks handle situations like this differently. As Purdum notes, in the United Kingdom, mistakes in the odds are referred to as "palpable errors" or "palps" and usually result in the sportsbook voiding the bet. In Las Vegas, things can work a bit differently. Jay Kornegay, VP of Race and Sports Operations at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, told Business Insider that at his property if a bettor has a ticket, the bet is live. "In our world, our policy is 'tickets go as written.'" Kornegay told Business Insider. "And that goes both ways. We've made errors — we make thousands of updates and changes every single day, so there's going to be errors made." "For example, a few years back we had LSU playing Northwestern State — not Northwestern. When you put a game into the computer, it's automatically a pick'em until you put the line in. We accidentally turned the game on, and people were betting at pick'em. Before we caught it, we had a few thousand dollars on it." While that situation was a boon to those who were able to get their wager in before the Westgate realized its error — LSU won easily, 49-3 — Kornegay said that both bettors and bookmakers are obligated to honor all tickets "It works both ways — when customers come up and say, 'Hey I wanted the Broncos, I got the Raiders,' — whatever it might be, tickets go as written. It's unfortunate when these situations come up, but it's impossible to avoid them. We reduce those situations as much as we can, but once that ticket is written, it's live." For FanDuel, the company's official rules state that when "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. That said, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement is investigating the situation, according to ESPN, and the current regulations in the state say "A wagering operator shall not unilaterally rescind any wager ... without the prior approval of the Division." While no book likes to pay out $82,000 on an error, the decision to void the bet has led some lousy PR for FanDuel. Had FanDuel elected to pay, it's likely that the company would have received a string of good press, with more potential sports bettors encouraged that FanDuel would honor all bets.<doc-sep>New Jersey gambling regulators are investigating whether FanDuel’s sports book should pay out more than $82,000 to a man who was given exorbitant odds for the Denver Broncos to win Sunday against the Oakland Raiders. A clerk hands a sports betting ticket to a gambler at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, N.J., minutes after it started accepting sports bets, July 14, 2018. (Wayne Parry/AP) ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — New Jersey gambling regulators are investigating whether FanDuel’s sports book should pay out more than $82,000 to a man who was given exorbitant odds for the Denver Broncos to win Sunday against the Oakland Raiders. Anthony Prince of Newark made his bet and was handed a ticket at incredible 750-1 odds with about a minute left in the game, as the Broncos trailed by 2 points on their final drive. Denver kicked a field goal with 6 seconds left to win 20-19, capping a second half comeback that started with the Broncos down 12-0. FanDuel says its system should have calculated his odds at 1-6, meaning a bettor would have to wager $600 in order to win $100. Prince bet $110 on the Broncos but was stopped when he went to collect from FanDuel’s betting window at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey. “They said, ‘Oh, we can’t honor this ticket,’ ” Prince told News12 New Jersey, which first reported the story. “I said, ‘Why? This is fair and square.’ They said the system had a glitch in it and they’re not obligated to pay for glitches.” FanDuel said in a statement that its system malfunctioned and it is not obligated to pay out on an obvious error. “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,” FanDuel said in its statement. “We have reached out to all impacted customers and apologized for the error.” How the matter is handled could have far-reaching effects on the budding sports betting industry in New Jersey at a time when new sports books are opening in some other states and lawmakers throughout the country consider whether to also jump in for the potential tax revenue. New Jersey challenged a federal ban and won a U.S. Supreme Court decision in May that cleared the way for gambling on games to expand beyond Nevada. The idea that player money and winnings would be protected and regulated by the state has been a major selling point among sports betting supporters who contrasted legal gambling with shady offshore betting sites where players often have little recourse in disputes. But gambling regulators also have policies in place to void obvious errors in sports bets. David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, said the agency is investigating whether there are grounds to compel FanDuel to pay Prince the stated payout of $82,000. He added the agency is looking “just as importantly (at) how it occurred given internal controls exist to prevent such an error. Those findings might also result in the need for further action.” FanDuel’s operation just a few miles from New York made $3 million in its first full month in August and quickly became the most popular sports book in New Jersey. FanDuel declined to say how many bets were made at the incorrect odds. Prince said FanDuel offered him $500 and some tickets to future New York Giants games, adding he should take the offer because they’re not obligated to give him anything. “I said, ‘Wow, for real?’ ” Prince said. “You’d rather go to the corner bookies now; you’re not getting paid here.”<doc-sep>
FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid more than $82,000 due to line error For one New Jersey bettor, the Denver Broncos were a long shot too good to be true. New Jersey bookmaker FanDuel declined to honor a $110 bet on the Broncos on Sunday that would have paid more than $82,000, due to an error in the oddsmaking process, the company said. "The wager in question involved an obvious pricing error inadvertently generated by our in-game pricing system," a FanDuel spokesperson said in a statement. The bettor, who identified himself to News 12 New Jersey as Anthony Prince, placed the wager over the counter at the sportsbook at the Meadowlands Racetrack with Denver trailing the Oakland Raiders 19-17 late in the fourth quarter. After quarterback Case Keenum completed a pass down to the Oakland 18-yard line, putting the Broncos in comfortable field goal range, FanDuel attempted to update the live betting odds to reflect Denver as a -600 favorite. However, according to the company, an error in the live-odds feed caused the Broncos to be posted as 750-1 (+75,000) underdogs to win the game. Prince went to the counter, bet on the Broncos at the erroneous 750-1 odds and received a ticket that showed a potential payout of $82,610. At the correct odds of -600, he would have won a net $18.35. Denver kicker Brandon McManus hit the 36-yard winning field goal with 10 seconds to play, giving the Broncos a 20-17 win, but when Prince went to the counter, he was told the bet would not be paid out at the 750-1 odds. FanDuel instead offered to pay him around $500 and give him tickets to three New York Giants games. Prince declined to take FanDuel's offer and told News 12 New Jersey that he planned to hire an attorney. "They said their system had a glitch in it and they're not obligated to pay for glitches," Prince told the TV station. "A small number of bets were made at the erroneous price over an 18 second period," FanDuel said. "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 New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement is investigating the matter. The sports betting regulations that are in place in New Jersey state: "A wagering operator shall not unilaterally rescind any wager ... without the prior approval of the Division." FanDuel's house rules, however, state that "where a blatant or palpable error is made in offers made, prices offered or bets accepted or in the transmission of any event on which we have purported to offer Live Betting, bets may be settled at the correct price at the time at which the bet was placed, as determined by FanDuel Sportsbook." Other jurisdictions with legal betting handle the issue differently. In Nevada, mistakes in the odds are not uncommon and can occur multiple times a month at sportsbooks. If a similar dispute happened in Nevada, the bookmaker would be required to contact the Gaming Control Board in order to investigate the matter. Some Nevada books have paid off bets that were placed on bad odds but then refused to take action from the bettors who took advantage of the mistakes in the future. In the United Kingdom, where FanDuel owner Paddy Power-Betfair has operated for decades, mistakes in the odds are called palpable errors or "palps" and generally result in voiding the bet.