BetMGM Made Costly Mistake During The NFL Division Playoffs

• BetMGM announced on Thursday that they paid $10,500 for a typo on a prop bet listed during the NFL’s AFC Divisional playoff game in January.
• Errors to betting lines for mobile sports betting platforms must be paid out to any gambler that placed money on the wager.
• On top of paying the winners of the bad bets, the operators are fined for violating the rules by posting a wrong betting line.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – BetMGM is literally paying the price for an error made to a betting line for the NFL’s AFC Divisional playoffs. The typo for the wager in question occurred in January and has left the sportsbook with over $10,000 in payouts to honor the sports bettors who placed money on the wager before it was fixed.

The error was on a quarterback prop bet involving Cleveland Browns’ quarterback Baker Mayfield and Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes. It was an Over/Under that at least 300 yards would be thrown by the athletes. However, the “3” was missing, listing it as “00” so the players would only need to throw a yard in the game to have the bet win.

All in all, nine gamblers placed bets on the glitched line that paid out because Mayfield threw for 204 yards and Mahomes went for 255 yards. All nine sports bettors took the Over on that wager, obviously, and won a combined $10,000.

Why Did BetMGM Pay?

Originally, BetMGM wanted to void the wagers because it was a clear mistake and asked the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) to allow them to do so but their request was denied. Not only did the DGE require that BetMGM pay the winners of the bet, but they also fined them $500 for violating the rule of properly displaying a betting line through a mobile sportsbook.

Any error made by a digitized regulated sports betting operator always protects the consumer at a nationwide level. It is a rule within every state that sportsbooks must display their wagers properly for action on matchups. Should mishaps occur, the platforms are at fault and not those that placed money on the bets. Therefore, operators not only need to pay all winners but they will also be fined accordingly for their mistakes. A lose/lose situation for a sportsbook.

A similar circumstance happened in 2018 with FanDuel where they posted 750/1 odds that the Denver Broncos would win by a one-point margin over the Oakland Raiders. With seconds to go and the Broncos down by one, kicker Brandon McManus kicked a 36-yard field goal to win the game. FanDuel said the line was supposed to be 1/6, not 750/1 but one lucky sports bettor that put $110 on the original odds won $82,000.

At first, FanDuel failed to honor the wager but after a DGE investigation and plenty of public scrutinies, they paid the winner for their error. FanDuel made another mistake involving eleven wagers in August over soccer games and requested the DGE allow them to void the bets. Again, the New Jersey-based sportsbook was forced to pay out on its errors. The DGE will always side with the consumer in cases like this.

Should operators refuse to pay out on any bets won, the DGE could take legal recourse and add a multitude of penalty fees for the sportsbook to pay before they could become operational again. It’s easier to honor wagers made on bad bets and even more easy to stop posting these errored lines.

As of Thursday, it has been reported that BetMGM had paid $10,500 for their mistake in January.

News tags: AFC | Baker Mayfield | BetMGM | Brandon McManus | Cleveland Browns | Denver Broncos | Division of Gaming Enforcement | FanDuel | Kansas City Chiefs | New Jersey | NFL | Oakland Raiders | Patrick Mahomes