On Sunday, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns played Game 4 of their first round playoff series, and a listed live market served as a reminder to bettors to always check the fine print before wagering.
FanDuel's trending live bets tab, called "The Pulse," listed a wager titled, "Rally The Valley: Devin Booker or Kevin Durant to score 40+ Points." The wager had odds of +125. Interestingly, the game was near the end of the third quarter, and Booker had already accounted for 37 points, while Durant had amassed 31.
A listed wager of +125 means that it has an implied probability of 44.44%. However, NBA fanatics and casual fans alike would likely agree that there is a significant chance that Booker could total three or more points in the fourth. Even if he didn't, an inspired 10-plus point fourth quarter from Durant would cash the wager.
But as is often the case in sports betting, if something seems too good to be true, it likely is.
If a bettor happened to click on the wager and re-read the bet's text, a completely different wager was listed: Devin Booker and Kevin Durant both to score 40+ points.
Frequent NBA bettors may be able to identify based on the pricing of the wager that this could be the correct listing, but a casual bettor would be stuck with the new wager that wasn't what they had originally believed was available if they went through with the wager.
It is likely that the FanDuel employee tasked with inputting this live wager into FanDuel's The Pulse did not fully understand the bet's content, resulting in a mis-phrased listing.
Booker finished the game with 49 points, while Durant scored 33. If you placed this wager, you would likely have lost this money, as FanDuel's software would have abided by the result of the second market image, indicating that both players needed to score 40 points.
FanDuel declined to comment on how the wager was graded for bettors, and it did not indicate how many wagers were placed on the market.
It's unclear how long this discrepancy was listed on FanDuel, but it was a minimum of four minutes. Considering hundreds of thousands of live bets are placed on each NBA playoff game, it's reasonable to assume that wagers were placed in this particular market.
FanDuel also declined to comment on how this market came to be or if it was initially accurate.
FanDuel's house rules note it can "correct any obvious errors by settling winning bets at the ‘correct price,’ as reasonably determined by FanDuel Sportsbook, or void any bet placed where such errors have occurred." As such, bettors thinking that they had won their live wager may not have even had it voided. Rather, it may have been simply graded as a loss.
Operators are given significant deference to alter or adjust wagers and markets based on "obvious errors." As defined by FanDuel, an obvious error occurs when a market is "materially different from those available in the general betting market at the time the bet was made," or "clearly incorrect given the chance of the event occurring at the time the bet was made including."
FanDuel did not comment on the matter, but this is consistent with issues surrounding DraftKings late last year, when it requested to void wagers that were made at incorrect prices on a Nuggets vs. Lakers regular season game. Most states' gaming commissions allowed DraftKings to void the winning wagers, while New Jersey and Connecticut were the two states that ruled DraftKings had to pay out the winning wagers.
In a separate incident this year, bet365 offered bettors a chance to re-place their wagers at a different price or void them when the sportsbook identified it had mis-priced a market. However, bettors were not allowed to maintain their wagers at their original price.
For bettors, they are largely at the mercy of operators and their discretion when it comes to bets, so make sure to always double-check the markets that you are engaging with before making any wager.
