A new quirk for the MLB All-Star Game that was Trojan horsed into the league's recent collective bargaining agreement stipulates that ties will be determined by a home run derby.
If after nine innings both the American League and National League are tied, each manager will select three hitters.
Those three hitters will have three chances apiece to hit as many homers as possible.
In the event that there's another tie, one player will be selected from each league to swing-off until a draw is broken.
The winner of the contest wins the All-Star Game.
This begs the question: what happens to wagers on the over/under in the event of a tie?
If the game ends 5-5 in regulation and the AL wins the HR derby, is the game ruled to have scored 10 runs or 11 runs?
That iteration of the Midsummer Classic will have officially scored 10 runs, a source with knowledge of the situation told the Action Network.
The game would end in a tie but with a notation that one league defeated the other in a home run swing off, the source said. There would be no winning or losing pitcher and the All-Star Game MVP would be based solely on the nine-inning game, the source added.
So, in the aforementioned example of an All-Star Game that ends 5-5, under 10.5 run tickets would win and over 10.5 wagers would be worthless.
This jibes with how soccer games that enter penalty shootouts are scored. The match is scored a tie for betting purposes, with a notation for who won the shootout.
Meanwhile, in the NHL, a goal is tacked onto the winning team’s final score after a shootout, which therein affects over/under wagers.
A spokesperson for DraftKings, Stephen Miraglia, told the Action Network that the book expected to grade over/unders by only counting however many runs were scored over nine innings.
The same rules would be employed by BetMGM, said John Ewing, a spokesperson for the sportsbook.
To be sure: in the event of a tie, winning bets at the two sportsbooks would be awarded to the team that wins the home run derby tiebreaker.
A representative at Caesars said the book is still unsure about how they'd rule in event of a home run derby tiebreaker, but all signs indicate the sportsbook would follow the same lead.
"We're working through it, as I'm sure many books are," Caesars spokesperson Brad Harwood said.
PointsBet avoided this problem altogether by not providing alternate totals for the public to wager on. The only line available is over or under 7.5 runs, which would not be affected by any potential tie.
Of the major sportsbooks, DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and BetRivers were the only ones to offer alt totals that would have been hampered by a home run derby tiebreaker.
Kevin Hennessy, a spokesperson for FanDuel, said the book had a "plan in place to work through the issue" should the game have ended in a tie, but would not elaborate further.
