PointsBet is getting slammed for saying it would void winners of a Tyus Jones double double on Wednesday, saying that the sportsbook mispriced his odds.
PointsBet priced odds of Jones getting that double-double, which was his ninth of the season, at 16-1, while the rest of the market priced it closer to 3-1.
With Ja Morant sitting out, the Memphis Grizzlies guard played 43 minutes in Wednesday's 138-131 overtime loss to the Pelicans. He scored 13 points and had 12 assists.
After getting roasted on Twitter for voiding the bet after it won, PointsBet issued a lengthy statement on Friday.
“At PointsBet, our NBA double-double market requires three inputs to calculate: a player’s points line, their expected rebounds, and their expected assists. On this occasion, an error resulted in this double-double being priced using only Jones’ points and rebounds line. Tyus Jones' assists line (7) did not feed into the double-double calculation, generating an incorrect price of +1600 for a selection that was generally available around +350 across the industry. To further illustrate the context of this error, we can share that Tyus Jones’ double-double price with PointsBet was +200 against Orlando on March 28th and +300 against the Mavericks on March 20th. The incorrect price remained on site for nine minutes before being removed. Additionally, PointsBet removed all double-double and triple-double markets from the NBA offering on Thursday evening in order to update the data query.”
Those who bet it were upset that the bet wasn’t nullified until the game was over, after they thought that they had won. Others wondered aloud if the book would have kept their money had the bet ultimately lost.
“The burden of proof isn’t for the sportsbook to show that they priced it wrong,” said Action Network contributor The Promo Guy, who helped bring PointsBet’s actions to the masses on Twitter. “The burden of proof is to show that had it lost, the book still would have voided it and they haven’t done that.’
In fact, The Promo Guy pointed to a tweet by one bettor who had the Jones double double plus a Grizzlies win. That one was not voided, although it was similarly mispriced. It lost because the Grizzlies lost.
Some evidence they wouldn’t have voided if it lost:
They kept my 50 cents on the DD & Win pic.twitter.com/nGrnhXRhBH
— Matt Hults (@mhults) April 7, 2023
While the terms and conditions allow PointsBet to do what they did, some in the industry believe mistakes shouldn’t be able to be voided.
In 2020, the Nevada Gaming Control board allowed BetMGM to take back $200,000 in parlay bets after a syndicate of bettors discovered a flaw in kiosks that allowed bettors to bet on games that had already started with odds as if they had not.
