"Gambler sues DraftKings, claims online sportsbook screwed him out of $14m"

[iv4n]

Another interesting story...

An Iowa gambler thought he had discovered an all-but guaranteed way to win more than $14 million by wagering just over $300, taking advantage of an apparent loophole that online sportsbook DraftKings appeared to have missed.

Source:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/draftkings-sports-betting-gambling-golf-b2758827.html

So this guy was watching a golf tournament, and after the 3rd round there was a real chance it would be stopped because of bad weather... So he opened DraftKings and placed some crazy parlays based on the current leaderboard standings! Of course, DraftKings accepted all bets, and miracle or not, the tournament was cancelled, and $14 million became a problem...

He was betting that Sunday & the 4th round wouldn't happen... DraftKings was still offering the markets, and what now?

[Swordsoffreedom]

I wouldn't just see this as a loophole exploit. Rather, I would also call it sportsbook's own risk management failure. If DraftKings really thought that bets on that market should not have been accepted due to possibility of 4th round being canceled then market should have been suspended in advance. There's no point in voiding bet by showing rule if outcome goes against them after accepting bet.

I seems, they later updated their own rule too, right? Which at least indicate that previous wording was not clear enough.

[giammangiato]

These are the kind of bets I don't like in fact, I prefer to play on something "concrete".
One match is unequivocal and the bets are the classics, then the truly huge figure complicates the situation the most.
Error or not in the rules a user remains unhappy, this is not good advertising in my opinion.

[Orpichukwu]

This is an old case that way dates back to 2024 and 2025. DraftKings really faced some lawsuits within that period because of tricky practices, in which case it was also said they made changes to their policy to align with what they were holding their hand on to defend against the bettor.

The case with the link you shared has not yet been concluded, and we don’t know how it ends, but I believe the dude should be compensated and not just his wagered amount being returned, and many others whose bets were also void might also ask for their own compensation, as one bettor won’t be the only one who saw that loophole, as long as the bet is accepted and was open till a decision was made on that game, the bettor still has something to argue.

[Iranus]

This is an old case that way dates back to 2024 and 2025.

Yeah, I have heard of this incident before.
If you are interested in this incident, you can watch this video on YouTube to learn more about the legal battle and DraftKings controversial decision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEE_QJ102yY

This video summarizes the full report by USA NEWS TODAY on how this bet was made using weather forecasts. And how DraftKings later ended up in court after the bet was canceled.

[Ruttoshi]

They guy studied the game and understood what will happen next which made him place more bets. He was smarter and faster than DraftKings. It's all the casino fault for not suspending all bet before he placed his bet.

I don't know who will win the case but from my own understanding, the casino can bribe and win the case. It's a big laxity on DraftKings.

[Betwrong]

I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, but to me it looks like the guy wanted to cheat and he failed. I hope DraftKings will not pay him more than $300, the money that he staked and, I think, should be returned to him. To me the whole story shows again that trying to make money on gambling is a stupid idea.

[free-bit.co.in]

I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, but to me it looks like the guy wanted to cheat and he failed. I hope DraftKings will not pay him more than $300, the money that he staked and, I think, should be returned to him. To me the whole story shows again that trying to make money on gambling is a stupid idea.

Exactly, there is another side to this story.
He also used publicly available information.
Bettors have also tried to exploit a situation where the tournament could become official after 54 holes by looking at weather forecast.

Although this is not insider information but you can call it a pure gambling edge.

However, if  bookmaker leaves wrong odd or open markets based on publicly available information then it is their responsibility.
Well, if in this situation only winning bet are left and losing bet are voided, then it is not fair.
Again, if all affected bets are voided equally according to event rule then that is different discussion.

But yes, when bookmaker do business worth billion of dollars, they should not put all responsibility on customer by saying we made a mistake.

[ThemePen]

I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, but to me it looks like the guy wanted to cheat and he failed. I hope DraftKings will not pay him more than $300, the money that he staked and, I think, should be returned to him. To me the whole story shows again that trying to make money on gambling is a stupid idea.

Exactly, there is another side to this story.
He also used publicly available information.
Bettors have also tried to exploit a situation where the tournament could become official after 54 holes by looking at weather forecast.

Although this is not insider information but you can call it a pure gambling edge.

However, if  bookmaker leaves wrong odd or open markets based on publicly available information then it is their responsibility.
Well, if in this situation only winning bet are left and losing bet are voided, then it is not fair.
Again, if all affected bets are voided equally according to event rule then that is different discussion.

But yes, when bookmaker do business worth billion of dollars, they should not put all responsibility on customer by saying we made a mistake.

This story I think 2 years old and that case just ended, DraftKings won and is now looking for court costs. Decision basically ruled that sportsbooks can depend on the fine print "house rules" even when bettors do only public research. While it is fair to say that they have no right to blame the company if they leave markets open too long, the courts certainly rule in favor of the operator terms of service when it comes to testing that. It is the lesson here, not the fairness of it.

[Smack That Ace]

They guy studied the game and understood what will happen next which made him place more bets. He was smarter and faster than DraftKings. It's all the casino fault for not suspending all bet before he placed his bet.

I don't know who will win the case but from my own understanding, the casino can bribe and win the case. It's a big laxity on DraftKings.

DraftKings own

Lol, that bettor basically played DraftKings bookmaking system at their own game!
When the tournament was predicted to be in bad weather, at the end of 3rd round, he calculated weather and realized that 4th round might not happen.

So maybe he placed 5 huge parlay bets of just $325 late at night based on leaderboard.

The funny thing is, DraftKing still had their markets open and happily accepted his bets!

But next day, when 4th round was actually canceled due to torrential rain and 3rd round leaderboard was official result, the gambler's potential winnings stood at $14.2 million!

A completely complicated story, I was shocked after reading it.   I don't understand who should be blamed here,

[Somegory]

If I am not judging wrongly this money was in total, that man won not in one go but one game after another, he made a mistake, when he first won some money over 1 million dollars he should have requested for a withdrawal.

The casino could have ruled it out as pure luck but his mistake is he kept winning too, anyways,, I think the casino should just take this as a vulnerability detected in the system.

They must not let this person go on empty handed, they might not have known if not for him, someone smarter would have stylishly withdraw some money and get away with it.

[Oasisman]

This story I think 2 years old and that case just ended, DraftKings won and is now looking for court costs. Decision basically ruled that sportsbooks can depend on the fine print "house rules" even when bettors do only public research. While it is fair to say that they have no right to blame the company if they leave markets open too long, the courts certainly rule in favor of the operator terms of service when it comes to testing that. It is the lesson here, not the fairness of it.

So, this case has already been resolved. Well, it may not be a surprise if DraftKings won the case. The situation was out of their control, the only mistake they had was leaving the market open for betting when the tournament was most likely going to end earlier than expected due to bad weather. The man reacted a little faster after foreseeing a possible betting advantage. So, that clearly is a ground for exploitation. This man may have already been looking for the loopholes he could take advantage of, and that specific time was the perfect time for it, as everything fell the way he expected it.  

I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, but to me it looks like the guy wanted to cheat and he failed. I hope DraftKings will not pay him more than $300, the money that he staked and, I think, should be returned to him. To me the whole story shows again that trying to make money on gambling is a stupid idea.

Yeah. To me, the guy is actually trying to cheat. He almost succeeded, I think, because he had some reasons. Later on, he found another reason when DraftKings made some updates to the rules. The report didn't say they literally changed it to their advantage, but it was to make it clearer.
The fact that DraftKings won the case means the man was cheating, lol!

[Cointxz]

So this guy was watching a golf tournament, and after the 3rd round there was a real chance it would be stopped because of bad weather... So he opened DraftKings and placed some crazy parlays based on the current leaderboard standings! Of course, DraftKings accepted all bets, and miracle or not, the tournament was cancelled, and $14 million became a problem...

He was betting that Sunday & the 4th round wouldn't happen... DraftKings was still offering the markets, and what now?

The guy should at least get a compensation on this bet since it’s the fault of bookmaker to offer that bet regardless if it’s still active or not on that particular scenario which the bad weather was noticeable since this kind of game is prone of loop hole.

This is the price to be paid on offering risky bet by the casino. What seems unfair to me is for those who bet on the opposite side of this parlay since their money was already gone.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

I don't understand why people are siding with the sports book here. These sites make billions of the backs of their players, but once somebody makes a smart bet it's an exploit or what not? Hell nah! They offered the bet, stupid or not, so they should pay up, plain and simple.
If I place a bet on let's say the Lakers in the NBA, and suddenly the whole starting 5 catches a cold and won't play, will I get my money back? Heck no I won't. Odds will go up like crazy which makes a cashout virtually impossible because I would lose 80% or more of my initial stake and the bet will most likely lose by a large margin.

Players take risks, when they lose they lose. If the casino takes a risk and accepts bets they should pay up either way. It wasn't a secret there is the possibility the last days will be cancelled, so there is nothing they can blame the player for.

[CryptoBuds]

I don't understand why people are siding with the sports book here.

I'm not entirely on DraftKings side here, nor am I blindly on side of bettor.

If I place a bet on let's say the Lakers in the NBA, and suddenly the whole starting 5 catches a cold and won't play, will I get my money back? Heck no I won't. Odds will go up like crazy which makes a cashout virtually impossible because I would lose 80% or more of my initial stake and the bet will most likely lose by a large margin.
Players take risks, when they lose they lose. If the casino takes a risk and accepts bets they should pay up either way. It wasn't a secret there is the possibility the last days will be cancelled, so there is nothing they can blame the player for.

However there is legal issue in this case. DraftKings claim that these were essentially futures bets and that their house rule allow bets placed after final round to be voided.
Nicholas Bavas other hand claims that his parlay do not fall under that specific rule and that DraftKings applied rule after event in a way that was not previously clear.
The case is about that breach of contract.

[asriloni]

I could understand why he fight for 14m coz it's generational amount of money. He also has his bet accepted by DK. So it's worth to fight for 14m. However, i believe all of sportbooks have term to disallow or void the bet when it's due to the technical errors. Nevertheless, it has been so long since this news appeared, but still not clarity from judgement regarding result from this case.

No doubt this guy is now moaning asking for the clarity from the judgement. So it's interesting to see whether court will rule it as a valid bet or what DK called as technical errors.

This why there is a dogma about when casino win, they take our money, but when they lose, it's all due to the glitches or technical errors. Hopefully, judgement will give clarity over this asap.

[swogerino]

Another interesting story...

An Iowa gambler thought he had discovered an all-but guaranteed way to win more than $14 million by wagering just over $300, taking advantage of an apparent loophole that online sportsbook DraftKings appeared to have missed.

Source:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/draftkings-sports-betting-gambling-golf-b2758827.html

So this guy was watching a golf tournament, and after the 3rd round there was a real chance it would be stopped because of bad weather... So he opened DraftKings and placed some crazy parlays based on the current leaderboard standings! Of course, DraftKings accepted all bets, and miracle or not, the tournament was cancelled, and $14 million became a problem...

He was betting that Sunday & the 4th round wouldn't happen... DraftKings was still offering the markets, and what now?

He has all the right in the world to sue them if this happens to be true and he has a way to verify his claims. What on earth were DraftKings expecting that they thought now that someone won such a big bet we are going to make it void and also update our rules, it does not work this way. This is truly an interesting story as this guy in the story is a true genius to put a lot of crazy parlays and in the end he won one or some of these crazy ones.

[danherbias07]

I've read it all, and I can say that it will be a tough decision if it ever comes to a judge.

It doesn't matter if the gambler took advantage of a loophole. The mistake of DraftKings here is that they continued receiving bets that should've been voided already because of the bad weather. In the first place, that parlay bet of the gambler should not have made it inside. It will be considered an error because the game no longer exists due to said issues of the weather. They just won't admit that they are slow on updating their system, and that leads to another problem.

The gambler is claiming to be a winner, but this can be an expensive route for him if he keeps on pushing. Attorney's fees are not cheap, but if he is only asking for a percentage of the money, it could go on.

[PostQuantumBTC]

DraftKings voided the bet after it has occured which means that if the gambler lost the bet, the betting site will not void the bet. I am in complete support of the lawsuit. DraftKings should pay the gamblers money instead of trying not to pay him. It is very bad that a gambling site just want its customers to only lose and not give then their jackpot. The case is now in court which is very good, I hope the court will do the right judgement.

[acroman08]

I was curious if the case is still ongoing, but it looks like the guy lost the case. I was looking for more info and found a post on X saying that on July 9th, DraftKings was granted a summary judgment motion against Bavas.

Right now, Bavas's team is fighting to unseal the ruling so the public can see it, while DraftKings is fighting to redact more.

DraftKings is also demanding that Bavas pay their legal fees.

For anyone curious, here's the post on X.
https://x.com/GivnerAriel/status/2081029502138745175

DraftKings is asking Bavas to pay their legal fees.
https://x.com/GivnerAriel/status/2081163368761561131