Bettors must be prepared for the worst
When you bet on sports, you are taking on risk. No matter how much studying and preparation you made before you placed your bet, unexpected things happen in games that can throw everything off (and sometimes you just get it wrong). An unlucky bounce, a tremendous performance by a player that changes the course of the game, or, in the case of the case of the Christmas Day game between the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets, an injury.
Suns star guard Devin Booker has been battling leg injuries all month, missing several games. He had just been out for three straight games when he returned for the showdown with the Nuggets. After just four minutes and twenty seconds, though, he aggravated his groin again and had to shut it down for the day. His team still played well, eventually losing in overtime, 128-125.
But bettors were not happy. They expected Booker to play his full minutes allotment, or at least close to it, so his injury destroyed most prop bets that included him, aside from those that bet against him. DraftKings customers took to Twitter, urging the sportsbooks to refund their bets.
There is no reason DraftKings would have to do this, as injuries are a part of sports. That’s part of the risk you take when betting, just like you risk the player or team simply laying an egg or a last-second call-up from the minors throwing a shutout against the Astros.
DraftKings was in the Christmas spirit
But DraftKings did decide to honor the requests, announcing on Monday that it is refunding all Devin Booker prop bets and parlay bets in which Booker’s leg was the only one that lost. The one catch is that the refunds will be in the form of free bets, not cash.
So why would DraftKings do this? Again, you place a bet, you are taking a chance that any number of things will cause your wager to lose. For DraftKings, though, it’s all about positive marketing. Even if the company loses every follow-up bet from the refunds, it is paying for goodwill. The refunded customers are happy and will be loyal to DraftKings and potential customers may see what the company did and give it a shot. And it’s probably not all that much money in the grand scheme of things, anyway.
This sort of thing happens a few times every year. For example, in an October 2020 college football game, Indiana beat Penn State in overtime, 36-35. Indiana won on a hectic two-point conversion that, upon review, looked as if it should not have counted because the ball touched out of bounds before crossing the goal line. The officiating crew allowed the call to stand, though, to the cheers of one side and jeers of the other.
DraftKings ended up refunding all moneyline bets on Penn State, perhaps because the company agreed that it was a bad call. Spread bets were unaffected because Penn State was a six-point favorite.
