It need to glitch for me once or twice
A man bet $110 on an NFL game and thought he had turned it into $82,610. FanDuel refused to pay, blamed a technical glitch, and offered him $500 and tickets to three New York Giants games instead.
β Anthony Prince from Newark, New Jersey, was watching the Denver Broncos play the Oakland Raiders in September 2018.
β With just over a minute left, the Broncos were trailing 19-17 but had moved into range of a potential game-winning field goal.
β FanDuel was updating its live betting odds as the game unfolded.
β But something went wrong.
β For approximately 18 seconds, FanDuelβs system displayed the Broncos at 750-to-1 odds to win the game.
β Prince spotted the odds and placed a $110 bet on Denver.
β At those odds, his betting ticket showed a potential payout of $82,610.
β Other bettors reportedly managed to place similar bets during the same brief window.
β Then the Broncos kicked a field goal with six seconds remaining and won the game 20-19.
β Prince had picked the winning team. He went to collect his money.
β But FanDuel refused to honor the $82,610 payout, saying a technical error had generated incorrect odds.
β According to FanDuel, the Broncos should have been heavy favorites at that point, not 750-to-1 underdogs.
β Instead of paying the amount printed on his ticket, the company offered Prince around $500 and tickets to three Giants games.
β Prince rejected the offer and said he planned to get a lawyer involved.
β New Jersey gambling regulators began examining the incident, raising questions about how the sportsbookβs system had produced such wildly incorrect odds.
β With prediction markets, payouts are governed by the contracts traders agree to and the rules for resolving them.
β FanDuel initially stood by its decision, arguing that its rules allowed it to correct obvious pricing errors.
β But the story attracted widespread media attention, and the company consulted with state gambling regulators.
β On September 20, FanDuel reversed its decision and announced it would pay Prince the full amount, along with other customers affected by the same glitch.
β The company acknowledged that the error had spoiled the experience for its customers and said it would honor the erroneous tickets.
He risked $110 and appeared to win $82,610 in the final seconds of an NFL game. FanDuel blamed a glitch and offered him $500 and football tickets instead. But after regulators got involved and the story made headlines, the company changed its mind and agreed to pay him the full amount.