This Saturday’s college football action featuring Penn State and Indiana ended controversially, prompting the sportsbook to make some refunds.
Penn State had a chance to run down the clock and secure a victory as they were ahead but an overzealous running back, Devyn Ford decided to make a run for the endzone to widen the lead. All things being equal, scoring in a game is a good thing but at this time, it was poor decision-making on the part of the running back. He realized it was a poor choice and if only he could turn back the hands of time.
Controversial Win
That move, however, gave Indiana a chance to tie the game as they were behind by 8 points. Indiana capitalized on the opportunity and made a game-tying drive. With 22 seconds on the clock, they scored a touchdown and a 2-point conversion and were able to tie the game. This sent the game to overtime where both teams were tied again towards the end. Indiana coach decided to gamble by asking his team to run for the pylon and try to win the game instead of heading to a second overtime.
According to the ruling, it was successful and this gave Indiana the win, first win over a top 10 them since 1987.
Now, this is where the controversy comes in, pushing DraftKings to make a refund. It was seen that the ball may have touched out of bounds first before hitting the pylon. However, the officials were not moved to make that ruling as it was not as obvious as they’d have liked. In official terms, they could not find “definite proof” to overturn the call after reviewing the play from different angles.
Show of Good-will by DraftKings
As a result, DraftKings has decided to refund wagers to bettors that lost following this controversial ruling. The announcement was made a few hours after the end of the game. All Moneyline bets on Penn State will be refunded as stated by the sportsbook on Twitter. It reads, “That was a tough call at the end but we have your back”.
This isn’t an entirely strange phenomenon as other bookies have made refunds following controversial rulings like these. However, DraftKings is the only one willing to reimburse bettors at this point. An example of such a situation is when Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the US Open men’s tournament. DraftKings, PointBet, and FanDuel made refunds to bettors following the circumstances surrounding his dismissal.
This move will most definitely cost the institution a lot but in the same vein, might do them some good in terms of good publicity. In Pennsylvania where over $460 million was bet on sports last month, DraftKings was second only to FanDuel in market size and they hope that this changes for the better. Their good-will this weekend might be the catalyst to spur that change in the state. Whatever the case or motive, it’s nice to see that bettors aren’t being punished for controversial rulings like these.
According to a report by Darren Rovell, refunds will be made available to all who lost within 24 hours. These refunds will come in the form of on-site credits and can be used to place other bets.
