FanDuel ends up paying off Alabama and Clemson bettors

Yahoo ^ | January 8, 2019 | Jason Owens

[C19fan]

Monday was a rough night for FanDuel.

The online sports book ended up paying out extra after Clemson trounced Alabama in the national championship game.

FanDuel paid Alabama bettors in November In November, FanDuel announced that it was declaring Alabama the national champion and paying off futures bets made on they heavily favored Crimson Tide. Alabama was listed as a -280 favorite at the time, meaning gamblers would have to risk $280 to win $100 on a bet on the Crimson Tide.

“It’s a way to reward our customers for betting on Alabama when the odds were really hard to make any money doing it,” spokesman Kevin Hennessy said at the time.

[C19fan]

I bet the action on FanDuel was very limited. I heard of bookies from the British Isles paying before the betting even occurred. The thinking is the punters will take the money and bet something else.

[Red Badger]

FanDuel announced that it was declaring Alabama the national champion

I bet they don't do THAT again!..............................

[Defiant]

What would be hysterical is if the Alabama bettors took their money and then bet it on Clemson.

[Dr. Sivana]

I learned from that game that I know nothing about college football.

[FewsOrange]

“FanDuel announced that it was declaring Alabama the national champion

I bet they don’t do THAT again!.............................. “

Given the amount of free publicity that they received I suspect they might do it again.

Paddy Power, an Irish bookmaker, have a habit of doing this (including a certain 2016 election result) https://news.paddypower.com/propaganda/2017/08/23/payouts/

The free PR (and resulting increased betting) almost certainly makes up for any losses they incur.

[Yo-Yo]

Remember when Irish bookmaker PaddyPower declared Clinton the winner and paid off bets in October, before the election even happned?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/10/19/irish-bookmaker-already-paying-out-clinton-win/92400784/

I guess FanDuel didn't learn any lessons.

[Yo-Yo]

GMTA, and you beat me by 10 stinkin’ seconds.

[FewsOrange]

“I guess FanDuel didn’t learn any lessons.”

Paddy Power now owns FanDuel https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/fanduel-paddy-power-betfair-acquisition-1202819754/

My guess is the they did learn lessons (free publicity is great)

Their annual revenue is £1.7bn
https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/winner-alright-paddy-power-records-double-digit-growth-in-earnings-in-2017-36678707.html

[karnage]

Short-term business model!!!

[karnage]

I don’t think anybody saw a Clemson win by 4 TDs...