Online Sportsbook Suffers Big Losses After Paying Out Alabama Football Bettors EarlyFanDuel Lost An Estimated $400,000 When Clemson Upset Alabama In The NCAA Football National Championship Game |
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The Clemson Tigers trounced the Alabama Crimson Tide 44 to 16 in Monday’s NCAA Football National Championship Game, earning the school’s third overall title.
It was a lucrative night for those who bet on Clemson, which opened as 6.5 point underdogs in the title game. One group of Alabama bettors, however, is feeling rather fortunate thanks to an early payout from FanDuel Sportsbook.
The site had already paid out approximately $400,000 in single-game and futures wagers last month to Alabama bettors, despite the fact that the Crimson Tide had not yet even advanced to the championship game.
“It has been a dominant season for the Crimson Tide and our traders have seen enough,” the company said in late November statement. “It’s a way to reward our customers for betting on Alabama when the odds were really hard to make any money doing it.”
Alabama did make it to the championship, but was easily dispatched by the Tigers. To add insult to injury, FanDuel was forced to pay out all Clemson winners as well. But despite the hit to the company’s bottom line, the operator was able put a positive spin on the blunder.
“We made history in November when we paid out customers early on Alabama winning the National Championship. Even though Alabama didn’t win, we have no regrets and are excited to make similar bold moves to prove there are more ways to win on the FanDuel Sportsbook. Congratulations to Clemson and to our customers who got paid out early. You’re the real winners today.”
FanDuel, which expanded from daily fantasy sports provider to full-fledged sportsbook last year, takes mobile wagers and in-person bets at the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey.
This is not the first time a betting site has paid out wagers before the final results were in, and it hasn’t always worked out the way they planned. The decision to pay out bets before a contest is officially decided, likely made for publicity reasons, can end up being a costly way for gaming entities to advertise themselves.
During the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, online bookmaker Paddy Power, paid out nearly $1 million in bets made on Hilary Clinton, who ended up losing in the electoral college. Paddy Power Betfair acquired FanDuel in May of 2018.
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