Thursday Night Football produced one of the worst beats of the early NFL season for sports bettors – although at least one sportsbook found a way to ease the pain.
Cleveland’s Denzel Ward scored a fumble return touchdown in the final game of a 29-17 win for the Browns, prompting this call from play-by-play legend Al Michaels: “That’s going to be a touchdown, there’s not going to be an extra point , but that might matter to some of you.”
You are right Al Michaels! The last-second defensive touchdown by the Cleveland Browns meant a lot to a lot of people. That six-point score propelled the game above the opening line of 40.5 for the game total and blasted a number of teaser legs. The Steelers’ teasers became instant losers, as did alternate totals, which increased from 38.5.
There were screenshots of losing bets and bad beats all over Twitter, but the heat was turned up even more with a special Super Boost available at FanDuel via Pat McAfee. In response to the final result, McAfee took to Twitter and posted a video of himself in utter dismay.
In the past we have seen sportsbooks offer bad beat insurance for such bets. Would sports betting do the same after Thursday’s game between the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers?
FanDuel refunds Pat McAfee Super Boost
After the game I took to Twitter to ask which sportsbook would refund some of these bets or class them as winners? With 51% of the vote, FanDuel won by a landslide victory. And guess what: that 51% of voters got it right.
The only sportsbook that catered to the bad beat bettors who took over the last game of the game was FanDuel. All bets placed on Pat McAfee’s Super Boost on FanDuel have been refunded:
Since FanDuel sponsors Pat McAfee’s show, it should come as no surprise that they’ve offered a refund for his super boost. McAfee signed a four-year sponsorship deal with FanDuel, worth him $120 million over the course of the deal.
While I applaud FanDuel for finally offering a refund, why not go the extra mile and declare all bets a winner? As a bettor it still mentally feels like a loss when you offer me a refund because I came so close to winning a +800 stake. Personally, I would prefer sports betting to be either all in or all out on these scenarios.
what about the rest of us
It’s understandable that FanDuel would refund the McAfee Super Boost, but what about the rest of us? Got a screenshot of his same game parlay from Thursday night from my buddy Kevin. What a bad shot!
Denzel Ward’s last play touchdown cost him a new set of TaylorMade stealth irons. And Kevin isn’t the only one feeling the pain: all sorts of screenshots are circulating on Twitter where the last game ruined someone’s same game.
And then there’s this: Any bettor who took the over on Chase Claypool’s receiving yards also suffered a catastrophic bet loss on that fateful final game.
Claypool’s overall receive length was set at 35.5 yards. Before the final move of the game, he had 41. With the fumble going six yards behind, Claypool lost those yards and finished the game on 35 – half a yard short of his total.
FanDuel returning the boost is much appreciated, but bad beats of this magnitude on national television are exceedingly rare. After this game we should have seen much better offers from all sports betting sites in my opinion. The opportunity to help several sports bettors sleep better last night was there, but none of the sportsbooks took advantage of it.
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