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FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

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Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#42

And yet, you can bet that they'd collect if the error were in their favor. And they probably have. Absolutely disgusting.

That's because the terms (ignoring conflicting laws for a minute) choose FanDuel as the arbiter.

The imbalance is obvious even before the bet is placed.

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#43

And yet, you can bet that they'd collect if the error were in their favor. And they probably have. Absolutely disgusting.

Disgusting? So if you see a sign on a car for sale that says $19,95 because a digit fell off, the dealer is obligated to sell it to you at that price? People and systems make mistakes, that doesn't mean it's "disgusting" that they protect themselves financially from those mistakes.

Totally different issues. Making a bad sale and then later backing out, vs advertising a price that is not able to be confirmed at the time of sale resulting in no sale.

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#44

This will just add to the (necessary - don't get me wrong) tax on society that is our legal system. It's pretty obvious what should happen here because, as humans, we understand and allow for the possibilities of mistakes. Fan Duel should send him some tickets to a game, try to create a positive interaction for him, and let's move on.

What's obvious about that? To me the obvious thing is that bookies have to honor the bets they sell and get to eat their delicious mistakes. It's within their power to improve their automated system to not offer stupid bets.

>It's within their power to improve their automated system to not offer stupid bets

So then it's also within your power to never write bugs. Have you ever written any? How did that happen? It was within your power not to do so, right?

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#45
post #15
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They tried 500$ and 3 Giants tickets, which he declined in favor of getting a lawyer. I think they should bite the bullet, pay it out, turn to their software engineers, and say "it's worth 82,000$ to this company to ensure that never happens again."

Its accidentally $82,000. If you allow such a bug to be honored, then potentially it could manage a near-infinite payout. Such bugs becomes not a costly mistake but instead existentially threatening And we certainly don’t have a software industry capable of supporting that environment

Hedge funds seem to automate things in an environment where certain bugs are existentially threatening. They hire doctors of math and get their code correct. It's not impossible, just expensive.

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#46
post #15
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They tried 500$ and 3 Giants tickets, which he declined in favor of getting a lawyer. I think they should bite the bullet, pay it out, turn to their software engineers, and say "it's worth 82,000$ to this company to ensure that never happens again."

Its accidentally $82,000. If you allow such a bug to be honored, then potentially it could manage a near-infinite payout. Such bugs becomes not a costly mistake but instead existentially threatening And we certainly don’t have a software industry capable of supporting that environment

This isn't a nonprofit charity. It's a bookie. They decided to offer automated betting systems, in the hopes of winning money from their customers. They should stand behind those same systems when they don't work in their favor.

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#47
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more like - dealer sold you the car for $19.95, then came after you and demanded the rest $19k because of the error.

If you bought it online you bet they would come after you.

Which is completely different than a digit falling off a window, right?

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#48
post #13
post #6

Owned by Paddy Power. Not surprised they are welching on the bet, they make a great play on what good sports they are in their advertising but will ban you if you show signs of not being a complete mug.

It looks to be usual practice across the industry in the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/aug/02/betting-horse...

That article mentions Barney Curley, I'd recommend his book giving a little back. In it he documents a coup he pulled off against the bookies on a horse running at a small English course Cartmel in the 70s iirc. The key point was that there was just one telephone at the course. Most bets are settled at SP which is the on-course starting price. If the big chains are getting a lot of money on a horse they'll get their agents to put money on that horse at the course to bring the price down and reduce their liability. On that day Curley's people put a fortune of money on before they bookies realised there was something up. They hid it by betting in doubles where there's less scrutiny but then they pulled the other horses out of races which had the effect of converting those bets into singles. The routine would be for the on-course agent to phone head office to see what they had to do. On that day, Curley had a burly crony hogging the phonebox as he tried to keep up with the health of his aunt who'd been taken ill. No one was able to shift him until the race went off.

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#49
post #36
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its accidentally $82,000. If you allow such a bug to be honored, then potentially it could manage a near-infinite payout. Such bugs becomes not a costly mistake but instead existentially threatening And we certainly don’t have a software industry capable of supporting that environment

If you can't afford the errors you should not be in the business (but they can easily afford this error).

I don't think so. The legal system in Europe honors good faith.

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#50

And yet, you can bet that they'd collect if the error were in their favor. And they probably have. Absolutely disgusting.

Disgusting? So if you see a sign on a car for sale that says $19,95 because a digit fell off, the dealer is obligated to sell it to you at that price? People and systems make mistakes, that doesn't mean it's "disgusting" that they protect themselves financially from those mistakes.

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