Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

espn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 232 posts

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

#91

Post by jkaplowitz »

tom_ wrote: post #78
dumbfounder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The price sticker is an advertisement, not a binding contract. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invitation_to_treat

A lot of places have consumer protection laws about price signage and labeling which take precedence over contract law.

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

#93

Post by EpicEng »

maxerickson wrote: post #81
EpicEng wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So now it only matters in finance? No one lost anything here. It's ridiculous to expect a payout due to an error like this. You wouldn't get one at a casino if e.g. a slot machine malfunctioned. What if the payout was $500M? Should they have to pay that as well?

Sure, I'm entirely comfortable making life difficult for bookies.

And why is that? The rest of society has deemed it a ligitimate business. So you simply don't like gambling and that's why you want them to eat it? Not a very strong argument.

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

#94

Post by monkpit »

dumbfounder wrote: post #23
maxerickson wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What if there was another zero on there? How about 8 more zeroes? Still think they should need to honor the bet? They offered him $500 and tickets to a game, I think he is getting greedy.

What if there were less zeroes? At what point can the company just decline to pay anything out at all because it’s up to their discretion whether a line was good or caused by a bug? Obviously in that case they would go out of business because people would be mad. But my point is that (in my opinion) it’s a very gray area legally.

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

#95

Post by matt_the_bass »

drstewart wrote: post #71
nlawalker wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this was my first thought too. My sincere hope is that the law's response is "Pay up, this is how your business works. If this kind of thing is going to be a problem for you, buy insurance for it."

My sincere hope is that you accidentally fat finger a button while banking one day and wipe out your checking account sending a transfer or something. We'll see if you feel the same way then.

Though I see where you are coming from. These seem like two different cases. One is a contract the other is a transaction.

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

#96

Post by theandrewbailey »

xae342 wrote: post #40

I feel like we need the Second Software Crisis movement to address the bug riddled software were still making, it’s as though we’re just acclimated to bugs everywhere as being expected. Perhaps in 2100 they’ll look back on this time in software as we do on the early automotive industry today.

Did the early automotive industry move fast and break things? Almost certainly.

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

#97

Post by maxerickson »

goobynight wrote: post #83
maxerickson wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 might be within their power, but they are going to need to collect even more juice to get the system to that point. That or they might need to close up shop. Most people prefer the current system where they are able to make very dynamic sports bets, sometimes in real time, with the rare mistake.

It's easy enough to imagine a gatekeeper that doesn't let high ratio bets through, or puts them in front of a human, or whatever.

Test the hell out of that and you are a long way towards where you want to be.

It kind of smells like they had one, except it only panicked after the bet sold...

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

#99

Post by warent »

matt_the_bass wrote: post #92
drfuchs wrote: post #80

You might want to reconsider using “welching” in this context. And don’t change it to “gyping”, either.

Care to clarify?

They're old racist terms against Welsh and Romani people

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

#100

Post by kevindqc »

barking wrote: 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.

I worked for a betting company for a bit, and they actually liked people who were great at betting. They get flagged along with the sport/league they are good at, and the traders used these people to adjust their lines.

If someone bets and wins often on a specific sport/league, and they make a big bet for it that doesn't really make sense, maybe the line is wrong or that person knows something everyone else doesn't.

Post reply on HN