The seven fateful seconds in an NBA game that made bookmakers lose millions

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Last Sunday an emotional match was played in the NBA between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Emotional because of the return of Klay Thompson, one of the franchise players of the San Francisco, California team, after 941 days injured due to a ruptured Achilles tendon and cruciate ligament in his knee.

The curious thing about all this is that one of his teammates, such as Draymond Green, injured during the warm-up, did not want to miss it and stop honoring his beloved fellow sufferer for so many years. That is why he decided, together with the consent of his coach Steve Kerr, to be part of the starting five on the day of his friend’s return.

At 8:31 p.m., the Golden State Warriors Twitter account posted that Green would be on the court at kickoff but would sit out the remainder of the game due to a muscle problem. A minute later, at 8:32 p.m., journalist Shams Charania tweeted this information for his 1.4 million followers. Something that, of course, did not go unnoticed.

After Charania’s tweet, there were only eight minutes left before the start of the match and the closing of many markets belonging to sports betting. This caused many trigger-happy people to bet much of their savings that Green would make 0 points, 0 rebounds and 0 assists, or bets below a number of points, rebounds and assists. And so it happened. The Warriors power forward lasted just seven seconds on the court as he made a quick foul after kickoff.

Claims, freezing of payments…

Most bookmakers in the United States, such as FanDuel, Caesars, BetMGM and PointsBet, paid the price without thinking, but some decided to freeze payments while they reviewed the case, considering that Green’s situation could be branded as a known event and therefore thus violating company regulations.

For its part, DraftKings, the main bookmaker in the US together with FanDuel, investigated the event before paying and ended up giving in and paying the bets. under (points, rebounds and assists below a specific figure). In addition, he decided to refund those bets that went the other way, by over (points, rebounds and assists above a certain number).

“Industry sources estimated that DraftKings paid more than $1 million, with payouts across the entire sports betting market believed to be in the multi-million dollar,” said David Purdum, a journalist at ESPN. “Most of the blame came from bets that were placed in the last 10 minutes before the game started after Green’s intent became known,” he said.

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