Why a Sportsbook Can Cancel Your Bet

Okay, so if you have never gambled on sports online before. Then, you may not be familiar with the notion that a bet can get canceled after you have placed it and your Internet bookie’s software has accepted it. Yes, this can happen. Many people are under the impression that once a bookmaker takes your wager, this forms a binding contract between an individual and that sportsbook. While this is accurate, that contract can still get broken on account of various reasons from the bookie side. These get outlined in a platform’s cancelation policy page. That may be a distinctive section of a brand’s website. Alternatively, it may get presented as a subheading/sub-category of their general terms and conditions page. In both cases, these areas of a given site should be accessible through links in the homepage footer.

You should know that bet cancellations are not incredibly common. Nevertheless, they can happen in the online betting sphere, and it is best that you familiarize yourself with the conditions that can lead to getting your wager canceled. Of course, these will range from sportsbook to sportsbook, but below, we will provide you with a general outlook on the main things that can produce a canceled bet scenario.

Inaccurate Odds Were Offered by Accident

That occurs more than you would think. If you are a frequent GOSUBETTING reader, you likely know that most of our reviewed crypto casinos/sportsbooks have third-party betting software incorporated into their websites. Moreover, the solutions they use get their odds from outside providers. Hence, the sportsbooks usually cannot follow everything that gets offered on their sites, as two third-party companies are in play, and the list of supplied events is in the thousands, with each contest featuring up to several hundred markets. Therefore, with so many odds getting calculated automatically, mistakes will happen. These most often occur on proposition wagers. We say these because these bets factor in various team and individual stats, and they are sometimes hard to calculate and figure out automatically.

For NFL betting, sites include prop wagers regarding where the next goal will get scored. What part of the net will the puck pass through the metal frame? Bookies customarily give bettors five options in this market. In some cases, it may be difficult to delineate the quadrant (precisely) the puck entered if it is on the border between the two, causing much confusion and debate about the result.

There may be occasions when browsing an Internet bookie that you come across a line that looks too good to be true, and you pounce on it. Unfortunately, it may have been too good to be true, as it was a mistakenly posted one, which will then cause the bookie to not honor your bet. He will cancel it and refund your money. No harm, no foul, only disappointment. People and software make mistakes. That is unavoidable and not totally out of the realm of possibility in the online betting sphere as well.

Sizeable Line Movement

We did an article on how sportsbooks set their odds and why they shift them some time back. If a bookie posts odds on a given event, and they experience a significant change in whatever direction, one that is so dramatic that the bookie decides that the previously offered ones are no longer valid. They inaccurately depicted the outcome probability of the event, given the new sets of circumstances. In that scenario, a bookie may cancel the previous wagers made on that event and post new, updated odds for it, giving users a novel opportunity to again bet on it with what it deems fairer coefficients that mitigate the bookmaker’s risk better.

Rule Violations & Technical Issues

We mentioned that you should read up on the cancelation policy and examine a site’s terms and conditions. Most platforms have a specific page where they rattle off their sports betting rules. In that section, you may learn that if an exhibition match gets mistakenly listed as an official contest, bets on it get voided. It will also describe prohibited activities, in detail, or in general, that get forbidden at said site, ones that users can utilize to exploit loopholes in the system. If someone is able to violate the set betting limits, engage in collusion, wager on invalid, postponed events, abuse promotions, or engage in bonus hunting or arbitrage, that will probably lead to bet cancelation.

On the topic of technical issues, these differ from things like mistakenly posted odds and involve taking advantage of software bugs and server downtimes to compromise the integrity of the wagering process. Whenever there are technical difficulties, meaning interference in the process of accurate recording/processing of bets, the sportsbook uses that as an excuse to cancel all fully or partially affected wagers. They have just cause to do this, as they will state it is a precautionary measure to maintain the fairness level of their betting ecosystem.

Improperly Constructed System Bets

There may be circumstances where the betting software allows you to construct a system bet/parlay that violates your bookie’s general wagering rules. If you somehow manage to place such a wager, it may get later canceled, regardless of the fact that the betting solution initially accepted it. While that may be alluring, rolling the dice that the bet will hopefully pan out. It is also a risky proposition. That is so since the software and bookmaker may opt not to refund your stake. Instead, the operator side may treat your bet as a loss. That is why it is never a good idea to look to bypass a bookmaker’s rules, as it leaves you vulnerable to potential losses. As a rule of thumb, online sportsbooks will not let you construct system bets on events that get connected in any way, the money line and the spread of the same game, for instance.

Event Cancellation or Postponement

This one is a no-brainer. If an event gets canceled or postponed, the bets made on it get deemed void, and your stake gets refunded. For postponed contests, these events get relisted, with new odds set.

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