FanDuel bettors who risked money on Kevin Durant’s health for Game 5 woke up to a little silver lining on Tuesday morning.
The sports book announced the decision following Durant’s Achilles injury with the following statement:
“After Kevin Durant’s heartbreaking injury last night in the NBA Finals, we are doing the right thing and refunding all Game 5 Kevin Durant losing player props for online and retail customers in New Jersey. In addition to the straight bet refund, we are also refunding all losing Kevin Durant player performance doubles.”
FanDuel also added that online users will see their accounts credited Tuesday morning while retail customers will be able to return their bet slips to the FanDuel location at New Meadowlands Racetrack for a refund.
While this is a fairly transparent attempt to generate goodwill, some bettors will certainly appreciate the gesture. No one expected FanDuel, or any other sports book, to take this step, so they are going above and beyond.
However, it will be interesting to see how situations like this are carried out in the future. Was this a one-time thing, or is this a precedent that FanDuel will honor at least on a case-by-case basis?
It will also be intriguing to see if any sports books follow FanDuel with this decision.
Game 6 of the NBA Finals is slated for Thursday at Golden State. Tipoff will be at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.