Get 125% / $2,500 on 1st deposit!
New players only. Exclusive Welcome Bonus of up to $2,500
Massachusetts regulators rejected a request from DraftKings to void nearly one million dollars in winning bets after a platform error allowed a customer to place correlated parlays during the American League Championship Series.
Good to Know
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission denied an attempt by DraftKings to void $934,000 in winning bets tied to a technical error on the platform.
DraftKings argued that a system issue allowed a customer to place 27 parlay wagers involving hit totals for Nathan Lukes during the American League Championship Series. The bettor staked $12,950 across the wagers by combining Lukes reaching eight or more hits with lower hit thresholds at inflated odds.
Commissioners concluded that the wagers should never have been available.
“It’s the cost of doing business,” Commissioner Nakisha Skinner said. “You have to be diligent in your offerings … this is an obvious error for DraftKings. The in-house controls should have caught this error.”
The wagers went live on Oct. 15 after Lukes appeared on the platform as a non participant rather than a player. DraftKings officials said that classification bypassed internal controls designed to block correlated parlays from the same market.
With those safeguards disabled, the bettor placed parlays that stacked multiple hit totals ranging from lower thresholds up to eight hits. Each parlay also included an unrelated leg, such as a money line wager on the Kansas City Chiefs to defeat the Las Vegas Raiders on Oct. 19.
Lukes appeared in all seven games of the series and finished with nine hits. Twenty four of the 27 parlays paid out as winners. DraftKings detected the issue on Oct. 16 and removed the affected markets.
DraftKings remains the largest sportsbook among seven licensed operators in Massachusetts. The company reported $475.8 million in handle for November, accounting for more than half of total market activity in the state.
DraftKings withheld payment and notified the commission of the error. On Oct. 29, the company asked regulators to void the correlated legs while honoring the remaining portions of each parlay. Under that proposal, the bettor would have received about $95,000.
Pete Harrington, legal director at DraftKings, framed the request as a matter of fairness. Harrington told commissioners:
“There are patrons who, across jurisdictions, bet this market honestly by just selecting eight-plus hits and obtaining lesser odds for doing so. This patron was able to obtain higher odds with no additional risk, which is somewhat fundamentally unfair to other patrons.”
Harrington also said repeat betting on markets with errors violates platform rules. He added that similar wagers occurred in New Jersey during a comparable platform issue.
Several commissioners rejected that argument. They said the wagers reflected an available offering rather than an impossible market. Commissioner Eileen O’Brien said:
“I am still in the camp I have been in all along when we drafted this reg. An obvious error to me is a factual and legal impossibility. I don’t believe this is an obvious error. I think this was an advantage to the patron that he took.”
The ruling reinforces a consistent regulatory position in Massachusetts. Operators bear responsibility for market accuracy, even when pricing or classification mistakes benefit a bettor.
The commission said DraftKings controls market availability and should have blocked the wagers before placement.
A player classification issue labeled Nathan Lukes as a non participant, bypassing correlation safeguards.
The winnings totaled $934,000 across 24 successful parlays.
Some commissioners disagreed and said the bets reflected an advantage rather than an impossibility.