On Tuesday, ESPN Bet launched. On Thursday, it refunded bettors for the first time thanks to a Thursday Night Football boost.
Before kickoff, ESPN Bet touted a Mike Greenberg-endorsed parlay for the Week 11 matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals. The “Seeing Green” boost offered +450 odds (up from +350) on quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow to combine for at least 500 yards and four touchdowns.
Greenberg promoted the parlay himself, as well.
Except Burrow apparently entered the game nursing a wrist injury and ended up being removed from the contest altogether after aggravating it further. The NFL is looking into whether or not the Bengals flouted the league’s injury reporting rules.
Either way, bettors did not have a full picture of the quarterback matchup before wagering on the Greenberg parlay. Jackson and Burrow combined for just 365 yards and three touchdowns. That was enough for ESPN Bet to call it a wash and refund bettors via bonus funds.
Want to make sure everyone who placed this bet sees this. #espnbet https://t.co/g5O7u4NVFJ
— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) November 17, 2023
Seeing as this is the first time ESPN Bet has encountered this situation, there are a few things worth considering.
First and foremost, refunds like this are generally just good public relations strategy. It makes sense that a brand new sportsbook on the market would be more willing to offer a refund to help retain customers as opposed to a FanDuel or DraftKings, which are more established and already hold a much larger share of the betting market (and neither of which offered refunds on Burrow).
The second thing we can glean is this had more to do with the boosted parlay than the injury to Burrow itself. Consider ESPN Bet did not refund wagers on props for Ravens tight end Mark Andrews, was also injured early in the game. This makes sense for both ESPN and Penn Entertainment, which runs the sportsbook through a licensing deal with ESPN.
Much of the reason why Penn is paying ESPN $1.5 billion over the next decade to use their name is because of the on-air talent and insiders who can bring both legitimacy and referrals to the sportsbook. The last thing ESPN Bet wants right off the bat is for anyone to think they’ve been taken for suckers.
Finally, the refund will only appear in the form of bonus bets, meaning that money will still be spent on the app anyways, just on a new wager. Bonus fund bets only pay out winnings and not the initial stake.
The only question now is whether or not this sets a precedent. The most likely answer here is ‘no’. Remember, this is good marketing more than anything and as we’ve seen with DraftKings, just because a bet is made in error doesn’t mean it will be honored.
As always, buyer beware. Refunds are nice, but it’s foolish to expect them.
