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The Daily Caller is among the first major media outlets to scold the newly launched ESPN Bet. Odds are good they won't be the last.
For now, this comes in the form of an editorial by one Andrew Powell, a regular contributor at the Daily Caller. And Powell is calling ESPN Bet out as "fraudulent cowards".
Powell claims the reincarnation of Barstool Sportsbook is "not honoring bets".
He's specifically referring to the unusual parlay rule we first began covering here at Gambling911.com a few days back. If you win 5 legs of your parlay and the sixth leg is a push, your bet pays out as a push. In other words, you don't lose, you don't win.
It's in their rules but it's not common.
"If one or more selections in a same game parlay portion of a Parlay+ wagers settles as a push (for example, due to a total ending up exactly on the number that was selected), the same game parlay portion of the Parlay+ wager that contains the applicable selection will be deemed a push, except if a same game portion of the parlay portion results in a loss."
Powell believes the rule is equivalent to ESPN Bet not honoring winning wagers.
What should have been a winning bet (it would've been anywhere else) went viral over the weekend because, only at ESPN Bet, it lost. @CalculatorGrant placed the wager.
Other online sportsbooks and gambling services like PrizePicks do the opposite and payout after adjusting odds, Powell notes.
"So yeah … @CalculatorGrant got screwed, and royally."
ESPN Bet threatens to cause serious damage to the global sports media brand owned by Disney with Mickey Mouse dipping his toe in the sports betting sector. It might work if they had control over the sportsbook that bares its name. They don't.
Prior to becoming ESPN Bet, parent company Penn National canceled numerous bets it blamed on a software glitch.
Barstool Sports already severed its relationship with Penn prior to the software glitch. But when Barstool and its colorful founder Dave Portnoy were tied in with Penn National, the marriage was doomed from the get go.
Portnoy admitted his controversial personality prevented the sportsbook from obtaining licensing in some states. He was forced to terminate the employment of a popular on-air personality under apparent pressure from Penn.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
