The Russell Westbrook Betting Controversy Explained

There's been a lot of chatter in recent days over a stat correction involving Russell Westbrook.

Every individual play in professional sports is dissected at a microscopic level, meaning the smallest of margins could cost bettors millions of dollars, points out Erich Richter of the New York Post.

Such was the case when a group of bettors went wild after they wagered on Russell Westbrook to record a double-double against the 76ers Tuesday (+390, FanDuel).

The Nuggets guard was initially credited with having 10 assists before a stat correction removed an assist on a first-quarter pass to Nikola Jokic on a layup.

The pass was later corrected to just a field goal for Jokic as the ball may or may not have been tipped by forward Guerschon Yabusele.

This was graded as an assist and then taken away from him.

From the New York Post:

What happened next was bizarre, as bettors who were upset with the NBA statisticians for probably correctly changing Westbrook’s pass to a non-assist flooded the NBA Stats email, pleading for a re-correction to the official record as bets were officially graded as a loss.

“I have posted this on my X account and 100,000+ people wanting this fixed. Russell Westbrook had not one, but two assists graded as assists and then incorrectly taken away. Please see the videos below and do the right thing for the community. Thank you so much,” one email posted on X read.

The NBA, according to Sleeper, defines an assist as “…a pass that directly leads to a basket. This can be a pass to the low post that leads to a direct score, a long pass for a layup, a fast-break pass to a teammate for a layup, and/or a pass that results in an open perimeter shot for a teammate. In basketball, an assist is awarded only if, in the judgment of the statistician, the last player’s pass contributed directly to a made basket. An assist can be awarded for a basket scored after the ball has been dribbled if the player’s pass led to the field goal being made.”

DraftKings told The Post that Westbrook to record a double-double was the 11th-most bet-on prop of the entire sports betting market Tuesday, while it ranked 130th at BetMGM.

BetMGM’s house rules state: “BetMGM/Borgata settles markets in accordance with the official rules, statistics and results as declared by the league’s governing body.”

Other angry tweets included:

"This is some Bullshit what's the chances that so many ppl had bet on Russell Westbrook for a double double he gets it only for an assist to be removed? Is the NBA in bed with the Sportbooks bc this is an absolute travesty if it doesn't get corrected."

"I missed a +7000 parlay by one assist from Westbrook last night. Woke up to this."