Adam Schefter’s scoops on the NFL can be a sports bettor’s best friend. They could also, as one sportsbook clarified earlier this week, get your bet voided.
- DraftKings and other sportsbooks have house rules that allow bets to be voided if placed after news breaks before odds are updated.
- These updates clarify and reinforce existing policies that already gave sportsbooks wide discretion to cancel wagers due to errors, news-based advantages, or integrity concerns.
- As betting markets grow more complex, these broad rules help protect sportsbooks and highlight how little power bettors have once a wager is placed.
DraftKings' updated house rules tweaks the definition of an "error" that can void a bet.
Now, the definitions of those voidable errors include a wager accepted "at the time of or after an announcement has been made or information has been released" that affects the odds for the betting market, and the odds have not been updated accordingly.
“For example only, if an announcement is made that the starting running back of a football Game is not going to play in the Game, any bets on the backup running back accepted after such announcement was made, but before the odds on such backup running back have been updated on the DraftKings Platform to reflect the announcement is an Error,” the rules now state.
"The substance of the rules remains largely the same." "Pretty cut and dry."@MassGamingComm approved 5-0 a complete rewrite of DraftKings' House Rules on Aug. 14. One section now says that bets made where bettors beat DK to key public info can be deemed errors & thus voidable. pic.twitter.com/d4KR5njY7z
— Fairplaygov (@fairplaygov) August 28, 2025
The update was quickly noticed by and commented on by #gamblingtwitter. However, DraftKings arguably could have done this sort of thing already.
The online sportsbook’s old house rules stated it could void a bet if "an announcement has occurred in relation to the bet which alters the odds, such announcement occurring after the posting of the affected betting market and bets being placed on the affected event in a manner that would tend to show that the announcement affected the way that end users chose to bet."
DraftKings also previously defined an error as "odds being clearly incorrect given the chance of the event occurring at the time the bet was placed."
Furthermore, the Boston-based bookmaker continues to reserve the right to void “a bet, except for a bet at odds in connection with a clearly labeled promotion, accepted by DraftKings at odds that are materially inconsistent with the probability of the outcome bet on at the time the bet was accepted by DraftKings.”
The more you know
FanDuel has similar rules, which state it could void bets made at odds "materially different from those available in the general betting market at the time the bet was made" or that are "clearly incorrect" given the circumstances when the bet was made.
At bet365, the house rules state bets can be voided for an "obvious" error, "one that, when viewed in context seems to be a clear outlier based on publicly known information or when compared to similar offerings in the industry."
ESPN Sources: Cowboys are trading three-time All-Pro LB Micah Packers to the Green Bay Packers.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 28, 2025
Parsons and the Packers already have reached agreement on a four-year, $188 million contract. @DavidMulugheta of @Athletesfirst had a hand in the trade and ultimately negotiating the… pic.twitter.com/Hznxabll0P
And here are Fanatics' house rules: “Fanatics Sportsbook may, in its sole and absolute discretion, decide to suspend betting on a market at any time. In the interests of maintaining integrity and fairness in the markets, Fanatics Sportsbook may also void certain bets in a market or void a whole market in its entirety.”
All of the above is to say that online sports betting sites in the U.S. have some outs for themselves when news breaks and bettors are speeding toward their apps with wagering in mind. If you smash a bet at odds that significantly change a few minutes later, your bet might just be voided.
And this is just a relatively small slice of the house rules at any given sportsbook. It pays to know before you bet, and there can be a lot to know.
Spelling bee-forewarned
The misspelling of a player's name could also lead to a voided bet. Per DraftKings’ rules, a voidable error can include “any bet(s) accepted on participant(s) or team(s) that were misspelled on the DraftKings Platform where the correct participant(s) or team(s) could not be reasonably identified due to the misspelling.”
And let’s say you inadvertently wager on something where shenanigans may have transpired, or look like they’ve transpired. DraftKings could void any bet “where the integrity of such Event, including, but not limited to, any participant(s) or team(s) Participating in the Event, being compromised or suspected of being compromised (including, but not limited to, any instance of game-rigging).”
Sportsbooks continue to expand their betting markets, and federally regulated prediction markets continue to offer sports-related event contracts that may not necessarily have to do with the games. This is meeting a demand from some bettors, but it’s arguably making it harder to keep an eye on everything.
Broader house rules could be a good way for the books to protect their interests. But it could also be a sign that maybe, just maybe, they are sometimes biting off more than they can chew.
“If you're going to be a sportsbook and you're going to put a prop up on the eighth guy on the bench of an NBA team, the sportsbook deserves to lose,” Circa CEO Derek Stevens told Covers last week. “You deserve to get beat, because it's just the hubris to think that you're going to be able to win in the long term.”
