It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes sports bets are rejected or modified soon after being placed. This can occur for several reasons.
Usually, you’ll find a bet has been rejected or modified due to a sudden change in odds. It might also indicate technical errors, such as time-lags or even limits being placed on players’ accounts.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the top reasons why a sportsbook might opt to reject or modify a bet shortly after accepting it.
Key Takeaways
- Bets can be rejected as a result of technical errors, incorrect odds and time lags.
- Players sometimes face bet rejections due to limits placed on their accounts.
- If a market closes unexpectedly, sportsbooks will often reject associated bets.
Seven reasons why sportsbooks reject bets
The top reasons for sportsbooks rejecting bets revolve around odds discrepancies, which can occur for several reasons. Let’s take a look at some of the common culprits.
The odds have changed
If the odds change very soon after you place a bet, or shortly before your bet is placed, you might find that your initial wager appears to go through with the preceding odds, but it's then quickly modified or rejected.
In such cases, sportsbooks typically offer players the chance to place the bet using the new odds. Sometimes these might even be in a player’s favor.
If the odds have changed dramatically, sportsbooks may instead reject the bet entirely, leaving it up to the player whether they’d prefer to try again with the new odds.
There’s been a delay between a bet being placed and it being received
Technical glitches are to blame for many cases of bet rejections. If there’s a slight delay between a player placing a wager and it being received by the sportsbook, this too can affect whether or not it goes through smoothly.
If a market is moving quickly, even very short time lags can mean that odds have changed in between a bet being placed and it being received. When this happens, sportsbooks will quickly modify or reject the bet once it is received.
Incorrect odds were offered
Mistakes can happen even at the biggest sportsbooks, and players can be forgiven for jumping on markets offered with obviously incorrect odds. But doing so rarely works in a player’s favor, because sportsbooks are within their rights to reject such bets as soon as the error is noticed.
If you’ve seen a market that looks too good to be true, and found yourself with a rejected bet soon afterwards, it probably was indeed too good to be true!
The market has closed unexpectedly
In some cases, events entirely out of the sportsbook’s control will mean that a market closes sooner than expected. With in-play betting, this can happen as a result of things like red cards or injuries that take players off the pitch before the game has ended.
Any bets placed shortly before the market closes will usually be rejected, with stakes automatically refunded.
Limits have been placed on your account
Sportsbooks sometimes limit certain accounts if a player is deemed to be too much of a risk. This typically only happens to professional bettors, but if a recreational player is lucky enough to win substantial sums on a number of occasions, it’s quite possible that their account could be limited as a result.
If you’ve found that your bet has been rejected due to the stake being too high, it could indicate that you have a new limit on your account. Contact the customer support team to ascertain exactly why your bet was rejected and discuss any limits you might have.
Our guide to sportsbook limits explains more about how limits work and what you can do to avoid them.
There are insufficient funds in the account
Usually, a bet won’t go through at all if you don’t have the funds to place it, but sometimes sportsbooks face technical hitches that can cause them to accept bets even if a player doesn’t have sufficient funds in their account.
Bets that go through without the required funds are unlikely to stand for long. The sportsbook will soon notify the player that their bet is invalid and has been rejected due to a lack of funds. It’s then up to the player to quickly top their account up and place that wager again if they want to take advantage of the odds on offer.
The sportsbook has been affected by technical errors
The vast majority of bets that are accepted and then modified or rejected are affected by technical errors of some form or other. Let’s face it, no sportsbook wants to accept bets and then have to change them, so they’ll do all they can to avoid that happening.
Bets that are accepted but then modified or rejected aren’t great for the customer experience, and they cause extra work for the sportsbook itself. The problem is, sportsbooks work with markets that can be incredibly dynamic, so any tiny error can have a big impact in terms of the bets that are accepted.
All sportsbooks cover themselves in the event of technical glitches, though, so bets placed as a result rarely stand. Sportsbooks will instead seek to modify or reject these as quickly as possible to avoid having to pay out as a result of system delays or failures.
Covers Expert Tip
How to avoid bet rejections
Bet rejections often happen as a result of circumstances that are entirely out of a player’s control, but there are a few things that players can do to make such events less likely. Here are a few tips on how to reduce your risk of bet modifications and rejections.
Accept odds movement
If you’re happy to accept changes in odds after placing your bet, you can choose to ‘accept odds changes’. Such movement is unlikely on single bets, but if you’re placing a lot of multiples it could mean the difference between a rejected bet and an accepted one. So, if you don’t mind the odds changing once your bet goes through, and you’d rather play on than cancel the bet entirely, it might be worth checking this box.
Be quick when placing bets
If you’re betting on a fast-moving market, don’t delay. Any time you spend deliberating might mean losing out on the odds that piqued your interest in the first place, because if odds change in the seconds before you place your bet the sportsbook may modify or even reject it entirely. Move quickly to give yourself the best possible chance of placing your bet at the offered odds.
If in doubt, contact customer support
Bet rejections can happen for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes the cause is explained, but not always. If you’re ever in doubt as to why your bet was rejected or modified, contact the sportsbook’s customer support team via phone, live chat or email. Staff will be able to tell you exactly what’s happened, and they’ll be on hand to help you place a new bet if you choose to.
