US $2.5 mil NFL gaming contest ends in controversy: report
A $2.5 million sports betting contest ended in controversy after the leader was prevented from making a final wager because winnings weren't credited quickly enough between NFL playoff games. Randy Lee of New Jersey won the $1 million top prize in the three-day DraftKings Sports Betting National Championship with a final $47,500 bet on the Philadelphia Eagles, who lost 20-14 to New Orleans on Sunday but covered the spread to give Lee the top total of $101,474, ESPN reported Monday. But Rufus Peabody, a former ESPN employee who founded an American football analysis website, had been leading the contest with almost $82,000 after winning an all-in wager on the New England Patriots, who beat the Los Angeles Chargers 41-28 in Sunday's other NFL playoff game. The Patriots game ended only four minutes before the Saints-Eagles game kicked off and Peabody told ESPN he refreshed his computer in vain waiting for his winnings to be credited in time for an all-in wager on a Saints victory or an under-52 point total, either of which would have made him the contest winner. Instead, the early winnings were not credited to his account before the later game began and all betting was locked out. Peabody tweeted a screen shot from after the game began showing his account with a one-cent total. "OK, now that I know it did cost me a million I'm a little more upset," Peabody later tweeted after finishing third, still worth more than $330,000. More than 200 people from across the United States paid the $10,000 entry fee and made more than $5 million in wagers as part of the contest. "We recognize that in the rules the scheduled end of betting coincided very closely to the finish of the Patriots-Chargers game," DraftKings said in a statement to ESPN. "While we must follow our contest rules, we sincerely apologize for the experience several customers had where their bets were not graded in time to allow wagering on the Saints-Eagles game. We will learn from this experience and improve upon the rules and experience for future events." New Jersey gaming enforcement officials told ESPN on Monday they were reviewing the matter. The contest was the first of its kind since legal sports betting outside Nevada was authorized by a US Supreme Court decision last May.
