Having been in place since June, the National Football League’s regular referees lockout came to a hasty resolution this week following the botched call by a replacement referee which handed the Seattle Seahawks a 14-12 victory over the Green Bay Packers. In the wake of the damaging decision, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell apologized for the low standard of officiating, commenting:
“We are sorry to have to put our fans through that, but in the short term it’s something you do to make sure you get the right type of agreement for the long term. We weren’t going to shut down football. It is painful in the process.”
As a consequence of the game-changing call which should have ended as a 12-7 victory for Green Bay, an army of sport betters were left even more upset than Green Bay Packers fans, with an estimated 100% shift in bets recorded worldwide worth around $150 million. However, odds-maker Danny Sheridan believes that figure was considerably higher and could have been as much as $1 billion as a result of the touchdown call.
In light of the fiasco, several bookmakers including D Las Vegas owner Derek Stevens have now offered refunds to gamblers who lost money as a result of the controversial touchdown. Highlighting his “disgust” over the ruling, Stevens commented: “I know exactly how it would feel if I was laying the number and I saw what happened.”
Nevertheless, the decision by some bookmakers to refund players bets was not received well by all involved in the industry with Jay Kornegay from The LVH casino explaining: “Whenever there are bad calls we’re going to start refunding? Based on what? We’re supposed to pay out winning wagers based on official final scores by the league, in this case the NFL.”
