PointsBet, one of New Jersey’s 17 vibrant sportsbooks, lost more than $1m on NFL football this past weekend.
But its management is not complaining. To the contrary, they are looking at the loss as a positive. They believe it will highlight their unique points betting system and the excitement it can bring to sports betting.
From the moment PointsBet launched in New Jersey six months ago it’s been a horse of a different color.
And this for a few different reasons; one being the unique points betting system it brought to New Jersey from Australia.
Another was its willingness to give punters back their lost stakes after bad referee’s calls or freak results.
And a third was its attention-getting early payouts on events not due for conclusion for weeks and even months.
The Heisman Trophy payout
PointsBet did this, for example, for all its punter who placed future bets on Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray winning the 2019 Heisman Trophy.
Not all of their gambles like this have paid off, but this one did. As we know, Murray did win the Heisman.
Now, we note, two New Jersey punters have each won small fortunes in NFL wagers using PointsBet’s one-of-a-kind points bet system.
Darren Rovell of Action Network reports that one of them made a cool $600,000 betting on the Ravens beating the Dolphins at $30,000 per point. The other took home $169,000 betting on the Chiefs beating the Jaguars at $17,800 a point.
Overall NFL football was extremely unkind to PointsBet this weekend past. Those two bets along with a parcel of smaller ones cost PointsBet more than $1 million, the Sportsbook’s CEO Johnny Aitken told Action Network.
“We lost a lot of money on points betting this weekend, “said Aitken who has estimated that points betting makes up 10% of his company’s business.
Here’s how points betting works
Before we go any further with these two big losing bets, perhaps we should briefly explain how points betting works.
To start with punters have to decide on how much they are willing to bet in dollars per point. Also on which side of the spread they prefer.
They next must opt for how much they wish to win (or alternatively, are willing to lose). They do this by determining what multiple of their stake they want.
“Some bettors are OK with doubling their money if they are right about a team winning by a certain margin,” Aitken said. “Our model allows you to make a lot more money depending on how right you are.”
The punter who bet on the Ravens (-6) put a stop on his risk at 20 times his $30,000 per-point-stake. When the Ravens won 59-10 (by 49 points) he therefore made a maximum of $600,000 (20 x $30,000).
If he hadn’t set that 20 x stop on the bet, he would’ve picked up $1.29million (49-6 = 43pts x R30, 000).
The Down side
Alternatively, on the down side; had the Ravens lost, the punter would have lost $600,000 (or $1,29m without any risk-stop)
The punter who bet on the Chiefs (-4.5), meanwhile, did not have a risk stop. He bet $17,800 per point on the Chiefs regardless of the number of points scored one way or the other.
He won $169,100 because Kansas City won by 14 points (9 when you subtract the -4.5 odds). He could not have won or lost by more than that
PointsBet allows its punter to win up to 50 times so if Chiefs had won by 49 points as the Ravens did), punter No 2 would have won $872,200.
After the bet is made, PointsBet retains the wagered amount. If the punter loses his bet they hold on to it. If he wins, it is returned to the punter along with his/ her winnings.
We pay right away
And as Aitken says, “Unlike the illegal sportsbooks, we pay right away. “Wire, ACH, check, however they want it.”
Aitken is well aware that points betting will take time for Americans to embrace. However, he believes the beating it took this past weekend might help grow its profile and the excitement it can generate
“We think this product will be stronger in markets where people are used to trading derivatives like Wall Street and Chicago’s Mercantile Exchange.
On the risk points betting poses for his company, Aitken said he was confident that the employees behind it “know what they are doing”.
“This company was founded with US sports in mind,” he said. “I believe our risk guys are the best in the game.”