DraftKings Beats Class Action Over Canceled NBA Bets
An Indiana federal judge has ruled in favor of DraftKings in a class action brought by 99 bettors after the operator canceled a batch of winning NBA wagers in 2023, ending a two-year legal fight over one of the industry's most-watched bet-voiding disputes.
Judge James Patrick Hanlon of the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana ruled that DraftKings was within its rights to cancel lead plaintiff Matthew McAfee's bet the day after the game, siding with the operator's argument that the wagers were accepted at erroneous odds.
The case centered on a seven-leg same-game parlay that McAfee placed on the October 24, 2023, Los Angeles Lakers-Denver Nuggets game, which would have paid $150,000 on a $100 stake had DraftKings honored it.
Multiple Winning Bets
McAfee was one of 99 Indiana residents who placed 140 winning bets on the same game within a seven-minute window that evening, all of which DraftKings declined to pay.
He sued for breach of contract and under Indiana's Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, and won class certification in December 2025 after Hanlon found the group shared a common set of facts that could be resolved with the same evidence, according to the court's own order.
A Long-Running Fight Over Erroneous Odds
DraftKings had argued throughout the litigation that its house rules entitled it to void bets placed on markets with incorrect odds, pointing to player-prop lines, such as an over/under of 9.5 points for Nikola Jokic, that were far below the players' season averages during the relevant window.
McAfee's side countered that the house rules were never part of his contract with the operator and could not be used to justify voiding an accepted, won bet after the fact.
Hanlon had previously allowed the breach-of-contract claim to proceed past a February 2025 motion to dismiss, while narrowing the case by dismissing the consumer-protection claim. That set up the class-wide trial that DraftKings has now avoided with this ruling.
Why Bettors Should Pay Attention
The ruling is a reminder that sportsbooks retain broad contractual latitude to void bets placed on mispriced markets, even after a game has finished and a payout has been calculated.
Bettors who want the strongest protection against a similar dispute should read the operator's house rules before placing large stakes on same-game parlays, and keep records of odds and bet slips in case a market is later disputed.
DraftKings has faced several similar suits over voided bets in the past two years as US sportsbooks lean more heavily on same-game parlays and live-betting markets, where pricing errors are more likely to occur during fast-moving games.
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