While most bettors on Saturday were sweating out the Army-Navy game or prepping their parlays for Week 14 of NFL action, sportsbooks around the country were focusing in on an otherwise unimportant men’s basketball game between Illinois State and Chicago State.
It wasn’t really the play on the court that caught the attention of gamblers, but instead an extremely bizarre accounting error on the scoreboard. Somehow, a single made free throw by Illinois State with 40 seconds remaining in regulation was not reflected in the final score. That one point likely had bettors going wild as the Redbirds won, 80-71, but failed to cover a 10-point consensus spread.
A late made free throw by Illinois St apparently was recorded as a miss in Saturday's game vs. Chicago St. With the scoring discrepancy, the Redbirds, who were 9.5/10-point favorites at most sportsbooks, won 80-71.
[h/t @joeytunes2, @capjack2000, @jeffedelstein]
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) December 13, 2021
The line may have shifted depending on sportsbook (Tipico and Caesars were among those offering ISU -9.5), but the impact was all the same. And it left bettors and books asking the same question:
How could this happen?
😭they tried to finnese https://t.co/xLGrx6Wv9a
— Josiah Strong (@jbuckets5) December 13, 2021
Video from the game shows Illinois State’s Josiah Strong made both free throws, though only one was recorded. The two teams continued to play, ending the game before the score could be adjusted.
Strong noticed the mishap, too, and probably wants his point back as much as anyone. Whatever led to the mistake had a number of books trying to correct the issue over the weekend.
PointsBet decided to payout all bets on either side of the spread. Caesars did, too.
The final score in Saturday’s Chicago State vs Illinois State College Basketball Game was incorrectly listed as 80-71 Illinois State, when it should have been 81-71.
With the spread at #CaesarsSportsbook listed at 9.5, Caesar has decided to pay out both outcomes.
— Caesars Sportsbook (@CaesarsSports) December 13, 2021
Fortunately, there was no residual impact on the Over/Under. The over 137.5 cashed easily.
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