Massachusetts Regulators Reject DraftKings Bid To Void $934,137 Payout

By Bill Speros

Dec 18th, 2025 11:38 AM EST

Boston-based DraftKings will have to pay $934,137 in winnings it sought to have voided, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission ruled by a 5-0 vote Thursday.

DraftKings told regulators that a patron had strung together a series of "Total Hit" wagers on Toronto Blue Jays player Nathan Lukes during the 2025 American League Championship Series. The patron used them to form several multi-leg parlays. His bets hit when the player finished with nine hits in the 7-game series against Seattle.

A review of the wagering data showed 27 parlays tied to the error. Of those, 24 would have resulted in full payouts totaling roughly $828,104.77 if all correlated legs were honored. Only three parlays included losing, non-correlated legs — tied to college football outcomes involving Clemson, Florida State, and Miami.

The book told regulators that a trader mistakenly allowed those "total hit" wagers to be strung together in multi-leg parlays. The "total hit" parlays of 5, 6, 7 and 8 hits in the series were combined with high-probability NFL money line wagers to boost their payout.

'Compulsion To Pay Will In Fact Encourage Compliance'

A heated discussion with Paul Harrington of DraftKings occurred Thursday during the MGC's meeting before the Commissioners' vote.

In that same meeting, as first reported by bookies.com, the MGC approved the first-in-the-nation regulations concerning player limits.

"We believe this customer was engaging in fraud and unethical behavior at DraftKings' expense," Harrington said. However, MGC Commissioner Eileen O'Brien blasted Harrington for his characterization of the patron, to for making allegations about the patron that were not previously reported to the Commission.

"An obvious error is a legal and factual impossibility. This is advantage that the patron took. I take issues with casting aspersions on a patron when no evidence was given to sports wagering," O'Brien said. "We need to seriously consider giving voice to the consumer and getting their half the story . . . The compulsion to pay will in fact encourage compliance."

'Misclassification' Labeled Player As A 'Non-Participant'

A configuration error inside DraftKings’ trading tools opened the door to a rare – and costly – parlay loophole tied to Lukes.

The issue stemmed from a misclassification that labeled Lukes as a “non-participant” rather than an active player in the sportsbook’s “Player to Record X+ Hits in Series” markets. That designation allowed a single trader to bypass built-in safeguards designed to prevent bettors from parlaying correlated outcomes from the same market.

As a result, bettors were able to combine multiple Lukes hit-threshold props into one wager — including 5+ hits (-303), 6+ hits (-105), 7+ hits (+235), and 8+ hits (+550). Functionally, the parlays created a single, inflated wager on Lukes recording eight or more hits in the series, but at dramatically enhanced odds. Some of those parlays also included unrelated legs, such as NFL outcomes like a Kansas City Chiefs win.

Play Broke Bettors Way On The Field

On the field, everything broke the bettor’s way.

Toronto defeated Seattle 4-3 in the seven-game series, with Lukes appearing in all seven contests and finishing with nine total hits. That performance cleared every listed threshold, meaning all Lukes-related legs would grade as winners if not voided.

DraftKings, however, proposed a partial void rather than a full payout. Under the operator’s plan, the lower hit thresholds (5+, 6+, and 7+) would be treated as lesser-included, correlated selections and voided. Each wager would then be recalculated based solely on the 8+ hits leg and any unrelated outcomes. That adjustment would reduce the total payout to $95,742.53, including $84,242.53 in winnings and $11,500 in returned stakes.

Upon discovering the error, DraftKings pulled the affected markets, left the wagers unsettled pending regulatory guidance, and implemented corrective fixes. The operator said no other Massachusetts customers were impacted, though the same issue appeared in two other jurisdictions.

Regulatory responses varied.

Pennsylvania regulators allowed DraftKings to void the correlated selections. New Jersey, however, denied the request outright and ruled that all wagers must be paid at the odds at which they were accepted.

DraftKings asked the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to approve the same partial-void approach, arguing it ensures fair settlement, prevents exploitation, and upholds long-standing rules against correlated parlays. The operator said there is no direct evidence the bettor intentionally exploited the error, though the repeated placement of similar wagers suggests awareness that the odds were unusually favorable.

Still, DraftKings acknowledged the root cause was internal — a configuration failure within its own trading tools — and not the result of a third-party feed or external system. The error went undetected before the markets were offered, setting the stage for a seven-figure headache and yet another test of how regulators balance consumer protection with sportsbook accountability.

MGC Has Let DraftKings Off The Hook In The Past

This is not the first time DraftKings asked to be let off the hook for a major six-figure payday in the Commonwealth. On Nov. 30, 2023, the MGC voided 178 bets at DraftKings which would have cost the site $575,436.82 in winnings. Instead, bettors were refunded their original wagers and given 3X those totals in bonus bets.

The bets were made on a Los Angeles Lakers-Denver Nuggets game played on October 24 of that year. The wagers in question were featured and made by Same Game Parlay (SPG) players. Incorrect full-game totals were posted on players, but should have been just for the first quarter. For instance, the full-game totals for LeBron James that night were listed as 8.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 6.5 assists.

A total of 137 players took advantage of the skewed numbers. They bet $4,182.36 in what was called a "Black Swan Event" during a November 16, 2024, hearing on the matter by Jake List of DraftKings. List called it "an extremely large error." One $100 wager hit for $150,000, according to Commissioner Nakisha Skinner.

DraftKings said the numbers were the result of an error by Sportcast, an odds provider. The incorrect numbers were up for all of 13 minutes in the afternoon of October 23. Yet, bettors still pounced. Sportcast had made an error with similar wagers in January of 2023 outside Massachusetts, yet was still being used by DraftKings that following October. That mistake led to more than $318,000 in wagers being voided. That issue stuck with Commissioners. 

Different States Have Different Rules When It Comes To Voids

The MGC, which usually votes 5-0 in most matters, split its vote on two motions. The first motion to force DK to pay out on bets was defeated by a 3-2 vote. The second motion, which agreed to void the bets, passed 3-2 only after DK agreed to pay a 3X cash bonus out to each patron affected. 

DraftKings was able to void similar SGPs on that Lakers-Nuggets game in 17 of the 19 jurisdictions outside Massachusetts where they were taken. Different states have different rules when it comes to voiding wagers.

Bettors in Connecticut and New Jersey have been paid out on their wagers, the company added. New Jersey rules prohibit voiding wagers because of "obvious error." There are no provisions for such an issue in Connecticut. The liability for DraftKings in Connecticut was $151,000, the MGC said.

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