The NFL exhibition season opened Thursday with the Bears’ 21-17 victory over the Texans in the Hall of Fame Game.
But, unfortunately for some bettors, the game ending before the clock struck 0:00 wasn’t a fun outcome.
The game was called with 3:31 remaining in the third quarter because of bad weather. Once that happened, the question on people’s minds was what would happen to everyone’s bets?
The answer upset those who had the Bears at +2.5, on the moneyline and the Under, as those bets were voided at a majority of sportsbooks due to house rules.
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Jeff Benson, Circa Sportsbook operations manager, was on the front lines to handle the blowback on social media.
Benson explained that, because the contest didn’t go 55 minutes, Circa would be issuing refunds on full-game moneyline, side and total bets — plus the same for the second half.
“I didn’t have arguing football House Rules on Aug 1 on my bingo card, but here we are,” the operations manager noted on social media. “This stuff is extremely simple guys. No, we didn’t call in a lighting strike because we were heavy on the Under.
“No, we aren’t going to pay out your Over.”
Former bookmaker and friend of the FOX Sports gambling team Dave Sharapan also chimed in with his take and FanDuel Sportsbook’s house rules.
Regarding house rules, every book has its own policies for handling these kinds of situations.
As expected, Chicago’s No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams didn’t see the field at quarterback. Instead, in the shortened game, Bears backup Brett Rypien’s performance was one highlight for the winning side.
He went 11-of-15 for 166 yards with three touchdown passes.
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