Although it was a good fight in and of itself, a lot of people felt understandably disappointed in the split draw at the end of the Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight. After all, draws are almost always unsatisfying, paticulary when a lot of people vehemently disagree with the scorecards. But it was the 118-110 card in favor of Canelo that drew the most ire of fans and media members.
Now ESPN reports that following the controversial decision, a lot of bettors lined up at their local sportsbook looking to be refunded their wagers, and a lot of them were. People who placed straight bets on who would win the fight got their money back, but those who placed proposition bets (like method of victory) were not refunded.
“There were some long lines, with some of the customers happy to get their money back and others disappointed,” Frank Kunovic, director of specialty games at Caesars Palace, told ESPN. “They weren’t yelling at us, but I think they were frustrated like we were about the decision.”
The Caesar’s Palace reportedly took a six figure loss on the eventual fallout.
Likewise, the MGM Grand took the biggest wager on the fight — a $500,000 wager for Gennady Golovkin to win. That bet was also refunded (in chips) by the hotel and casino.
The sportsbooks did feel at least somewhat relieved that this didn’t happen in the Mayweather-McGregor fight last month, though, otherwise they would’ve been in big trouble.
“A lot of people got refunds,” Westgate SuperBook vice president Jay Kornegay said. “But thank God it wasn’t a Mayweather-McGregor draw. We’d be refunding for a week.”
Throughout Nevada it’s estimated that roughly $20-$30M in bets were placed on this fight, which was only about a third of what was wagered on Mayweather-McGregor.
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