How The Metrodome Roof Collapse Impacts NFL Betting

Added on Dec 13, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The biggest story of the NFL football Sunday was the collapse of the Metrodome roof due to heavy snow in the Minneapolis area and subsequent rescheduling of the game for Monday night at Ford Field in Detroit. Since I had any number of questions from people about how sportsbooks would handle the situation relative to NFL football betting on the Vikings/Giants game I figured some of the Sports Betting World readership may also want to know how this works.

From a general standpoint, the long standing ‘rule of thumb’ in the bookmaking business–at least as it relates to US team sports– is that any event not completed on its scheduled date is ‘no action’. Games that are delayed for weather or other factors don’t result in a cancelled bet unless they’re not completed after they start. Sportbooks aren’t trying to play ‘gotcha!’ here so there are exceptions–a baseball game that goes to extra innings and isn’t concluded until after midnight may not technically be completed on the date scheduled but bets would certainly be honored and winners and losers paid. Ultimately, the decision to honor or cancel betting on an individual event is up to the sportbook’s discretion and generally common sense is applied.

In a situation like the one involving the Giants and Vikings today, once the official decision is made to postpone the game to a later date it becomes ‘no action’ and all bets are refunded. This would have been the case if the Metrodome had hypothetically been ready for play tomorrow–a player who bet on the game would have to bet it again even though it would essentially be the same matchup one day later. Since the game has been moved to a ‘neutral site’, the new line on the game is slightly different since the Vikings no longer have home field advantage. When we previewed the game last week the line was New York -2′ or thereabouts. The rescheduled game was opened Giants -3 and has been bet up to Giants -4. It would appear that the linesmakers priced this game to reflect that the indoor venue at Ford Field is at least slightly more advantageous to a Vikings team used to playing in a dome. The ‘theoretical’ home field advantage would be -3′ though obviously some teams have a stronger or weaker advantage on their own field.

Note that the ‘same day’ stipulation isn’t universal and there are a number of exceptions–particularly in individual sports and international team sports. Some books stipulate that games must be played within a set number of hours from originally scheduled and even this varies by sport. For example, one book I’m aware of requires that NBA, NHL and MLB games be played within 12 hours of the originally scheduled start time. NFL games are required to be played within 48 hours of the scheduled start time. Other books have different rules for soccer (24 and 48 hours of the originally scheduled time is common) and individual sports like boxing. Most books I’m aware of stipulate that boxing matches must take place within two weeks of the originally scheduled date. In most cases a venue change is an automatic bet cancellation though some books have different standards for North American and European sports as well as college and pro sports.

As far as the Giants/Vikings game is concerned, I’ve yet to hear from anyone who bet the game offshore or in Nevada that *didn’t* have their bet cancelled due to the postponement and venue change. It’s always a good idea to have at least a general familiarity with the rules of any sportsbook you play at–at least for fairly common scenarios like rescheduled games.