[NuclearTacos]

The situation:


I placed a bet on Hanwha Life Esports vs T1, League of Legends, KESPA cup.
About a day later, the rosters were announced for the teams, and T1 announced they are bringing their academy players to play in this tournament.
Nitrogen cancelled my bet and said that "the T1 v Hanwha Life Esports match has been cancelled since T1 Academy will represent the organization for this tournament."
I checked, and while these are players that are on the Academy team, they will be representing T1's main organization at this tournament. This was not a team substitution, but rather a substitution of players. T1 Academy is a separate entity, and is not registered for this tournament, nor are they allowed to be as the KESPA cup is only for the 10 teams in the LCK.
I explained the distinction to nitrogen support via several tickets, and that per their rules the bet should stand, as it is no different than a Major League Baseball team calling up players from AAA to play in a game.
They eventually acknowledged that it is indeed NOT the Academy team, but just academy players playing for the team in this message:

The following is to inform you that our team has reviewed your claim and advised the bet is correctly cancelled for the following reason: "While the original (main) team is still playing the match, members from the T1 academy have been added to the team. However, since members from the academy are apprentices the odds change drastically. For instance this is like betting on the Super Bowl for the Kansas City Chiefs to win, but then having a last minute change on the quarterback from Patrick Mahomes II to Matt McDonald. The odds in that case would also drastically change since a very important member of the team has been changed/ replaced. Please let us know if you need assistance with anything else."*

I proceeded to explain that their analogy proves my point. If Mahomes were to be subbed out before the super bowl, all bets would still stand regardless of how good or bad his replacement was.
I pointed out Rule 8 regarding e-sports subtitutions:
Player Retirement/Substitution If a match is not completed because of player retirement or disqualification, all ML on the outcome are still valid and will be based on the official declared winner. All bets on the spread or total will be refunded. If a player is substituted before or during the match, all wagers are valid.
Their response was this:

As previously advised, your wager was thoroughly reviewed and it is correctly graded as cancelled.
Note that every time a change that impact the odds drastically is made the wagers will be cancelled, odds modify and lines reposted whether it is for an eSport or football, soccer, etc match.
As for the rule you're citing on your last message, note that it does not apply since the match has not started yet and it is schedule for the 22nd of December. This rule would take affect if in the middle of the game or right before it a player had to retired or was disqualify, and/or if the odds did not take such a change.

This is obviously not true. Large shifts in odds happen all the time, especially this year due to covid and bets are not cancelled.


I asked them to give the case to someone for a fresh pair of eyes higher up or from their marketing department, as I did not want to have to take the issue to SBR or bring it to social media in an unfavorable light.

Their most recent answer was:

Lets take a step back and take a look at the situation at hand. We have the line 13242474 (T1 v Hanwha Life Esports) This line's odds where made believing that T1 main team was to play in the cup. Upon further review we find that to be incorrect, as T1 Academy players will be replacing original T1 squad members. Naturally this would change the odds of the wager, which it has, making HLE the favorite for this wager. The cancelation is in accordance with the first rule in our General Rules section: https://nitrogensports.eu/n/rules 1.Obviously "bad" lines or odds "Nitrogen Sports reserves the right to cancel any bet that was made on an obviously "bad" line or odd." We are reserving the right to cancel this line as the odds where a mistake. This is our final stand on the matter, you are still able to place the wager for the 22nd, with the correct odds now available.

Now I know what an obviously bad line was, but this was not that. There was no clerical error. The line wasn't reversed. They keep moving the goalposts and even then they don't meet their own criteria.


Should I file an official report through SBR? I do feel that I am in the right here, from as objective a point of view a bettor can have.

[nbcol987]

They have every rights to cancel your bet in this case honestly. Their rules states about "bad" lines, not "reversed" lines, and in this case that's definitely a bad line since T1 replaced their entire main roster with academy team.

[NuclearTacos]

Why would that be any different than the Lakers resting all of their starters for a game? Or a soccer squad playing their B team in a friendly with a late roster announcement? Those things happen routinely and are not considered a bad line?

They set the line without knowing the roster, I bet without knowing the roster. There is always an element of risk to roster decisions by teams in any sport, virtual or physical. They seem unwilling to accept any of that risk here though.

[nbcol987]

Why would that be any different than the Lakers resting all of their starters for a game? Or a soccer squad playing their B team in a friendly with a late roster announcement? Those things happen routinely and are not considered a bad line?

They set the line without knowing the roster, I bet without knowing the roster. There is always an element of risk to roster decisions by teams in any sport, virtual or physical. They seem unwilling to accept any of that risk here though.

Do Nitrogen also refund bets in these cases ( have to ask since i don't use them ). If they don't then i guess you have the right to complaint in this case.

[NuclearTacos]

They do not, and I don't know any sportsbook that would. Most books have the "obvious bad line" clause in their rules to protect themselves from legitimate mistakes on their end.

Examples would be setting a line at 22 odds instead of 2.2, or putting the Chiefs as 7 pt underdogs instead of favorites because someone entering the line hit the wrong key.

[caramba]

Yes, file a complaint through SBR. You are in the right here.

[Foxx]

Interesting. I can see them rightfully canceling any bets made after the substitution announcement before they had a chance to change the line, but this case is a bit different. The question is did they cancel bets people made on T1 before the announcement, or did they only cancel the side that moved against them.

[Foxx]

And their analogy about Mahomes sucked.

[NuclearTacos]

Interesting. I can see them rightfully canceling any bets made after the substitution announcement before they had a chance to change the line, but this case is a bit different. The question is did they cancel bets people made on T1 before the announcement, or did they only cancel the side that moved against them.

My understanding is they cancelled all wagers on the line altogether. So they are treating their customers "fairly" despite it not being the correct ruling IMO.