Bettors discovered a stat-keeping blunder that affected the final score and point spread of a mid-major college basketball game between Illinois State and Chicago State on Saturday, causing some Illinois bookmakers to refund out winning wagers on both teams.
The company that monitors the betting market, U.S. Integrity, issued a notice to its sportsbook clients on Sunday morning about the likely scoring disparity in the Illinois State-Chicago State game.
The defeats dropped Chicago State to 3-6 and NIU to 2-6. Chicago State’s field goal percentage is 38.80 percent, which ranks them 12th in collegiate basketball. The Huskies have had their own issues, as they enter the game with the 357th fewest points per game in NCAA basketball, averaging only 54.6 points per game.
The incorrect score, however, remained on both sports programs’ websites Monday afternoon, as well as on NCAA.com and most major media sources, including ESPN.com.
How it unfolded
The mishap struck late in the second half of Illinois State’s game against Chicago State. A free throw shot by Illinois State’s Josiah Strong with 49 seconds remaining was incorrectly reported as a miss. Illinois State, a 9.5 or 10-point favorite at most sportsbooks, proceeded to win by nine points, 80-71, minus free throws.
On Monday, Chicago State’s athletic division discovered the error and was working with the NCAA to fix the score.
Statistics crews and any team scorer maintaining their team’s book, according to NCAA director of media coordination and statistics David Worlock, generally verify data with the official scorer, who is selected by the referee.
In an email to ESPN, Warlock acknowledged the issue. “From our discussion with Chicago State, the NCAA understands the statistics crew’s score did not reconcile with the official scorer’s score, as is common practice,” he said. “The NCAA relies upon its institutions to provide the final statistics and ensure their accuracy.”
College sports communications departments usually maintain statistics and report them to Genius Sports, the NCAA’s official data disseminator.
Human error
Human error happens from time to time throughout the stat-keeping procedure and is frequently promptly addressed. Sports bookmakers who pay careful attention say the most common inaccuracies include halftime scores, and revisions on individual player data, such as the over/under on rushing or passing yards in football, may often take days to update.
“In terms of the actual final game score being incorrect, though, that is very rare,” explained Jay Croucher, the director of trading for sportsbook PointsBet.
Caesars Sportsbook and PointsBet were among the first to say that they will pay out on any bets that would have won at the corrected score of 81-71 while leaving the wagers that profited from the scoring mistake untouched.
“In this case, we’ve let all bets be winners, the ones that were with the incorrect score and the ones that would’ve won with the correction,” Croucher said in a statement. “There’s kind of a statute of limitations, where we don’t want to basically be coming after people’s money two days later, particularly on a game like that.”
Considering betting interest in the game was mild and comparable to other mid-major matches on Saturday, sportsbooks didn’t lose much money by agreeing to fulfill winning bets at any final score.
The game was not provided by Illinois bookmakers, which are forbidden from accepting wagers on games featuring in-state schools. However, enough bettors were involved to bring the issue to light on social media, prompting the bookmaker to refund.
Statistical errors, according to Croucher, are just the cost of doing business. “If there’s an incorrect final score on the Super Bowl a couple of days later, we’ll have to see about that,” he said.
Chicago State Cougars
The Chicago State Cougars are the varsity athletic teams representing Chicago State University of Chicago, Illinois in intercollegiate athletics.
Chicago
Chicago shih-KAH-goh, locally also shih-KAW-goh;), officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the third most populous city in the United States,