DraftKings error: Player wins $934,000
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25 Dec 2025 •
Reading time: 3 minutes A successful bet can change a life – sometimes even without the initial intention of cheating. In a spectacular development in the world of sports betting, an error in the DraftKings system led to a win of almost a million dollars for an American punter.
A mistake that pays off
In October 2025, a DraftKings customer based in Massachusetts placed a series of 27 combined bets on the performance of Toronto Blue Jays player Nathan Lukes in the American Baseball League Championship Series. What appeared to be simple bets turned into a fortune cup for the punter.
The error stemmed from a misclassification of the player by the DraftKings system: Lukes had been recorded as a non-participant, even though he was indeed in contention to play. This anomaly deactivated the internal protections designed to prevent the combination of linked selections in combined bets. Taking advantage of this loophole, the punter placed successive bets on Lukes reaching at least 5, 6, 7 and finally 8 hits in the series – selections that are normally incompatible together.
Understanding the flaw: how a simple bet becomes a jackpot
In the world of sports betting, platforms like DraftKings apply internal controls to prevent correlated bets from being combined in the same bet. This prevents artificially amplified winnings. In this particular case, Lukes’ misclassification circumvented these safety mechanisms, transforming a logical succession of bets into a single, highly profitable bet.
The punter placed total bets of around $12,950, sometimes adding additional low-risk selections to maximise return without increasing overall risk. At the end of the series, Lukes had nine hits, making most of his bets winners.
DraftKings admits the mistake… but disputes it
As soon as the error was identified, DraftKings withdrew the markets concerned and attempted to rectify the situation. The platform felt that this was an obvious error that should have led to the bets being cancelled, rather than paid out in full as placed. According to a DraftKings legal officer, the way in which the punter had structured his bets showed an extreme deviation from standard behaviour and a deliberate exploitation of the flaw.
The company had offered to settle the case by paying the punter on the basis of a single Lukes bet of eight or more hits, which would have significantly reduced the final amount to around $95,742 according to their calculations.
The outcome: a spectacular but controversial win
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) examined the case and reached a clear verdict: the operator, not the punter, must bear the consequences of its internal error. In a unanimous decision, the Commission rejected DraftKings’ request to cancel or modify the bets.
In his statement, one of the commissioners pointed out that internal controls were supposed to prevent this type of flaw. This opinion highlights a clear priority for the regulators: protecting punters from operators’ loopholes, even when the latter consider the advantage gained to be unfair.
In the end, the commission ordered DraftKings to pay the full amount of the bets as placed, i.e. $934,147 (nearly €795,000). This sum far exceeds what the operator thought was fair. For the bettor, this is a major victory; for DraftKings, a costly lesson.
The DraftKings case is a reminder that the world of sports betting depends on complex technology, where a simple error can have major financial consequences. As platforms continue to innovate to attract punters, regulation ensures that these innovations do not compromise security and fairness.