Astros Scandal Leads PointsBet Sportsbook To Refund Yankees Bets From Last Season

Surely by now, you have heard about the recent scandals in Major League Baseball. The Houston Astros cheated, that we know for sure. They have fired their GM Jeff Luhnow, their manager A.J. Hinch, and have been fined and had draft picks removed. That we know for sure.

Unfortunately for baseball, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Now the Red Sox and Mets are involved, as former Astros’ coach Alex Cora has been fired from the Red Sox for his involvement and the Mets’ former manager Carlos Beltran stepped down before ever managing a game. Without a doubt, this is a crisis for Major League Baseball.

What about all the bettors who bet against the Astros to win? Do they deserve something?

PointsBet USA thinks so.

PointsBet Refunds Yankees Futures & World Series Bets

In a terrific gesture (and calculated PR move), PointsBet USA has declared they will refund all Yankees American League and Yankees World Series Futures bets from last season, in full. This will start a chain reaction, and certainly makes PointsBet look like the “good guy” as far as operators go.

Just based on replies to the tweet, there will certainly be pressure on other legal sportsbooks to do the same. Are they obligated to? No, but that is the point (no pun intended). With PointsBet on the forefront as the first sportsbook to do this, they gain a plethora of national PR, which helps them in the current “Gold Rush” of sportsbook apps in the US.

Good Karma Refund and the Karma Kommittee

PointsBet is calling this the “Good Karma Refund”, which they have done in the past after other questionable results. In Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the St. Louis Blues and the Boston Bruins, officials missed a tripping call in the third period, and had a direct impact on the final score. PointsBet elected to refund these bets to those who lost on the “bad call”.

PointsBet also refunded bettors over the terrible uncalled pass interference penalty in last year’s NFC Championship game between the New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams. That one call changed the outcome of a huge football game, and possibly the Super Bowl. PointsBet has also gone “Good Karma Refunds” for other sporting events, such as Duke vs. UCF college basketball, and Virginia vs. Purdue in the same sport.

PointsBet has a “committee” they call the “Karma Kommittee” that assigns these refunds. Great idea for a forward-thinking sportsbook, and bettors are rewarded for some bad beats.