Sportsbooks Introduce New Player Injury Refund Systems

Recently, many sportsbooks have followed Fanatics’ example and added measures for player injuries. If a player is injured during an event that significantly affects the bet, customers can receive a refund or adjust the bet. Read on for details on these new systems and how they affect player betting options.

DraftKings’ Early Exit

DraftKings helps customers recover their funds as credits with Early Exit. The bet must be made on pre-match or full game player props to qualify for this feature. The bet will be refunded or adjusted if a player is injured early in the game. Currently, the feature works for most major leagues like the NBA and NFL.

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If it’s a single bet, customers receive cash credits. Meanwhile, if it’s a parlay leg, it will be ruled void and the odds will be recalculated. Note that the timeframe varies for each sport. For example, the feature is active for the 1st quarter of a regular NBA season and the 1st half of post-season games.

FanDuel’s Bet Protect

FanDuel also offers an insurance system through Bet Protect. It applies to players injured in the first quarter of an NFL game. While this one is focused exclusively on NFL player prop bets, it pays out all straights within 24 hours as bonus bets. Customers can only place pre-live bets, but same game parlays are applicable. You can only bet on markets that include:

• Offensive players
• Certain defensive players

The leg will be removed for parlays, and your odds will be recalculated. If the other legs win, you will be paid in bonus bets. That is similar to the Bet Back Token that was launched during March Madness, allowing customers to bet on other events.

ESPN Bet’s Injury Insurance

ESPN Bet has also joined the bandwagon with its injury insurance system. Unlike FanDuel it works for the entire first half for NFL props and is available for other games determined by the operator. The feature is only applicable for the following types of bets:

• Straight
• Parlay (including Same Game)

Straight bets will be paid out as bonus bets within 72 hours. Parlays won’t be paid out as bonus bets, but instead are recalculated with new odds. Additionally, what counts as an injury depends on ESPN Bet’s policies.

Fanatics and Fair Play

While most other sportsbooks have only recently launched these features, Fanatics has had injury insurance since 2024. It covers various sports like football, hockey, tennis, baseball, and basketball. To compete with other operators, it now extends the timeframe of its insurance to last for the entire first half of the event.

While other sportsbooks are only now catching on to this fan-first movement, Fanatics Sportsbook continues to set the standard and lead the industry with the most generous bet protection in the market.

Fanatics

Fanatics’ Fair Play system has been popular since it launched, allowing players to save their bets. The company estimates it has saved more than 500,000 bets through this system, with one customer even getting a decent payout from his saved parlay after Stephen Curry was injured.

Conclusion

Injury insurance systems are quickly gaining traction among sportsbooks. It helps customers try out different markets and prevents prop parlays from failing due to unfortunate injuries. We hope more operators will implement them in the future.