Suspended Game Betting Rules: What Will Happen to Your Bet

When is a Game Suspended?

A suspended game is any sporting event stopped before the final whistle. There are many different factors that can get a sporting event suspended. One of the most frequent causes of stoppage is weather-related. Other causes can be related to life-threatening injuries of any individual involved in the sporting event.

Although the rules about why a game can get suspended are simple and easy to grasp, what’s more complicated, are the rules regarding the time of the suspension and how it affects the wagers. When and how a particular game will proceed is very important for the bettors because each outcome is based on the exact time and score when a game gets suspended.

How Does a Postponed Game Affect Your Bet?

Games that were stopped early can be either entirely canceled or postponed. As bettors, our bets can be affected by both of these situations. However, according to the rules, different circumstances can affect wagers differently.

When a sporting event gets canceled, the procedure is simple. All player bets get canceled, and all the players get a full refund. However, when a game gets suspended midway through, the situation becomes more complicated, and the rules become slightly different for different sports.

We all know that the devil is in the details. Thus, bettors should put real effort into educating themselves about this particular set of rules to become aware of how the postponement of a game can affect their parlay or other bets.

Suspended Game Betting Rules for all Sports

The rules in regards to when a particular game gets suspended are almost identical for most of the sports, however, there are still a few differences between them that bettors should know. Thus, we conducted thorough research to present you with the official sports betting rules for suspended games in some major league sports.

Soccer Game Suspended

Same as in any other sport, a soccer game must start on the scheduled day for any of the placed bets to be valid. Any wager placed on a soccer game gets officially settled after the end of regulation. Extra time and penalty shootouts are not regarded as regular time unless the type of wager is a specific one that indicates the opposite.

If a soccer game doesn’t start at the scheduled time and doesn’t get rescheduled for another time on the same specific day, all the bets will be void, and each player will get a full refund.

If a soccer game gets suspended before the end of regular time, it can get rescheduled on the same date. The outcome of each bet will be determined after the final whistle. If the game gets suspended and doesn’t get rearranged, all the bets will be void.

NFL Game Suspended

The NLF betting rules for postponed and canceled games might seem a bit more complex at first glance, but in their essence, they are almost identical to the ones for the other sports.

For each NFL wager to have action, the game must begin in the same scheduling week of the NFL league. For NFL bets to be valid, there must be five or fewer minutes left on the clock. There are exceptions to this rule, but they refer to particular betting situations where the betting market outcome is already unconditionally decided.

If an NFL game gets stopped before the minimum playtime criterion has been met, all the bets will be void unless the game gets rescheduled in the next 48 hours. If it is rearranged and finished within 48 hours of the original start time, all the bets will become valid, and their outcomes will be based on the official result of the game. Unlike in soccer, NFL bets include overtime unless otherwise stated.

If an NFL game gets suspended after the minimum playtime criterion has been met and doesn’t get rescheduled and completed in the following 48 hours, the outcomes of each wager will be determined by the score of the game from the moment the game got suspended.

If a game is forfeited, it won’t count as a full game and all bets placed on it will not have action.

Basketball Game Suspended

For bets to be valid, each Basketball game must start on the scheduled day, and just like in the NFL, there must be five or fewer minutes left on the clock.

In situations where a basketball game gets suspended before the minimum time has been played, the game will have to be rescheduled and completed within 48 hours for bets to be valid. If the game doesn’t get completed within 48 hours, all the bets will be void, and all bettors will get a full refund.

If the game gets suspended with five or fewer minutes left on the clock and doesn’t get rescheduled and completed within 48 hours, the outcome of each wager will be based on the score from the moment the game got suspended.

If a suspended basketball game gets rescheduled and has to get replayed from the start, all bets will be void, and each bettor will win a full refund.

As we can all see, most rules for game suspension are almost identical in all major sports, however, when it comes to baseball, especially the MLB, the rules can be trickier to understand and require further examination.

MLB Betting Rules for Suspended Game

Although many of the MLB betting rules for suspended games seem very similar to the ones regarding suspended games in other sports, some particular ones apply only to MLB games, and each bettor should know them in detail.

For bets on a particular game to be valid, the game must start on the scheduled date.

If a game gets suspended but gets scheduled to be completed later in the first 36 hours after the suspension, the bets will have action. However, in situations in which the game doesn’t get rescheduled or gets rescheduled to get completed after the first 36 hours, all bets will be declared void.

The game of baseball is known for one particular rule that can get scheduled games stopped early if one of the teams is winning by 10 runs after seven innings. It’s known as the Mercy Rule and although very popular in baseball leagues around the world, the MLB still doesn’t have it in the official rulebook.

What’s interesting about the MLB betting rules for suspended games is that they vary regarding the betting markets. Here are the betting rules for suspended games regarding the most frequent betting markets at the top three online sportsbooks.

MLB Suspended Game Betting Rules by Bet Type

Whether you are betting on a postseason tournament game or a regular season MLB game, there are certain baseball betting rules attached to each bet type.

Moneylines

If you are betting on MLB games scheduled in the calendar and officiated under MLB standards, all moneyline wagers will stand. For example, if you bet on the Mariners to beat the Red Sox and they are 5-1 up in the seventh inning when the game suddenly gets abandoned due to weather, your wager would win.

Inning Bets

Most inning bets will stand when the game is called as long as those full innings have been completed. If is decided that time is over in the middle of the seventh inning, any bets made around around the seventh will be void.

Game/Team Props

The following wagers will be void if regular season games don’t reach nine innings:

• Highest scoring inning
• Run line
• Exact score/Winning margin
• Number of runs/Odds

This is because that you can’t say with 100% certainty, like with an under bet, that these wagers would have won if the game had carried on into more innings. Even if a team was winning by a huge score and you had them -1.5, it is not impossible the other team could have staged a comeback and won.

Over/Under

Many bettors may be used to overs and unders being voided if the game didn’t go nine innings, even if the match had already surpassed the total. However, this is starting to change at some online sportsbooks. PointsBet, BetMGM and FanDuel have all said they will pay out wagers that  are “unequivocally determined”, such as if a game has already gone over.

Player Props

The unequivocally determined” phrasing we mentioned above also applies for props. If you bet on Shohei Ohtani to hit a home run and he does it in the fourth inning and the game is called in the seventh, your bet will still stand. However, if you bet on another player to have under 0.5 hits and he hasn’t hit anything and the game length is shortened, the wager is void. There is no extra innings count.