Lab Tests Find ‘Risk-Free Bet’ Contains 100 Percent Risk
Researchers claimed the offer 300 times. They report risk in every sample, and 4,200 words of terms that nobody on the team finished reading.
PROVIDENCE. A promotion advertised by the sportsbook BetHaus as a “Risk-Free First Bet” was found to contain risk in every sample tested, according to laboratory results published on Monday by the Institute for Probable Outcomes.
Researchers opened 300 accounts under controlled conditions and claimed the offer on each, placing every qualifying bet on an evenly matched game. In the 151 cases where the bet lost, the customer was refunded in site credit, which had to be wagered five times within seven days before any of it could be withdrawn.
We looked very hard for the part that was free of risk. We found the word ‘free’ and we found the word ‘risk.’ They were not, in any sense we could measure, separated.
What the sample contained
- Risk: 100 percent
- Free money: none detected
- Terms and conditions: 4,200 words
- Wagering requirement: five times, first mentioned at word 3,118
On average a customer kept 61 cents of every refunded dollar, the study found. The rest was lost on the bets needed to release it.
BetHaus said it had renamed the promotion in response to the findings. It is now called the Second Chance Bet. The Institute has requested a sample.
