DraftKings is paying for a mistake. Literally.
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The Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted unanimously Thursday to deny DraftKings' request to void nearly $1 million in payouts tied to a botched MLB parlay situation, leaving the sportsbook on the hook for $934,137, according to Bookies.com.
The case centered on a Massachusetts bettor who placed $12,950 across 27 multi-leg parlays during the 2025 American League Championship Series. The wagers targeted Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lukes and took advantage of an internal DraftKings error that should never have allowed the bets to be accepted.
Because of a misconfiguration in DraftKings' trading system, Lukes was mistakenly labeled as a "non-participant" instead of an active player. That classification disabled protections designed to prevent correlated bets from being combined in the same parlay.
As a result, the bettor was able to stack multiple Lukes hit thresholds, such as five-plus, six-plus, seven-plus and eight-plus hits, into single wagers. In practice, it created oversized bets on Lukes recording eight or more hits at inflated odds. The parlays were further boosted with unrelated, high-probability legs, including NFL moneyline plays.
Lukes played all seven games and finished with nine hits, clearing every threshold. Twenty-four of the 27 parlays won.
DraftKings argued the bettor acted unethically and committed fraud by exploiting an obvious error. Regulators were unmoved.
Commissioner Eileen O'Brien pushed back strongly, saying the situation did not meet the standard of an "obvious error" and that the failure was entirely internal.
"This is an advantage the patron took," O'Brien said, adding that operators are responsible for protecting the integrity of their markets.
DraftKings acknowledged the issue stemmed from its own systems, not an outside data provider. The commission ruled that was reason enough to enforce the payouts.
