A void removes a bet or selection because the market cannot be settled under the applicable rule. A push means the result lands exactly on the line, so there is no winner or loser. A dead heat means two or more competitors share a finishing position, so the stake or price is reduced under the operator’s dead-heat formula.
The bet receipt identifies the market. The operator’s house and sport rules determine the calculation. Those rules can differ by jurisdiction, product and bet type.
The three outcomes side by side
| Settlement | What happened | Typical straight-bet treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Void | The selection cannot be graded as an ordinary win or loss under the rule | Stake returned |
| Push | The result equals the quoted line | Stake returned |
| Dead heat | Multiple competitors tie for a place that has fewer winning positions | Stake divided or odds adjusted under a dead-heat rule |
“Typical” matters. A sportsbook can publish special rules for a market, promotion, parlay or jurisdiction. The British Gambling Commission’s remote technical standard requires rules to explain how winners are determined and prizes allocated, including the treatment of ties where relevant. RTS 5 on result determination establishes the transparency requirement for Great Britain; it does not prescribe one global dead-heat formula.
A void removes the selection
A bet may be void because an event did not start, a participant withdrew under a non-runner rule, a market was offered with a material error, or the event failed to meet a completion condition. The reason and treatment depend on the rulebook.
An abandoned football match shows why the market matters more than the headline. A first-goalscorer outcome may already be certain when play stops, while a full-time result remains unresolved. Our guide to abandoned-match bet settlement compares named operator completion rules.
On a straight bet, a void commonly returns the stake with no profit. That is economically similar to decimal odds of 1.00: the customer gets back what they placed. It is not a win, even if an account history displays the return in the same area as payouts.
DraftKings’ current general rules say a cancelled straight wager is refunded. For parlays, its rules generally remove a cancelled event and settle the parlay on the remaining legs, subject to product-specific exceptions. DraftKings’ general betting rules are one named example, not a universal standard.
The event state also needs care. “Postponed”, “abandoned”, “no contest”, “walkover” and “participant did not start” can trigger different clauses. A market being temporarily unavailable is not itself a void. Our market-suspension explainer separates a trading pause from final settlement.
A push lands on the number
A push is most common on whole-number handicaps and totals. If a basketball team is backed at +4 and loses by exactly four points, the adjusted score is tied. If a total is 42 and the game produces exactly 42, neither over nor under wins.
The usual straight-bet result is a return of stake. A half-point line such as 42.5 avoids a push because the event total cannot equal the quoted half point.
Push rules also affect combinations. A standard parlay may continue with the pushed leg treated at 1.00, leaving the remaining selections to decide the bet. Same-game parlays and specially priced products may have different cancellation rules because their legs are combined into one correlated price. The product’s own terms control the outcome.
Calling every refunded selection “void” hides useful information. A void says the market did not produce a valid ordinary result under the rule. A push says it produced exactly the result described by the line.
A dead heat still has winners—just too many of them
A dead heat occurs when competitors tie for a finishing position and the market offered fewer winning places than the number tied. It is common in golf placement markets and can occur in horse racing or other ranked events.
Consider a simple two-way tie for one winning position:
stake: $20;
decimal odds: 5.00;
dead heat: two competitors share one winning place.
Under a common stake-division method, half the stake remains a winner and half loses. The return is therefore $10 × 5.00 = $50. The original quoted return for an outright winner would have been $100. A void or push on the same $20 straight bet would normally return $20.
| Outcome on $20 at 5.00 | Calculation | Total return |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary win | $20 × 5.00 | $100 |
| Two-way dead heat for one place | ($20 ÷ 2) × 5.00 | $50 |
| Void or push | Original stake returned | $20 |
The $50 includes the surviving $10 stake and its winnings; it is not $50 profit. If three competitors tied for one place, the common method would divide the stake by three. If they tied across more than one available place, the fraction would change.
bet365 explains dead heat by dividing the original stake by the number of competitors tied and applying the full odds to the reduced stake, subject to the places available. Its dead-heat FAQ provides worked market logic. FanDuel’s Puerto Rico rulebook also sets out a formula that accounts for the number of tied competitors and remaining winning positions. FanDuel Puerto Rico house rules show why jurisdiction must be named when quoting an operator.
Pinnacle publishes its own betting rules, including event and market settlement provisions. Taken together, the rulebooks demonstrate the point: the phrase “dead-heat rules apply” is only the start. The number of places, number tied and accepted price are all needed for a calculation.
What happens inside a parlay
A void or push leg in a conventional parlay often drops out, reducing the combination to the remaining legs. A two-leg parlay can become a single. If every leg is removed, the stake may be returned.
A dead-heat leg is different because it produced a partially winning result. Depending on the operator’s method, the leg can reduce the effective stake or price carried into the combination. The displayed settlement may look surprising even when the underlying arithmetic follows the published rule.
Do not reconstruct a parlay by multiplying the original headline odds after settlement. Record the accepted odds for each leg, the stake, the number of places, the number tied and the operator’s treatment of combinations. A bet builder or same-game parlay may be governed by a separate section.
A five-item settlement check
Before treating a return as an error, identify:
the exact market name and period;
whether the bet was straight, parlay or same-game product;
the event or participant status;
the applicable jurisdiction and rulebook version;
the stake-and-odds calculation shown in the account.
If the arithmetic still does not match the published rule, preserve the receipt and settlement record before contacting the operator. Complaint and dispute routes depend on the jurisdiction. This explainer cannot decide an individual wager.
A void erases a selection, a push lands on the line, and a dead heat shares a winning place. Once those three ideas are kept apart, most settlement screens become easier to audit—and harder to explain away with one generic word: refund.
