Broncos kicker Brandon McManus weighs in on FanDuel sports-betting dispute

Know how you can tell Broncos kicker Brandon McManus is a Philly kid? Even he is miffed that FanDuel stiffed a guy out of 82 grand.

McManus, the North Penn and Temple alum who has a Super Bowl ring with Denver, made a game-winning kick Sunday to beat the Raiders. Sports bettor Anthony Prince, of Newark, told News12 New Jersey that he placed a money-line wager on the Broncos with 1:10 left in the fourth quarter at odds of 750-1 at Meadowlands race track. The Broncos were down by two and driving, so the odds were an obvious mistake.

There is fine print that FanDuel is using not to pay Prince his $82,000 winner when a glitch is involved. The New Jersey department of gaming enforcement seems to share that sentiment though it said Wednesday that it was investigating.

In addition to McManus, a long-time Vegas oddsmaker wagged his virtual finger at the whole dispute, in which at least two other bettors have come forward.

"Pay the People!!!" tweeted McManus, a fifth-year NFL veteran. "They put their hard-earned money on me to win that game."

Prince said he was offered $500 and Giants skybox tickets as compensation, but declined.

The Broncos were +$340 before they completed a 26-yard pass to set up the game-winning field goal. After the pass, they should have been -$600, FanDuel said. It was a 36-yard field-goal try, and those odds seem reasonable.

"A small number of bets were made at the erroneous price over an 18-second period," FanDuel said in a lengthy statement. "We honored all such bets on the Broncos to win the game at the accurate market price in accordance with our house rules and industry practice, which specifically address such obvious pricing errors. We have reached out to all impacted customers and apologized for the error."

The bigger problem — for FanDuel and all books — is that beating a guy out of his money (no matter how justified) is a bad look for a business trying to establish legitimacy in new markets such as New Jersey. Sports betting has been legal in New Jersey only since June. Illegally, it has been around forever.

Prince summed it up best.

"The government is taxing it now, so I thought it would be a better situation, you know?" he told News12. "So you'd rather go to the corner bookies now. You're not getting paid here."

Jay Kornegay, who runs the Westgate SuperBook, tweeted that his company had to eat some bets in 2011 when it opened LSU as a pick 'em against Northwestern State, an FCS school in Natchitoches, La.

LSU won 49-3. The line, Kornegay said, should have been LSU minus 54. Yikes. He said bettors intentionally kept wagers low to not set off alarms.

"In gaming, it can't be a subjective decision," Kornegay wrote. "The Vegas rule 'tickets go as written' is a staple. We've paid out mistakes and guests have received the 'wrong' tickets. Once they leave the window [or confirmed on mobile], it's action."

New Jersey gaming director David Rebuck told the Inquirer and Daily News on Wednesday that FanDuel self-reported the incident and was cooperating. The focus of his investigation will be preventing it from happening again.

Kornegay would start with the infrastructure.

"We've had other mistakes that have taken place against us," he told us. "It goes both ways, but [the] software shouldn't allow those tickets to be printed without approval."

*Penn State is a 28-point road favorite Friday night at Illinois. The Lions were 2-2 last season against the spread as road favorites in Big Ten play. This is the largest they've been favored by in a road conference game since they laid 27 at Rutgers and won by 39-0 in 2016. Penn State has easily covered its last two since nearly getting upset by Appalachian State in the opener.

*The Eagles were 10-3 against the spread in games started by Carson Wentz last season, including 5-1 at Lincoln Financial Field.

*Good luck figuring out Temple, which lost outright at home to Villanova in Week 1 as 15-point favorites and went to Maryland last week and won outright as 15-point underdogs. The Owls were favored by a touchdown for Thursday night's home game against visiting Tulsa. The Owls were 12-2 against the spread in 2017.

Handicapper Vegas Vic's pick for Thursday night.

Don't have much interest in the Jets-Browns, so let's look at the college game.

Double V is wondering which Temple team do we get tonight. The Owls that looked ugly in the first two home losses to Nova (19-17) and Buffalo (36-29)? Or, the high flyers that went down to College Park and stunned Maryland as a +15.5-point dog with a loud 35-14 W?

Man, why do they wanna make my job so tough? But, I'm banking on last week's version.

Expecting QB Anthony Russo to manage the game, while RB Ryquell Armstrong gobbles up another 100+ yards. And the wicked defense that held the Terps to only 63 yards through the air and 132 on the ground should be ready to turn the Golden Hurricane into a mild summer sunshower.

Gimme $55 to win $50 on the Owls.