Sick of backdoor covers? Frustrated when the team you picked blows its big lead in garbage time and costs you money? Top-rated sportsbooks have come up with a way to help you avoid this agita with Early Payout Offers, and Bet365 offers perhaps the widest variety of ways to protect your winnings from a late rally.
How Does It Work?
Tuesday night gives a great example of how Early Payouts can save you a great deal of stress.
The Duke Blue Devils hosted the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and the first-place Blue Devils jumped on top of Wake, building a nine-point lead at half. The margin eventually grew to 19 points with just under 15 minutes to play. Anyone with money on Duke had to be planning what to do with their winnings.
Instead, Wake rallied. Their seven-foot big man hit a pair of three-pointers, and the comeback was on. There were questionable block/charge calls, a double-technical after a brief skirmish, and fouls on what looked like clean blocks. All of them seemed to go against Duke.
The Demon Deacons tied the score with seconds left. When Duke scored the go-ahead points with 0.4 seconds left, Wake’s last-second desperation heave from three-quarters court hit the backboard, then the rim, then fell off to the side.
Duke ended up winning, but for nearly 15 minutes of game time, anyone who picked them on a straight money line bet had to be sweating. And in those final seconds, they were likely close to a cardiac event.
An Early Payout essentially says that when Duke goes up by that much, the game is over, and you can collect your money. It doesn’t matter what happens afterward.
Sports Covered at Bet365
Virtually every major sport being played at the moment can be covered by an Early Payout Offer.
For NCAA basketball, if a team gains an 18-point advantage at any point during the game, bets on that team will be marked a winner. That means Duke’s 19-point lead with 14:46 remaining on Tuesday would have paid out, long before Wake rallied.
Bet365’s website says, “We will aim to settle all qualifying bets and have funds credited into your account within 15 minutes of your selection gaining an 18 point advantage.”
That means that by the time Wake was shooting that three-pointer at the buzzer, Duke bettors were already spending their winnings.
For NBA games, the cutoff is a 20-point advantage.
For hockey, Early Payouts cash in if the team chosen gains a three-goal advantage at any point. That offer is available for NHL, World Championships, Division IA college, Men’s Olympic hockey, and the KHL in Russia.
For soccer, bets pay off if a team gets a two-goal advantage. That offer applies for all major soccer: MLS regular season and playoffs, Brazilian Serie A, CONCACAF Champions, English soccer including Premier, Championship, League 1 and 2, FA Cup and EFL Cup, Scottish Premiership, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga I, Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1, UEFA Champions, UEFA Europa Conference League and UEFA Europa.
It also includes a wide variety of soccer leagues and competitions in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Columbia, China, Denmark, the Netherlands, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Peru, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland.
The NFL season ended with the Super Bowl, but the Early Payout Offer at Bet365 paid off with a 17-point lead. That means the Chiefs’ 21-3 lead over the Bengals in the AFC Championship Game would have paid off for Kansas City.
Assuming MLB gets its act together and begins playing games, the payout comes with a five-run lead.
