Sports betting bringing more attention to NBA stat corrections

It was a fundamental, two-handed chest pass from Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine to DeMar DeRozan in the third quarter of a Feb. 9 game in Charlotte. Big bucks were at stake, and the NBA’s most-invested fans were watching closely.

DeRozan caught the pass from LaVine on the move, took a dribble to get into the paint and hit a running jumper off one leg while drawing a foul. The bucket put the Bulls up 67-56 on the Hornets with 7:18 left in the third quarter. It appeared to be a textbook assist from LaVine, but it wasn’t scored that way.

Hundreds of statistical data points — assists, rebounds, steals, blocks and more — are recorded during an NBA game, many of them requiring interpretation in real time. These days, there’s money riding on seemingly every one of them, including LaVine’s chest pass to DeRozan.

LaVine was not credited with an assist on the play. Sportsbooks had offered the over/under on LaVine’s assists for the game at 5.5. He finished with five assists.

Large online betting communities had teamed up on LaVine’s over on assists, including it in long-shot parlays with big payouts. They thought a stat correction was warranted. The NBA did not.

Kenny McAndress, a 28-year-old bettor and social media personality in Philadelphia, looked back at the LaVine decision two weeks later and said, “That one just felt like it was so cut and dry. I have to rethink how I do my bet construction, because I want to avoid assists.”

Frustrated bettors have taken to social media routinely to question how plays that impact their bets are scored. A lot of the time, there’s disagreement over the interpretation on a close play, like whether a pass truly does “lead directly to a made basket” to qualify as an assist. A handful of complaints, however, have prompted the league to issue corrections. When that happens, some sportsbooks end up paying out on both sides of wagers: the side that was the winner by the initial ruling and then the other side after the box score is…