The United States women's national team will play in the quarterfinals of the 2019 Women's World Cup on Friday, needing three more wins to successfully defend their 2015 title. You can stream that match via fuboTV (Try for free).
If you bet on USWNT to win the entire World Cup with a specific New Jersey sportsbook, however, your money is already on the way.
FanDuel announced on Friday that it is making early payouts to any New Jersey customers who bet the Americans would win it all, sacrificing $400,000 to reward those behind Team USA. The company is only honoring bets placed ahead of the team's Friday quarterfinal against France, but for those who backed the USWNT from the get-go, it's operating as if the Americans have already conquered this year's tournament.
Why would FanDuel do this?
It might be because it genuinely believes the U.S. will reign supreme come July 7.
A bigger potential reason: Publicity.
Free money is an obvious draw for sports bettors, and that's exactly what people will be getting if they went through FanDuel to bet on USWNT and USWNT ends up not winning the World Cup, as the $400,000 paid out will not be recollected. In the grand scheme of things, $400,000 isn't an outrageously large loss for FanDuel if the company believes it will attract new bettors and additional bets. After all, those who received the $400K this time around might reinvest at the book by betting on the U.S. again, albeit with worse odds, and if FanDuel benefited from New Jersey's big betting month of May, it may have exceeded its own monthly projections anyway.
