Dak Prescott’s injury prompted a sportsbook to pay out Cowboys win total bets after Week 1

Adding insult to injury, one sportsbook is already writing off this season as a lost cause for the Dallas Cowboys following news that quarterback Dak Prescott will miss several weeks with a thumb injury that requires surgery.

Prescott suffered the injury in Dallas’ season-opening loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night. Now a game in the hole and without its starting QB, Dallas’ fate is sealed as far as PointsBet Sportsbook is concerned.

PointsBet announced Monday that it will settle all Cowboys win total under bets as wins. Bettors who picked Dallas to finish with fewer than 10.5 wins will receive an early payout, which is is incredible and unprecedented because we’re only one week into the season. There’s still another 16 games left for Dallas to get to 11.

According to VSiN’s Ben Fawkes, about 70% of win total bets on the Cowboys were on the under. Depending on how many bets it received, PointsBet is potentially giving away a lot of money way sooner than it needs to — before even knowing if it needs to. There’s still a chance the book would’ve won.

Knowing sportsbooks are in this game to make money, there’s obviously an angle here for PointsBet. What exactly? Who knows. Maybe the book is hoping people put that money right back into other bets with better chances of resulting in losses.