A few weeks ago, we brought you news that PokerStars Sports had increased the number of sports they offer betting markets on to 18 and the good news is that number is increasing with every 
week that passes.
There are now 22 different sports you can bet on at PokerStars Sport. New additions include sports like Futsal and Floorball as well as the exciting world of ESports (which we will bring you more information on in next week’s article).
Remember, if you’d like to join up, click here for the latest PokerStars sportsbook UK betting offers.
There’s still more to come as PokerStars Sport increases the number of sports in its portfolio, but as the number of sports increases, so does the number of bets and occasionally, although it is rare, you may find yourself at the centre of an unusual set of circumstances when it comes to your bet.
To show what we mean, lets travel back in time to the 1982 Commonwealth Games which were held that year in Brisbane. It was the 200m final and two athletes, Olympic 100m Champion Allan Wells and England’s Mike McFarlane were amongst the favourites to lift the gold.
What followed in the race was one of the rarest sporting phenomena in the world as the two sprinters crossed the line at exactly the same time and a highly unusual and extremely rare, dead heat was the decision.
Fortunately for sports punters, dead heats are generally very rare as modern technology can often distinguish between athletes, cars, horses or whatever it is you are betting on, often down to the fractions of a second.
Even if competitors are awarded the same time, the software is now so sophisticated that usually a winner, or the correct placing for the competitors, can be distinguished.
However, very rarely there are events that take place where two or more competitors cannot be distinguished and a dead heat occurs. So now, let’s imagine you have placed a bet on one of these competitors with PokerStars sport and your race finishes in a dead heat.
What happens now?
In this case Dead Heat rules apply. These rules are universally accepted across all sports betting sites in the UK and what happens with your bet and stake is as follows.
If your selection is involved in a two-way dead heat with another competitor, then half of your stake is applied to your win bet, and the other half is declared a loss.
So for example, if you placed a £10 bet on your selection at odds of 6/1. In the event of a dead heat with another competitors, you would lose £5 of your stake, but you would receive a £5 win at odds of 6/1, for a total return of £35.
If your selection is involved in a tie with two or more competitors, then your stake is divided by the number of other selections that share the dead heat. So for example, in a four way tie, your £10 stake would be divided four ways (£2.50), three of which would lose and one of which would be applied to the bet (£2.50 on a 6/1 selection would return a total of £17.50).
Why does this happen?
The reason for this is that because in a dead heat the bookmaker has to pay out on more than one winner, to do so without such an option would run the risk of the bookie losing a significant amount of money on that one race.
To mitigate this, they have the Dead Heat rules in place so that in the rare event of a dead heat being declared, the bookmaker can still operate at a small profit (or loss) on that race and pay out the winners, without running the risk of catastrophic losses.
Of course, it is generally rare that dead heats occur, but it is good to know that in such an event with PokerStars Sports betting, you’ll still get paid out even if your selection isn’t the only winner in their chosen event.
