Bookmaker rules: how bets settle when a match goes wrong

Bookmaker rules decide what happens to a bet when the match does not go to plan: a postponed match is void unless it is played inside the bookmaker's window, an abandoned match keeps only the markets already decided, and a void leg drops out of an accumulator rather than sinking it. The window is where bookmakers disagree most. On the pages we read on 10 November 2026 it runs from 24 hours at Placard in Portugal to five days at bet365 in the UK, so the same postponement can leave one bet live and refund another.

This is the hub for every rule family a bettor runs into. Each section gives the general principle, then how named bookmakers word it on their own rules pages, then a link to the deeper piece. If you are comparing prices for this weekend's games, the football predictions today page lists the fixtures BAI8 has researched, each with its call one unlock away, and the book you take a price from brings its rules with it.

Postponed matches: the deadline is everything

A postponement happens before kick-off. The match is moved, and the question is whether the new date falls inside the window your bookmaker allows. Inside it, your bet waits and settles on the rearranged game. Outside it, the bet is void and the stake comes back.

The wording differs more than most bettors expect:

• bet365 (UK): an unplayed or postponed match "will be treated as a non-runner for settling purposes unless it is played within 5 days of the original scheduled match time". A match brought forward still stands if the bet went on before the revised kick-off.
• Sky Bet, Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook (UK and Ireland): all three use the same text. Bets stand if the match is confirmed to take place "within the current or following 3 days of the original local event kick-off date", but if the new start time is not confirmed within 3 hours of the original kick-off, singles are void and multiples settle on the remaining selections. A kick-off moved before the original time does not count as a postponement.
• Placard (Portugal, run by Santa Casa): bets are cancelled when the event is "adiado por mais de 24 horas" from its scheduled start, unless a specific sport's rules set a longer period.
• Winamax (France): a bet is cancelled if the event is postponed or interrupted and starts or restarts more than 48 hours after the scheduled start at the time the bet was placed. For football it adds a twist: if the competition organiser publishes an official result within 48 hours, bets settle on that result.

The full walk-through, with a worked treble, is in postponed match betting rules, explained. For single bookmakers in depth, see the bet365 postponed and abandoned match rules, the Betano postponed match rules and the Placard postponed match rules.

The comparison table

Every rule below was read on the bookmaker's own rules or help page on 10 November 2026. The country is the site we read; the same brand can run different rules in another country. Bookmakers we could not read directly are left out rather than guessed.

Bookmaker (site read)	Postponed match	Abandoned match
bet365 (UK)	Stands if played within 5 days of the original scheduled time; otherwise a non-runner (void)	Void if abandoned before 90 minutes are complete, except markets already fully determined
Sky Bet (UK)	Stands if played in the current or following 3 days and the new time is confirmed within 3 hours of the original kick-off	Decided markets stand; the rest void unless a restart within 3 days is announced within 3 hours
Paddy Power (UK and Ireland)	Same as Sky Bet: 3 days, confirmed within 3 hours	Same as Sky Bet; a stoppage resumed by midnight local time is not an abandonment
Betfair Sportsbook (UK)	Same as Sky Bet: 3 days, confirmed within 3 hours	Same as Sky Bet
Placard (Portugal)	Void if postponed by more than 24 hours	If stopped for more than 24 hours before 90 minutes, only bets already settled or settleable stand
Winamax (France)	Void if it starts more than 48 hours late, unless the organiser publishes an official result within 48 hours	Bets on any phase fully completed (half-time, first scorer, a goals line already settled) stand; the rest follow the 48-hour rule

Read one row against another and the practical point appears. Take a Saturday 15:00 kick-off moved to Tuesday 15:00, announced well inside three hours. That is 72 hours. At bet365 the bet stands (inside five days). At Sky Bet, Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook it stands (Tuesday is within the following three days). At Winamax and Placard it is void (past 48 and 24 hours). Same match, same pick, two different outcomes.

Rules change, and nothing on this page replaces the terms on the site where you actually bet. Check them before kick-off, not after the match is called off.

Abandoned and interrupted matches

An abandonment happens after kick-off. Play stops and does not finish. Bookmakers split markets into two piles: those whose outcome was already fixed when play stopped, which stand, and those that were still open, which are void.

bet365 UK states it plainly: any match abandoned before 90 minutes "will be void except for those bets the outcome of which has already been determined". Its example is a first goalscorer bet, which stands once a goal has gone in. The market must be fully determined, not merely likely.

Sky Bet, Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook add a restart clause: if it is announced within 3 hours of kick-off that the game will restart within 3 days, all bets stand. They also separate a stoppage from an abandonment. If the referee takes the players off and the remaining minutes are played by midnight local time, the match was never abandoned and every bet stands.

Placard keeps bets "que tenham sido ou possam ser resolvidas" at the moment a match is stopped for more than 24 hours before 90 minutes. Its corners rule gives the same logic in numbers: an over 10 corners bet with 12 already taken is paid, because the outcome is confirmed. Winamax keeps every bet on a phase that was completely finished, half-time result included, even if the match result is never made official.

Walkovers and forfeits

A walkover or forfeit is not a result for betting purposes. Sky Bet, Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook void all bets if a match is forfeited or awarded as a walkover before kick-off, and say that "any subsequently awarded scoreline will not count for settlement purposes". If the forfeit comes after kick-off, their abandonment rules apply. Placard writes it in one line: in a "vitória por falta de comparência", all bets are cancelled.

So a 3–0 awarded by a disciplinary panel does not win your home-win bet at these books. The stake comes back.

90 minutes, extra time and penalties

Football markets settle on 90 minutes plus stoppage time unless the market says otherwise. Sky Bet: "settled on the basis of 90 minutes play unless otherwise stated", and markets marked "including Extra time" count extra time but not shootouts. Placard: all football markets are for 90 minutes "incluindo qualquer tempo de compensação". Winamax: the 1N2 result ignores extra time and penalties.

That is why a draw after 90 minutes loses a home-win bet even when the home side goes through on penalties. If what you want is the team that progresses, you need a "to qualify" market, covered in to qualify betting explained: extra time and pens. Some markets in Portugal settle at half-time and full-time only; the Betano intervalo/final explainer works through one.

Tennis retirement

Tennis is where bookmakers disagree most sharply, because a retirement ends the match with a winner on the draw sheet but no completed result.

• bet365 (UK): in match betting, if a match starts but is not completed, all bets are void, unless a player is disqualified, in which case the player awarded the victory is the winner for settlement.
• Sky Bet (UK): a retirement before the end of the first set voids match odds. After the first set, at ATP, WTA, Grand Slam, Challenger and Davis and Fed Cup events, match odds settle as "Win/Void". At ITF, UTR and exhibition events they are void.
• Winamax (France): bets on a phase already completed stand, so a first set winner bet is paid if the player retires in the second set. Bets on the phase in progress, match winner included, are cancelled.
• Placard (Portugal): match winner bets are cancelled if the regulation number of sets is not played.

The full three-rule map, with a real retirement settled three ways, is in tennis retirement rules in betting, and Placard's version is in Placard tennis retirement rules.

Dead heats

A dead heat is a tie for a place that pays one winner, such as joint top scorer. Sky Bet's rule: the stake is divided by the number of participants in the dead heat, and that fraction is paid at full odds. Its own example is £20 at 20/1 on a player who ties with two others: £20 becomes three parts of £6.67, one part wins at 20/1, and the return is £140. The other two parts are lost. The maths for two-way and three-way ties is in dead heat rules in betting, with the maths.

Push and void: how a dead leg shrinks an accumulator

A push and a void both hand your stake back, for different reasons. A push is a result landing exactly on a whole-number line, such as Asian handicap 0.0 on a draw (see what a push means in betting). A void is the bookmaker cancelling the selection because the event did not happen as offered, as with every rule above.

In a single, both mean the stake back. In an accumulator, the selection drops out and the bet carries on. Winamax describes the mechanism exactly: a cancelled selection "sera considéré comme gagnant avec une cote de 1,00". Multiplying by 1.00 changes nothing, so the rest of the bet settles at the remaining prices. Sky Bet says the same thing in words: the bet becomes the next bet down, so a treble becomes a double. Paddy Power reprices the bet to reflect the remaining selections.

Two exceptions are worth knowing. Winamax cancels a boosted price ("cote boostée") in full once any one of its selections is void. Sky Bet settles an In-Play Enhanced Accumulator with a void leg as void, provided none of the other selections lose.

A worked example: four legs, one postponed

The odds below are illustrative, not quoted from any bookmaker. Stake: 10.

Leg	Odds
Match A, home win	2.10
Match B, away win	1.85
Match C, draw	2.40
Match D, home win	3.20

If all four win, the price is 2.10 × 1.85 × 2.40 × 3.20 = 29.84, and 10 returns 298.37.

Now Match D is postponed and not replayed inside the window, so it is void. It counts at 1.00 and the bet becomes a treble: 2.10 × 1.85 × 2.40 = 9.32, and 10 returns 93.24 if the other three win. If any of A, B or C loses, the bet loses as normal; the void leg does not rescue it.

The deadline decides which of these you get. If Match D moved from a Saturday afternoon to the Tuesday, this is the treble at Placard or Winamax, and still the four-fold at bet365, Sky Bet, Paddy Power or Betfair Sportsbook, because the match is played inside their windows. You do not get to choose afterwards.

Why the book you choose matters

BAI8 researches a fixture, works out a chance for every outcome and compares it with prices across many bookmakers. Two books can show the same price and settle the same evening differently, so the rules are part of what a price is worth. Open football predictions today to see the fixtures BAI8 has researched. BAI8's Free plan gives you 5 assessments a month, no card needed: sign up.

What this does not tell you

These are six bookmakers' rules, read on one day from one country's site each. Rules change, and the same brand can run different terms in another country, so check the current terms where you bet. We have left out bookmakers whose rules pages we could not read directly, including William Hill, Unibet, Betclic, Bwin and the Italian books; their absence says nothing about their rules. This page covers the default for main football markets. Player props, bet builders, boosts and cash-out each carry their own clauses, and nothing here says whether any price is worth taking.