Have you ever made a bet on football, only to see that the game gets suspended at some point during the match? This has happened on many occasions, and it will no doubt happen again. Of course, the reasons behind football match suspensions can vary greatly, and some are more drastic than others. Yet the implications of suspensions on football matches with regard to wagers placed remain fairly standard across the board. Therefore, the answer behind, what does it mean if a football match is suspended, is rather unanimous.
With that said, you’ve still got to understand the answer to know exactly what to expect from your wagers if this does happen to you. So in order to give you the right knowledge on this topic, I will break it down into bite-size sections for you to read at will. These are all outlined below.
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Football match suspensions – the impact on settled bets
If a football match is suspended, this typically means that the match has been suspended after the game has kicked off. This is a totally separate category from postponed or abandoned football games, and suspensions can come at any point – it doesn’t necessarily need to be in the first half, second half, or any specific time period. In short, if a match is suspended for whatever reason, it will subsequently be recorded as a ‘suspension’, which is an important distinction with regard to your wagers.
But what about bets that have already settled in football matches that are then suspended? This is one of the common scenarios that causes confusion. And the answer is usually pretty simple – you keep the returns from the associated wagers. For example, if you’ve backed a player to score anytime, and they’ve done so prior to the match being suspended, you keep the returns from your bet.
This rule applies to any bet that ‘settles’ before the suspension, however, you should still check the terms and conditions at your chosen betting site for confirmation.
Unsettled wagers in the event of a football match suspension
What about the other side of the coin? What if you’ve placed a football bet that hasn’t settled before the point at which the game is suspended? There are a couple of answers to this scenario, and it can differ between betting sites. Of course, I’ll explain both so you know what to look for.
So, the first scenario is that your bet will simply be voided, meaning that you will get your stake returned and added back to your account. You can usually check this when signed into your online betting account too. Just check out the ‘my bets’ section and look for a ‘void’ label alongside any of the bets that relate to the suspended game. However, what if you don’t see the void label for a wager that didn’t settle before the suspension?
If this is the case, it’s more than likely that the suspended game is due to be rescheduled. Therefore, the wager you placed on the match will still be active, technically speaking. And the wager will then simply roll over and be applied to the rescheduled match, regardless of what had occurred during the match up to that point.
What it means for the suspended match in general
As you’ve seen above, while a suspended football match is inconvenient from a betting perspective, it’s not the end of the world. At the same time, there are clear impacts on your settled vs unsettled wagers, so you at least get an idea of what to expect if you encounter such situations. However, what about the actual match itself? What would a suspension mean for the game and the related betting markets? Once again, there are a couple of situations that can arise.
While I’ve touched on these above, I’d like to finish with a clear outline and a reference point that you can come back to if you have any doubts in the future.
Scenario one – game is rescheduled
The first scenario is that the suspended game gets rescheduled. As you know, this scenario does have an impact on your wager. Your unsettled bets will either be rolled over for the rescheduled game or voided – check with your bookmaker for confirmation of this. As for the rescheduled game itself, this can be days, weeks, or even months in advance, depending on the league/competition in question.
However, no matter when the game gets played, your original stake and previous odds will hold if the wager is rolled over. If not, you might see different odds for the rescheduled game.
Scenario two – game is settled based on score at time of suspension
The second scenario is rare for games that are suspended, but it can happen. Then again, it’s more common when games are deemed as ‘abandoned’, such as the Belgium vs Sweden game in the Euro 2024 qualifiers. As for what happens in this situation, since the game is not suspended, the outcome is confirmed as the score at the time of suspension. Of course, this can be a win for team A or B, or a draw.
