April 4 (UPI) -- The FanDuel Sportsbook declared the Orlando Apollos as champions of the Alliance of American Football and paid out all futures bets.
The AAF announced Tuesday that it would suspend its operations, leaving the status of many wagers in question. Multiple sportsbooks told ESPN that they would refund wagers on all championship bets.
On Wednesday, FanDuel decided to go a step further and grade all futures bets on the other seven AAF teams, including the Memphis Express and Atlanta Legends, as winners. The Express and the Legends were already eliminated from playoff contention.
"Because the FanDuel Sportsbook loves football and we believe this is the very definition of a bad beat for sports fans everywhere, we are also going to pay out straight future wagers for all AAF teams as winners," FanDuel said in a statement.
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"While we've declared the Apollos honorary champions, we think the biggest winners should be our customers and hope they enjoy their payouts," FanDuel Group chief marketing officer Mike Raffensperger said.
According to ESPN, the SuperBook at the Westgate Las Vegas will also refund all AAF futures wagers and grade them as no action due to the league suspending operations. FanDuel said that paying out all the wagers will cost the company about $10,000.
The league's move to suspend its operations comes a week after AAF majority owner Tom Dundon told USA Today that the NFL Players Association's lack of cooperation involving the usage of young players could lead to the discontinuation of the league.
The AAF debuted in March. The Apollos were in first place in the Eastern Conference. The Arizona Hotshots led the Western.
