How settlement works
HoundLine follows the official UKC, PKC, ProSport and AKC protest (question) rules, so a cast result isn't final the moment the scorecard comes in. Your bet goes through these steps:
- Open: you can bet. Betting closes when the cast starts (or at the posted start time).
- Closed · in progress: the cast is hunting. No new bets.
- Provisional: the scorecard is turned in and the result is entered. Your ticket shows won or lost and what it will pay, but the points are pending: held, not spendable yet.
- Protest window: we wait for the protest time the rules allow. UKC: “No complaints will be considered by the Master of Hounds after a period of thirty (30) minutes has elapsed from the time that the scorecard has been turned in,” and a panel “must be held within one (1) hour after the deadline for the return of scorecards.” PKC: questions must be “placed on the scorecard at the time the dog is scored” and are decided by a Question Panel after the cast. HoundLine holds points 60 minutes after the card is turned in (UKC), or until the PKC question panel rules (60 minutes if there's no question). ProSport: questions must be “placed on the scorecard at the time the dog is scored or should have been scored” and go to a Question Panel after the cast; “Panel decision is final, unless appealed by complainant.” HoundLine holds ProSport casts 60 minutes after the card is turned in, longer if a question is pending. AKC: the judge places a “?” by the score in question, and at the end of the hunt the Hunt Committee hears it; “The decision shall be final with no appeal.” HoundLine holds AKC casts 60 minutes after the card is turned in, or until the Hunt Committee rules if there's a question. AKC cast winners are decided by the final scorecard tally of plus and minus points.
- Under review: if a question (?) is marked on the card or an appeal is filed, we hold the cast until the ruling. If the ruling changes the result, payouts are recalculated from the same pools. Nothing was paid yet, so nobody has points taken back. If an appeal is still open after our house deadline (30 days by default), we may refund every bet on that cast.
- Official: points are added to your balance.
- Void · refunded: if a cast is disqualified (for example a PKC cast that “signed in the gray”) or never finished, every bet on it is refunded.
No-appeal events. At the UKC World Zones and Finals and the Tournament of Champions, “The Master of Hounds' decision will be final,” and PKC Pro Classics say “NO QUESTION APPEALS ACCEPTED; QUESTION PANEL DECISIONS WILL BE FINAL.” For these, points are released as soon as that decision is in or the window closes.
House rule: settled bets stand. UKC, PKC, ProSport and AKC can correct records later (UKC “reserves… the right to make corrections it deems necessary”; PKC may “correct gross errors”; ProSport “reserves the right to correct any error discovered”; AKC: “Only the Hunt Director or Club officials may correct mathematical errors once scorecard is turned in”). Once HoundLine releases a cast as official, later corrections by the club don't change bets that were already settled.