Hi kaszino,
At bet365, as with all sportsbooks, we retain the right to decline all or part of any bet requested, and to close or suspend a customer’s account. As I am sure you can appreciate, when accepting a requested wager, our trading team have to consider several things, including among others:
• What they predict the outcome of the market may be
• Their existing book (profit/loss given the different outcomes) on the event
• The customer’s previous betting activity and history
In certain circumstances and on certain customer’s accounts, the trading managers will take the decision to refuse a requested bet, offer to accept a lower stake or take the bet at a shorter price, or accept the wager and then lower a customer’s maximum bet limits on all or selected future markets.
We are all aware that there are many knowledgeable punters who will win overall over the bookmakers, or at least make a serious dent in the margin on some markets. As this is a business, our traders have to act in the best interests of the company, and unfortunately on occasion this will be to the disappointment of a small number of customers who cannot back their chosen selection to the stake they requested.
Unfortunately for punters, bookmakers will decide that there is some business they would prefer not to lay, and we retain the right not to accept this business. This is not in any way a discrimination personally against the customer, but it is a business decision taken by the traders following a review of the typical activity of the punter and their betting history, given for example the type and frequency of bets, markets bet on, average stake, as well as profit/loss.
Kaszino, while I appreciate your frustration at your max bet limits being decreased, this is not an act of personalised discrimination against you. Certain business will be refused to enable the traders to maintain the value in the market for other customers who in the long run may be more profitable to the business, rather than having to bet to an extremely high % which may put others off. It is extremely rare for these trading decisions to be reversed.
Bet365 is licensed in the UK, and as such we are regulated by the Gambling Commission, as outlined in the 2005 Gambling Act. For any disputes, we are also registered with IBAS (Independent Betting Arbitration Service), details of which are listed on the bet365 website or can be found here:
http://www.ibas-uk.com/.
I hope this helps to shed some light on the situation. Thank you to everyone for your contribution to this thread as it is very interesting to hear the differing opinions on this, and to ugaboga for bringing the thread to my attention.
Cheers,
Kate