Betfair Bonus Fiasco

[LHofsdal]

If anyone can explain to me, why on earth would this place pay a processor 3 million dollars knowing that this player could only cashout a certain amount? Who is to say this processor won't disappear in the middle of the night with this players money? It is not that uncommon anymore for this to happen. Lets say it did happen, I would put my left arm (I am left handed) on betting that Betfair would say" Its not our problem, we paid the winnings".

I have never heard of such a crazy way to pay a player. Most places if they have a max withdrawal per week leave the money in the players account until it is all withdrawn. I am from the US to, and have never played at this place, but knowing they would go back into my bank account to take winnings that I had won fair and sqaure, I would never play there even if they gave me money to play with. I was pissed off to no end when I read they did this, and I didn't even know the person.

Is there any recourse anyone can take against this place? It is obvious there is no regulation as Mousey has stated, but there has to be something that can be done to them. So many people have been taken advantage here, and I am sure there are many more we don't know about. What blows my mind, is that this once was a reputable establishment, and I can't see them doing anything to rectify the mistakes they have already made. I would think they have been losing money since all this became public, but maybe I am wrong.

Because of all the things that were done wrong here, I agree they deserve to be in the rogue pit, but to me it looks like they don't care. These forums can be a powerful tool to players, and I have seen so many negative things about them on many other forums, but Betfair acts like it is not a big deal. I think the end of Betfair is alot closer than they realize if they don't start doing something to rectify their mistakes.

I truely feel bad for all players that were taken advantage of, and I hope someone will find away to get everyones money back.

LH

 

[jetset]

I think the following is an example of how an ethical operator who makes a screw-up on a bonus should deal with the consequences:

CAESARS BINGO EATS ERROR ON PROMO

US company's UK online enterprise does the right thing.

American gambling giant Caesars Entertainment did the right thing this week after Brit punters took advantage of a promotional error on its UK-facing online bingo website CaesarsBingo.com.

The manner in which the Gamesys-operated site handled an embarrassing and possibly expensive promotional construction error is in stark contrast to a similar case recently in which Betfair punished the players with confiscation of winnings (see previous InfoPowa reports).

The Guardian newspaper reported that the overly generous Caesars promo offered players a 200 percent bonus on deposits maxed at GBP400 and allowed the customers to wager the bonus money while keeping their initial deposit safe.

"The error on [the] Caesars bingo website, CaesarsBingo.com, left one family more than GBP3,000 better off before the casino discovered its mistake and corrected the glitch," the Guardian reported, noting that such promos are not unusual in online gambling, but that most are carefully constructed so that punters are likely to break even or lose money.

To ensure they do not lose out from such promotions, gambling companies do not usually allow customers to make a withdrawal until they have spent their entire bonus, meaning that customers cannot usually take out more money than they have wagered.

Players reportedly flocked to the site to take advantage of the offer.

One player said he had collected a total of GBP460 after staking just GBP200. "We stumbled across it by chance," an anonymous punter told the newspaper. "We told all of our friends and family about it. In total, our family has made more than GBP3,000 from this glitch and one friend paid for his wedding with his winnings."

Caesars changed the terms and conditions of the game on Thursday.

A spokesman for Caesars Interactive said: "If [gamblers] are taking advantage of something that is our error they will get to keep the advantage."

However, he cautioned that if there was any suggestion of fraudulent play, this would become an issue, and revealed that several player accounts suspected of questionable activity were being investigated.

CaesarsBingo.com launched in the UK last year, and is operated by Gamesys, a respected British online gambling group which takes bets worth more than GBP 2 billion a year.


The issue serves as a reminder to operators that promotional offers need to be carefully constructed and thoroughly checked before being offered to players...and that the operator should accept responsibility for mistakes in construction which make a promo more generous than was intended.

 

[Nifty29]

I think the following is an example of how an ethical operator who makes a screw-up on a bonus should deal with the consequences:

CAESARS BINGO EATS ERROR ON PROMO

US company's UK online enterprise does the right thing.

American gambling giant Caesars Entertainment did the right thing this week after Brit punters took advantage of a promotional error on its UK-facing online bingo website CaesarsBingo.com.

Theu manner in which the Gamesys-operated site handled an embarrassing and possibly expensive promotional construction error is in stark contrast to a similar case recently in which Betfair punished the players with confiscation of winnings (see previous InfoPowa reports).

The Guardian newspaper reported that the overly generous Caesars promo offered players a 200 percent bonus on deposits maxed at GBP400 and allowed the customers to wager the bonus money while keeping their initial deposit safe.

"The error on [the] Caesars bingo website, CaesarsBingo.com, left one family more than GBP3,000 better off before the casino discovered its mistake and corrected the glitch," the Guardian reported, noting that such promos are not unusual in online gambling, but that most are carefully constructed so that punters are likely to break even or lose money.

To ensure they do not lose out from such promotions, gambling companies do not usually allow customers to make a withdrawal until they have spent their entire bonus, meaning that customers cannot usually take out more money than they have wagered.

Players reportedly flocked to the site to take advantage of the offer.

One player said he had collected a total of GBP460 after staking just GBP200. "We stumbled across it by chance," an anonymous punter told the newspaper. "We told all of our friends and family about it. In total, our family has made more than GBP3,000 from this glitch and one friend paid for his wedding with his winnings."

Caesars changed the terms and conditions of the game on Thursday.

A spokesman for Caesars Interactive said: "If [gamblers] are taking advantage of something that is our error they will get to keep the advantage."

However, he cautioned that if there was any suggestion of fraudulent play, this would become an issue, and revealed that several player accounts suspected of questionable activity were being investigated.

CaesarsBingo.com launched in the UK last year, and is operated by Gamesys, a respected British online gambling group which takes bets worth more than GBP 2 billion a year.


The issue serves as a reminder to operators that promotional offers need to be carefully constructed and thoroughly checked before being offered to players...and that the operator should accept responsibility for mistakes in construction which make a promo more generous than was intended.

It's also a good example of why rules are so tight and player unfriendly these days.

The minute someone finds a glitch or error, instead of letting the operators know, they tell as many people as possible, and use sites like bleatingbonuses to take them to the cleaners. Nice for those who profit, but very bad for the honest player who suffers in the long term.

I would also think there will be a lot of multiple account fraud involved given the circumstances so it will be interesting if it takes a while for them to pay. Kudos to them for copping it on the chin though.

 

[jetset]

And more troubles for Betfair.....

Betfair’s majority owned financial trading product LMAX recorded pre-tax losses of £13.2m for the year ended 30 April, Betfair’s annual report has shown.

The platform only launched in October last year, offering trading in a variety of areas including market indices and commodities.

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[jetset]

Betfair really does seem to have lost it's way - the UK media are making a meal of this story from their annual meeting this week, where an online player saw GBP52 000 confiscated:

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They've also reportedly tried to exclude the media from their agm, prompting one journo to buy five shares, entitling him as a shareholder to attend, only to be ejected because he was a journalist.

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If true, this is bizarre behaviour from a major publicly listed company.

 

[brutaldeluxe]

I noticed this on yahoo. About the 52k you mentioned. More bad publicity for them.

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[threescatters]

wow more scummy behaviour, its hard to remember the time betfair were a good company now. They were riding high 2002- mid 2010

 

[sambaEah]

Is anyone still taking Betfair to court on this issue then? I know of only one succesful case.

I must admit I've not got round to it because of the amount and I need to put some time into how much it could potentially cost if I lost my case. (My claimed amount is 5 figures so too big for small claims)

 

[jetset]

Latest Betfair Controversy

BETFAIR ANGERS ONLINE PUNTERS WITH RESPONSE TO TECHIE GLITCH

Punters who lost out on a GBP16 000 jackpot will only be given their deposits back

The management at UK online betting group Betfair has made another controversial decision, the latest in a string of rulings that have angered and alienated many internet punters.

The Telegraph newspaper reported Tuesday that more than 10 gamblers who lost out on a GBP16,610 Tote jackpot after Betfair failed to process their wagers in time will only have their stakes refunded.

"In a statement that infuriated some Betfair clients, the company on Tuesday admitted to 'technical issues in transmitting bets into the Tote pools in the last 10 minutes before the pool closed'”, the Telegraph reports.

"However, Betfair refused to honour the bets of punters who thought they had won the jackpot after finding six winners at Newmarket last Friday."

Apologising, Betfair said it had "returned funds for the failed bets", claiming that "at no point were these customers given confirmation that their bets had been successfully placed, or appeared as placed in their account statement".

That appeared to contradict claims by some customers, including bloodstock manager Nick Bradley.

He staked GBP12,000 – meaning he lost out on a GBP4,610 profit – and said the funds were "taken out of" his Betfair account.

Company sources admitted the stakes may have been removed temporarily.

Some small punters lost out on a GBP16,000-plus profit.

 

[threescatters]

Annnd...................

Its come to light all customer payment and bank details (including encrypted info) were stolen a while ago by some top level hackers

Specifically.........."Namely, that a bunch of cyber-criminals, possibly originating in Cambodia, had breached the company's security systems on March 14, 2010. They had subsequently stolen, among other things, 2.28m "encrypted payment card account numbers and details", 3.16m "account user names with encrypted security questions" and 89,744 "account usernames with bank account details". "

Full article here

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[Mousey]

Annnd...................

Its come to light all customer payment and bank details (including encrypted info) were stolen a while ago by some top level hackers

Specifically.........."Namely, that a bunch of cyber-criminals, possibly originating in Cambodia, had breached the company's security systems on March 14, 2010. They had subsequently stolen, among other things, 2.28m "encrypted payment card account numbers and details", 3.16m "account user names with encrypted security questions" and 89,744 "account usernames with bank account details". "

Full article here

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An "Incident Report to Regulators", dated July 15, 2010, explains that the thieves' haul included "approximately 850,000 unexpired credit card details" – a large number in relation to the company's current 949,000 "active users", or regular gamblers

Oh. and they didn't tell players because it would hamper the investigation. Horsehockey.

Seems they did inform the (hah!) 'regulators'.

(Who in hell is looking after players?? )

Pardon my ire, but this joint should be shut down. Now.

 

[threescatters]

yeah even sky news are running betfair storys now

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[jetset]

It's kinda sad to see how far this outfit has sunk in terms of both business rep and management behaviour.

 

[Gremmyboy]

BF had its downs this month. I heard they just admitted last Sept 30 that a hacker broke into their system and stole tons of account information including credit cards. And it still continue to roll.


Betfair is in for a rough ride over data theft*
30 Sep 2011*

Betfair will only refund bets in jackpot error*
28 Sep 2011*

Betfair 'removed £52,000 from account'*
23 Sep 2011*


All happening in the same month.

I've seen this posted at least three other times in different threads!
Just waiting for the 'Play at ***** casino instead' post to come soon!

 

[thelawnet]

Is anyone still taking Betfair to court on this issue then? I know of only one succesful case.

I must admit I've not got round to it because of the amount and I need to put some time into how much it could potentially cost if I lost my case. (My claimed amount is 5 figures so too big for small claims)

Anybody know a UK lawyer with experience of gambling claims?

 

[sthrax]

How are people getting on with the court cases against Betfair? I've heard a few people have been paid out but not sure how much of that is just rumour and how much is true?

 

[vinylweatherman]

How are people getting on with the court cases against Betfair? I've heard a few people have been paid out but not sure how much of that is just rumour and how much is true?

It's possible Betfair are settling out of court at the last minute, and subjecting payouts to a confidentiality agreement. This would make it hard for the rest of us to see hard evidence that Betfair are paying out, so all you hear is rumour.

If cases were going all the way and being decided in court, it would be all over the media, which is probably why Betfair are keen NOT to let any case get this far.


I speculated from the outset that if shoved, Betfair, like the UK banks, would fold at the last minute in order to prevent a legal judgement being recorded against them that could "open the flood gates". The banks acted on legal advice, and I would expect Betfair are acting on similar legal advice from their team now that gambling debts ARE enforcable under UK law. They are likely to try to negotiate a settlement lower than the full amount claimed by players in order to limit the cost of this blunder, and also hoping that large numbers of players will NOT go this far, and will simply accept they got screwed by a big company, and move on.

 

[GOCC]

What amazes me is the guy who came up with the promo, we will call him TP and his boss, lets call him SB have both kept their jobs.

 

[sthrax]

What amazes me is the guy who came up with the promo, we will call him TP and his boss, lets call him SB have both kept their jobs.

I thought someone high up got fired over it? Or at least an advert for a new head of marketing (or some such similar position) appeared a couple of days after the offer.

 

[GOCC]

I can guarantee that the 2 main people involved are still in the company. 1 in Stevenage and one in Malta

 

[threescatters]

Very good interview with an ex employee of betfair

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If anyone can turn it around, this ex paddypower guy can. However the only way to turn it around is to right the mistakes of the past, which would include paying out fully on this offer.

 

[Przecinek]

I think this thread should be closed. If there's a new issue - a new thread should pop up. 50 pages belong to best screenshot thread not here.

 

[threescatters]

I think this thread should be closed. If there's a new issue - a new thread should pop up. 50 pages belong to best screenshot thread not here.

Couldn't disagree more, this was the largest and most severe confiscation by an operator that I can remember. If they rectified and paid out then I would agree however since they are still hell bent on trying to sweep this under the carpet then this issue needs to be out in the public. If you don't like the thread then don't bump it and it will fade away if noone is interested.

 

[pokeraddict]

I think this thread should be closed. If there's a new issue - a new thread should pop up. 50 pages belong to best screenshot thread not here.

That makes zero sense. Why would you want Betfair to not suffer for their theft?

 

[rainmaker]

I think this thread should be closed. If there's a new issue - a new thread should pop up. 50 pages belong to best screenshot thread not here.

I am using a different setting (20 posts per page), so this thread is "only" 25 pages long for me