Betfair has closed my account with no explanation. £5,500 balance.

[jacobantho23]

Hi all, hope I am posting in the right place!

I used the Betfair exchange to bet on cricket mainly sometimes football. I have been on a decent winning run and had a balance of around £5,500 in my account. I received an email today saying

“We are sorry to inform you that your account with Betfair has been closed. This decision has been made by our Security department on business grounds and in line with our terms and conditions.
For further information please find our Terms & Conditions here”.

I went on live chat and they said this

“Your account has been closed on Business Grounds in line with the terms and conditions agreed upon registration.

The deposit can be refunded, but seeing as you already withdrew more than you deposited there is nothing further due and the remaining balance/winnings is to be retained.


There is no further information about this available I'm afraid. Apologies for any inconvenience caused!”

I am totally lost for words. The whole point of using an exchange is one player loses and one player wins, they take a commission. How can they close my account, withhold returning the balance and not tell me why?

I am broken and I need advice, please!

 

[jacobantho23]

Hi all, hope I am posting in the right place!

I used the Betfair exchange to bet on cricket mainly sometimes football. I have been on a decent winning run and had a balance of around £5,500 in my account. I received an email today saying

“We are sorry to inform you that your account with Betfair has been closed. This decision has been made by our Security department on business grounds and in line with our terms and conditions.
For further information please find our Terms & Conditions here”.

I went on live chat and they said this

“Your account has been closed on Business Grounds in line with the terms and conditions agreed upon registration.

The deposit can be refunded, but seeing as you already withdrew more than you deposited there is nothing further due and the remaining balance/winnings is to be retained.


There is no further information about this available I'm afraid. Apologies for any inconvenience caused!”

I am totally lost for words. The whole point of using an exchange is one player loses and one player wins, they take a commission. How can they close my account, withhold returning the balance and not tell me why?

I am broken and I need advice, please!

 

[maxd]

Hello,

@jacobantho23 , hopefully your posting of that same thing twice was a slip of the wrist or somesuch. Otherwise please do note that double posting like that is known as "cross-posting" or "wallpapering" and as per the Forum Rules is frowned on with great vigour.

Threads merged, please don't repeat the error. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

As to your issue with Betfair I would normally offer to assist via our complimentary Player Arbitration (PAB) service but their traditional response to player issues we bring to their attention is "talk to the hand" and then stony silence so I'm afraid we aren't likely to be of much use to you on that account.

Regards,
Max Drayman
Senior Forum Moderator

 

[johnnymcc1966]

Are you talking Betfair Sportsbook or Exchange? I assume its the Sportsbook as they are always doing this kind of thing with that.
Sorry,I just re read and it is Exchange. That is not normal.

 

[jasonuk]

Betfair have been known to close accounts for commercial reasons, but still remit the full balance. Section 13.5 stipulates that they will except when you have committed prohibited or suspicious acts discussed at length in section 11 and 12 of

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(including duplicate accounts, incorrect details, chargebacks, courtsiding, and collusion such as dumping funds).

Saying that, Betfair do have a history of doing dumb things so even if they claim it's a T&C breach, it may not be.

Even with an account closure, you still have your standard rights - the complaints portal provides for internal escalation (and if they refuse to accept the complaint, you can try emailing the CEO which goes to a higher complaints queue), and once they've given you a final decision you would have ADR (which appears to be IBAS). This page has more information:

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It's unlikely you will get your account back, but you would be able to dispute the confiscation of funds.

 

[jacobantho23]

Thank you Jason.

I have logged a case with IBAS after Betfair stopped replying to my emails. They want no part in conversation which I guess in their policy. I will have to wait and see what IBAS think.

The only thing I can think of is I had a duplicate account that I created last year. I couldn't remember my previous log in so created another account. This was promptly (and fairly) closed, and I was given the information/access to the account I created around 8 years ago. I was told there was no issue continuing to use my old account, but if I created another account I would be permanently banned. I have not done this. I know creating a duplicate account is against the terms and conditions, but surely they are not allowed to allow me to continue with the original account and wait until I turn a profit to close? Between the time they allowed me to continue and today, there have been times where I have turned significant losses and they didn't act then.

I have provided IBAS with this email trail which states I have no problems continuing to use the account they closed last week. They have also stated that as my account is in profit, they are withholding those funds. The duplicate account they closed last year (alongside the associated Paddy power account that has been closed as part of this whole issue) had significant losses over £11k, exceeding the total profit I've ever had on the Betfair account. I have also found out Betfair have made £3k in commission on my account, which seems so wrong considering they have now profited on a losing player on the exchange, and now also withheld my funds.

 

[jacobantho23]

Are you talking Betfair Sportsbook or Exchange? I assume its the Sportsbook as they are always doing this kind of thing with that.
Sorry,I just re read and it is Exchange. That is not normal.

Exchange yes! I have occasionally used the sportsbook but 99% of my use has been on the exchange, I would say I'm definitely on a loss on the sportsbook.

 

[jacobantho23]

Apologies max, the duplication was an error and not intentional.

No worries regarding the PAB, from research it seems Betfair have a bit of a reputation. I have raised this with IBAS. Does anyone have any further advise?

 

[thr0b]

Just updated some contact details on Betfair myself, and they dropped me this email immediately after. May well corroborate what you’re saying as well.

 

[jacobantho23]

Welcome to the club..

 

[thr0b]

Welcome to the club..

To be clear the ouch, they owe me nothing. I just use it for the free prize pinball.

I won a single spin the other day.

 

[dealer wins]

They fucked me over in 2021 for £8000 big time. Went to IBAS with a cast iron complaint but they sided with the scum!

 

[jacobantho23]

What was their rationale dealer wins?

 

[ultimate_winner]

It seems that players are only scrutinized after they win and want to withdraw their money,
This amateur casino/ sportbook way of conducting business must change.

 

[jasonuk]

It seems that players are only scrutinized after they win and want to withdraw their money,
This amateur casino/ sportbook way of conducting business must change.

They're not talking about the sportsbook or casino though, they're talking about the exchange which is peer-to-peer betting. Let's not confuse the streams here as they are two distinct problems.

If they confiscated the funds, then Betfair is basically - rightly or wrongly - accusing them of foul play. Of course, tough to argue your case if they're not telling the OP why they're confiscating the funds...

No worries regarding the PAB, from research it seems Betfair have a bit of a reputation. I have raised this with IBAS. Does anyone have any further advise?

I wouldn't rush to IBAS just yet - if you don't have a "final decision" (those exact words) or a deadlock letter then IBAS won't accept it yet anyway.

Try the other methods I mentioned - they should be giving you a reason. If it's the duplicate account then that seems unreasonable if they've warned you and acknowledged you can continue to use the first account.

The other point I'm going to throw out there is the old chestnut "premium charge avoidance" - this will be monitored by a different team, so just because one part of the business allowed you to continue using the first account, a different part of the business may have flagged you up because they've seen the two accounts but not the resolution.

Piss-up and Brewery spring to mind...

 

[dealer wins]

What was their rationale dealer wins?

It was on their betting exchange on the World cup of Darts. They had set up 2 markets for each match, I went on live chat to advise them of this and they said "Fine its a mistake but as both markets are active use either"

At the end of that days darts they voided over £7k of winnings and would not entertain a complaint, and IBAS agreed.

I hate Betfair with a passion ever since!