SBR Sportsbook Special Report: SportingBet PLC Group

By: Will Gatten, SBR Senior Analyst and Bill Dozer, SBR Analyst
© 2004 All rights reserved

SBR has received an unusual amount of complaints from players on the Sportingbet PLC group. This was once a group that took pride in their Customer Service Dept, but they have obviously lowered their standards of operation as of late. SBR believes that most of these complaints are generated by management inability to address the issues in a prompt and professional manner. It is also clear that their financial position in the market has improved in the last year, but it seems obvious this company has failed to sustain its growth and it’s currently failing to provide a satisfactory service for their players.

The following are some inefficiency symptoms presented bythe Sportingbet PLC group:

While the price of their stock in the London Stock Exchange seems to be in the rise, it's apparent that this company has forgotten how to maintain/increase the quality of their operational standards. (Image provided by www.advfn.com)

The following is a report of the many complaints filed by different players recently:

Sportsbook Name	Complaint	Date Filed	Management Assestment	Outcome
Sportsbook.com SBR Rating C	2 week slow-pay complaint, betting account closed. Amount: $1565 total "I have been using sportsbook.com for about 3 years now. I'm not a heavy bettor. Around 100 bucks a game in most instances, but never more than 200 or so. Heres the situation thats occuring to me, and hopefully you guys can help. I worked my account up to 1300 or so dollars, and requested a cashout of $865 last thursday. I got a receipt from EFS caribbean. All I've gotten since is the run around... And now, the kicker on this is that I still have $700 + dollars in the account and my account has been closed. And no one is returning my email. I hope you guys can help, because this is a crock of shit. I've gotten bank wire wd's from them before and NEVER had a problem with them before."	July29.04	Management has failed to address this issue at all. SBR has tried to contact upper management on the player's behalf, no successful contact has been established.	Pending
Sportsbook.com SBR Rating C	5 month slow-pay complaint; Amount: $476.13 (I have been a sportsbook.com customer since 2002. On February 6th I requested a payout via bank wire for $476.13. Well, needless to say that now it is July 27th and I have yet to receive my funds. That’s over 6 months now! I can’t believe it and it doesn’t seem like I can do anything. I’m just a struggling college student and every penny is important to me. I would appreciate if you all can help me out anyway you can, whether it’s by letting me know if there is something I can do regarding contacting the Costa Rican Government or whatever else.)	July 27.04	Management has failed to address this issue at all. SBR has tried to contact upper management on the player's behalf, no successful contact has been established.	Pending
Sportsbook.com SBR Rating C	One month slow-pay complaint. Amount: $76,297 "On June 30th I made a withdrawal request for $76,297 to be paid via bank wire to the bank account I have always used with them in the past. In the past the money has reached my account perfectly, usually within 2-3 days. There is still no sign of the money, and on Friday 16th July they decided to put a trace on the bank wire, informing me that they would track out where the money went, and then repay me. Now 10 days later, they still have never contacted me. I have emailed them about this, which is shown below. And just today I phoned them to find out what the sitaution is, and they seem to just be stalling me, saying they are looking into it, and they haven't got the information yet so they can't reprocess the money yet."	July 26.04	Management has failed to address this issue at all. SBR has tried to contact upper management on the player's behalf, no successful contact has been established.	Pending
SportingBetUSA SBR Rating B-	One week slow-pay complaint; Amount: $100 "... After placing a number of successful wagers I recently requested a small payout of $100 to be refunded to the Firepay account from which I funded my betting acoount. They immediately removed the money from my account and over two days later i received an email from then stating that the transaction was successfully executed. There was, however, no transmission to my Firepay account. I was told by SportingbetUSA's staff that it takes 24 hours after execution for the money to move to my account. I waited 24 hours, but nothing. Then the staff told me it could take 48 hours. I waited 96 hours, but nothing. I wasted no time in asking for the Firepay transaction number for the transmission so that I could check with Firepay to see if there was a problem on their end. The SportingbetUSA staff now claim that they cannot find the Firepay transaction number. I'm a little new at this, but I feel like I'm getting the serious runaround. It has now been nearly a week since I requested the payout. The money is gone from my betting account and there is no trace of its whereabouts".	July 25.04	Management has failed to address this issue at all. SBR has tried to contact upper management on the player's behalf, no successful contact has been established.	Pending
Linesmaker SBR Rating C-	Illegitimate confiscation of winnings, Amount: $18,000 "... I have been playing with them for over a year, i havn't had many payouts ... very few actually. I basically lost around 18 g's in that time, i did get lucky and win a parlay worth alittle over 18K and I asked for a check... boom!!!... next day my account was disabled. Now, like 4 months prior i made a charge back for $134.00 because their Processing House EFS overcharged me and they told me I would have to pay that money via westen union to collect my check , so i did. I paid the $134.00 and then they proceeded to change their story, they said I would not be able to collect my winnings and they will only credit me 1,000 dollars to my last credit card..."	July.23.04	Quote taken from a News Wire posted on 7.27.2004 (3:19 PM CST): "SBR Bill Dozer reports: Linesmaker upholds decision to confiscate $18000 parlay win. The book claims the confiscation is justified due to a previous charge back of $135 at a different sportsbook. The player states the $135 was over charged to his credit card by EFS processing; which had previously accepted thousands of dollars in his deposits. EFS also does financial transactions for Linesmaker. Linesmaker’s client service center offered to pay the winnings to the player if he would send the $135 via Western Union, which he did. This offer was voided when Linesmaker ownership cited a previously used dormant account as an additional rule violation. The client closed this old account via Livechat before playing with his new account. SBR warns players of the audit process. EFS auditing many accounts upon payout request."	Settled
SportingBetUSA SBR Rating B-	Illegitimate bonus confiscation; Amount: $900 (total) "1. Account ID xxxxxxxxx - SportingbetUSA Amount confiscated $139.33 due to alleged "wager fraud". A previous withdrawal of $200 was deducted from my account on 27/05/04 but never sent to me. 2. Account ID xxxxxxxxx - Sportingbet USA Original deposit of $100 allegedly returned to xxxxxxxx's Neteller account 08/06/04 , but never has been. Balance of $460.71 achieved by successful wagers confiscated, bookmaker declined to give reasons and then closed correspondence. I hope this helps. I have literally dozens of e-mails to support my claim if these are required."	July 16.04	Management has failed to address this issue at all. SBR has tried to contact upper management on the player's behalf, no successful contact has been established.	Pending
Sportsfanatik SBR RatingD+	Illegitimate bonus confiscation, Amount: $50 "1. Account ID xxxxxxxxx - Sportfanatik Bonus of $50 withdrawn for no apparent reason and winning freebet cancelled, also without explanation. Initial deposit of $500 allegedly returned to my credit card 06/08/04 , but no sign of it."	July 16.04	Management has failed to address this issue at all. SBR has tried to contact upper management on the player's behalf, no successful contact has been established.	Pending
MySportsbook SBR Rating C-	6 week slow-pay complaint. Amount: $17,000 "I've been with mysportsbook.com for over 3 years and have been very happy until last month, when I requested 3 separate Bank Wire Withdrawals. As of today 07.16.04, I have not received any of them. They're telling me all 3 have been lost and I think they're lying, since it has always been good when I lost. Althouh I do this like a hobby, I wanted to get paid becasue I won; but in this prticular issue, Customer Servcie seems to be getting real bad. I know Sportingbet PLC is a big reputable company, but I don't know who the owner of MySportsbook.com is and I don't know if this company is having money problems..."	July 16.04	After having contacted the Sportingbet's Headquarters in London, the 3 payouts were finanlly issued . Player received the first of the three payments on July 30. 04 and is currently awaiting for the other 2 to arrive. This solution was provided to the player after a 6 weeks waiting period.	Partially Solved
Allstar.com SBR Rating C-	4 month slow-pay complaint. Amount: $90 "I wanted to inform yourself, and my fellow bettors, of my problems with allstar.com. Allstar has been "sending me checks" since May 4, 2004 and I have yet to receive one. They also have been caught lying to me, telling me checks have been sent, then a month later telling me that check was never sent. I am still awaiting my $90 withdrawl which I am sure I will never see again. Yes, I know its only $90, but I can't even imagine how unhappy I would be if it was one of my $1,000.00 withdrawls. Please spread the word about my problems."	July 07.04	Management has failed to address this issue at all. SBR has tried to contact upper management on the player's behalf, no successful contact has been established	Pending
The following is a list of all the sportsbooks and casinos that are part of this financial group:
http://www.sportingbet.com.au http://www.sportingbetUSA.com http://www.supervegascasino.com http://www.sportingodds.com http://www.sportsbook.com http://www.playersonly.com http://www.wallstreet.com http://www.aces.com http://www.sportfanatik.com http://www.parier.net http://www.wallstreetbets.com http://www.allstar.com http://www.skylinecasino.com http://www.sports.com http://www.belmontcasino.com http://www.linesmaker.com http://www.wagertonight.com http://www.allpro.com http://www.takaracasino.com http://www.ezbets.com http://www.casinokingtut.com http://www.bestecasino.com http://www.casinoventure.com http://www.gamingcosmos.com http://www.worldwidegamble.com http://www.supersportsbook.com http://www.sportsbooks.com http://www.sportingparlor.com		http://www.casinoandsportsbook.com http://www.placemybet.com http://www.bubbascasino.com http://www.globalsportsnetwork.com http://www.athomesportsbook.com http://www.alpscasino.com http://www.sb28.com http://www.superbook.com http://www.probets.com http://www.52bet.com http://www.thebestbet.com http://www.aceskasino.com http://www.ezsportsbook.com http://www.nycsportsbook.com http://www.eurosportwetten.com http://www.casinowelt.com http://www.sportingbet.com http://dk.sportingbet.com http://se.sportingbet.com http://gr.sportingbet.com http://jp.sportingbet.com http://zh.sportingbet.com http://th.sportingbet.com http://bg.sportingbet.com http://ru.sportingbet.com http://www.superbahis.com http://www.miapuesta.com
Will Gatten: SBR Senior Analyst and General Manager Once the Marketing Director of a major sportsbook, Will now uses his knowledge of this industry and his understanding of business models to help players make an educated decision.
Bill Dozer: SBR Writer, Analyst, and Sportsbook player Bill helps other sports bettors avoid scams and provides advice in dealing with offshore sportsbooks.

SBR Special Report

Investigation of Customer Service complaints about publicly traded
SPORTING BET PLC Group (LSE:SBT)

SBR Special Report

Investigation of Customer Service complaints about publicly tradedSPORTING BET PLC Group (LSE:SBT)

Investigation of Customer Service complaints about publicly traded
SPORTING BET PLC Group (LSE:SBT)