[Ewan101]

Sorry for bumping this old thread.
I was searching up info about betezy and came upon this 1 year old thread discussing the bookie. I am having trouble withdrawing from betezy, did you guys have to specifically use a westpac bank account for their method of withdrawal (some Qvalent patented 'fastpay' nonsense)?
The support team will not respond to my queries...

Hi Kthien. You posted on 02/01/2013 indicating you were having troubles with your withdrawal. Did Betezy pay you in the end?

[sourtwist]

These idiots get involved here with new sbr accounts but never give updates on their situations.

[Ewan101]

Well, I am grateful for their posting of any information at all about Betezy at this stage. I am considering depositing with them and I have searched SBR and other sites for more information. At this stage my research indicates that they are quite unreliable with payouts and a little tricky with changing of freebet / bonus terms BUT they do payout in the end. This is my only real query here - do they actually payout in the end? For example, I would be willing to be messed around for 2 or 3 weeks waiting for a payout as long as it did actually come.

Anyone else reading this with any information at all about Betezy payouts for 2013 onwards - I would be grateful to hear from you.

[Ewan101]

Hi All - I thought I would attempt to reignite this old thread as my last post was around 2 months ago. Does anyone have any recent (up to a year ago) experience with Betezy?

- Do they pay in the end (albeit a little slow)?
- Kthien - see above - did they pay you?
- StellaConcepts - see above - did they pay you?

Any information whatsoever about Betezy is gratefully received.... Thanks to all.

[goombah]

I'd avoid. If you do put in, put less than 5% of your total bankroll there.

[Ewan101]

Hi Goombah - many thanks for your post. I appreciate it.

May I ask you - on what basis do you suggest avoiding Betezy? Is it based on the information in this (and other) threads OR is it because you have had some adverse first hand experience with Betezy?

[Stockdale]

Why do you want to even use them? There are many other MUCH MUCH better bookies in Australia to not have to worry about these guys. Once they have your phone number expect a call once a week insisting you deposit with them as well, they are nothing but a giant pain and not worth the hassle

[binbong]

seem eryting is fine

[Ewan101]

Hi Stockdale. Thanks for your response - all information of any kind regarding Betezy is received with thanks.

I have my reasons for using Betezy - for example there are many occasions where they have the market leading odds on a variety of Australian Sports. I have other reasons as well. Thanks for the information re: phone calls and the hassle.

So - it sounds to me like you have used Betezy in the past. May I ask you:

- Did you ever make a withdrawal from Betezy?
- If yes, for how many $AUD?
- If yes, did you have any kind of issue whatsoever related to this withdrawal?

Once again - thanks for your reply - all information is received with thanks.

[Ewan101]

Hi binbong. Thanks for your reply. May I ask you on what basis you make the statement that it seems everything is fine?

Is the statement based on:

- Your own personal experiences with Betezy? If so, I would be grateful for more details

OR

- Is the statement based on your reading of the contents of this thread?

[goombah]

Yes, I have a recent negative experience with them. I'd rather not post the details until I get my money out which might not be for awhile.

[Ewan101]

Hi goombah. Thanks for your post. I appreciate it. I have sent you a message which should appear when you go to your Inbox.

[amacatak]

Sorry for reviving an old thread but Ive had a Betezy for 1 day now. Aside from the fact that they literally have 2-3 betting markets per sport and a pretty confusing interface. They have not paid out my bonus. Ive had TWO winning bets reversed after initially being paid out, some sort of tech glitch they have been experiencing as of late apparently. I made a decision this afternoon withdraw the initial $200, but was informed that I am unable to withdraw it until I place $200 in bets first. They also have pretty rude employees and hold music that makes you want to die.

So yeah, probs best to stay away..

[Border Gadgie]

I found they have been fine, never had any issues at all, bonus was paid out but needed to contact them by phone to confirm eligibilty. Freebets from offers have always been added promptly and I found them to be very friendly and helpful. Its not the greatest website and can be a little glitchy placinig bets, but overall they have been spot on.

[Hareeba!]

They are under new management now and have just implemented software changes so perhaps there are some teething issues involved.

I've found them honest and always paid me promptly.

It's a pretty ordinary operation though and I use them only because I'm just so devoid of options.

They won't let me bet more than a few peanuts on sports and virtually nothing at all on racing.

[Ewan101]

Hi All,

I would like to update this thread with new information. At the time I was posting in this thread I did not have an account with Betezy and I was wondering if they were safe. Since that time (maybe 12 months now) I can confirm that:

- Betezy (now renamed Beteasy) do pay and they pay promptly
- They tend to limit you after a while (bets go for manual review after you click submit) - sometimes you'll only get $50 or $100 on - but sometimes you can get $1000 on even after manual review (especially if it is close to kickoff)
- Overall this book (at the time of writing) is safe

Thanks to all for you various replies

[Stockdale]

The book is now called Crown and not only 100% safe but one of the best bookies for limits at the moment

Essentially its nothing to do with BetEzy now. Matt Tripp bought it and re-branded it BetEasy so essentially the only thing it had in common with the old site was the similar name. But now as they are CrownBet since James Packer bought out 66% there is virtually no link to the old BetEzy site.

The old BetEzy is now essentially Classicbet who were the owners of BetEzy before they sold it

[Ewan101]

Hi Stockdale,

Yes, you are right. Beteasy then recently rebranded to Crown. My error.

What is your opinion of the new Classicbet in terms of safety?

[Hareeba!]

The rebranding of BetEasy as Crownbet is more hype than substance imho.
I'm still barred from their premium racing products and I find a lot of inconsistency in their acceptance of sports bets. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised by them accepting my wager in full but more frequently I'm reduced quite significantly. Worst part though is they can take two minutes or more to consider the request before coming back with a response.

As for Classicbet, I don't regard safety as an issue. I've received prompt payouts every time. They are Australian regulated so that's as close to a guarantee you'll get paid as anywhere on the planet. They are a bit mickey mouse though. After initially accepting my wagers in full I'm now generally being limited to $100 on sports, but again I sometimes get a pleasant surprise and they accept my wager in full. Similar to Crownbet though, their premium and promotional racing products have been withdrawn from my account. I don't find their fixed odds very competitive.

[Ewan101]

Hi Hareeba,

Thanks for your reply and informative comments. It's good to know that Classicbet is safe.

I lost a fair amount when SportsAlive went under. They were meant to be regulated, but as I am sure you are aware, the courts (upon examining the SportsAlive bank account at issue) decided that it was not a segregated bank account protecting customer funds. As a result, customers will lose their balances. So in summary, SportsAlive was regulated but this did not stop management behaving improperly and customers losing their money.

Do you have an opinion on this? Has something changed so that Aussie regulated books are now safer than during the Sports Alive time? The key issue was that the management did not correctly segregate customer funds and the regulator did not police whether or not the company was in fact segregating as they should have.

You opinion on this would be valued.

[Hareeba!]

Hi Hareeba,

Thanks for your reply and informative comments. It's good to know that Classicbet is safe.

I lost a fair amount when SportsAlive went under. They were meant to be regulated, but as I am sure you are aware, the courts (upon examining the SportsAlive bank account at issue) decided that it was not a segregated bank account protecting customer funds. As a result, customers will lose their balances. So in summary, SportsAlive was regulated but this did not stop management behaving improperly and customers losing their money.

Do you have an opinion on this? Has something changed so that Aussie regulated books are now safer than during the Sports Alive time? The key issue was that the management did not correctly segregate customer funds and the regulator did not police whether or not the company was in fact segregating as they should have.

You opinion on this would be valued.

You raise an excellent question regarding SportsAlive.

The key issue there is that they were regulated (or more correctly were supposed to have been regulated) by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission (GRC).

Had that Commission carried out it's responsibilities as it ought punters' funds would have been held in a trust account which would have been beyond the reach of the company's creditors. Furthermore the guarantee which the company was required to lodge upon being registered would have been available to the GRC to meet any outstanding claims on futures bets.

However, the guarantee deposit was lodged in the company's name and then provided to their bank as security for debts!
And despite any number of complaints and years of audit report qualifications the GRC took little interest and failed to ensure SportsAlive's compliance with the segregated account requirement.

There surely can be no doubt that the GRC failed their duty utterly miserably and are responsible for the loss of punters' funds. Yet, quite astonishingly, the ACT Ombudsman found they were not at fault because SportsAlive had lied to them! I have been reliably informed that the Ombudsman's office didn't even contact the company's liquidator for any facts surrounding the conduct and collapse of SportsAlive.

What is now shaping as an extraordinary but unpublicised (so far) scandal is that the Ombudsman, having been requested to review his findings, has now been silent on the matter for almost two years.

Quite clearly in my view the GRC was totally incompetent in the performance of it's duty and the ACT Government should fully compensate the punters who lost their money due to SportsAlive's collapse.

Fortunately (?) most of Australia's online bookies are regulated by the NT Commission not the ACT's GRC! I have a lot more confidence that the NT Commission is far more efficient and does indeed ensure compliance with it's regulations so a repeat of the SportsAlive fiasco is highly unlikely.

[Hareeba!]

The rebranding of BetEasy as Crownbet is more hype than substance imho.
I'm still barred from their premium racing products and I find a lot of inconsistency in their acceptance of sports bets. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised by them accepting my wager in full but more frequently I'm reduced quite significantly. Worst part though is they can take two minutes or more to consider the request before coming back with a response.

As for Classicbet, I don't regard safety as an issue. I've received prompt payouts every time. They are Australian regulated so that's as close to a guarantee you'll get paid as anywhere on the planet. They are a bit mickey mouse though. After initially accepting my wagers in full I'm now generally being limited to $100 on sports, but again I sometimes get a pleasant surprise and they accept my wager in full. Similar to Crownbet though, their premium and promotional racing products have been withdrawn from my account. I don't find their fixed odds very competitive.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION!!

Don't know what I was thinking when responding about Classicbet but was thinking ClubAllSports.com.au for some reason.
My comments about Classicbet actually refer to ClubAllSports.

So what about Classicbet?
I wouldn't recommend them at all!
They are regulated by the NSW Commission, not NT's.
Funds ought to be safe but I don't have a high regard for the NSW mob.
I'll try and find the post I made following my short and nasty experience with Classicbet and post a link to it in this thread.

here we go: http://fairwageringaustralia.com/201...ic-experience/

[Ewan101]

Hi Hareeba,

Thanks for your reply above re: SportsAlive. I know this thread is meant to be about BetEzy / BetEasy / Crown but given my experience with SportsAlive, I was curious to know whether Australian regulation genuinely meant that a bookmaker was safe.

My basic thesis is that despite what any regulations may say, if the required conduct that is the subject of those regulations is not adhered to by the bookmaker AND the adherence or otherwise by the bookmaker is not policed by the regulating body AND there is no resulting sanction (against either the bookmaker or the regulating body's failure) that would benefit punters (i.e. there is no sanction that results in punters getting their money back) THEN the regulations are worthless. I think that in the case of SportsAlive, all the above occurred.

I would now like to comment on your post above and ask some further questions.

1. I read your link to Classicbet above. At the time that you were a Classicbet customer you had a contract with Classicbet. The terms and conditions of that contract were substantially (but not wholly) made up of the Classicbet t&c that you quote.

2. Classicbet breached the t&c and (should you (have) wished, you would have had an actionable claim against Classicbet in a civil court. The changed t&c are irrelevant as these were not the t&c in place at the time of your contract (and you have a screenshot to prove it).

3. The OLGR is incorrect to quote " “3.1.2 Discretion of sports bookmaker. (c) A sports bookmaker is under no obligation to accept any wager from any customer or prospective customer" in Classicbet's defence. The specific Classicbet terms that stated that your freebet could be wagered on any sports overrule this general term and there is plenty of precedent contact case law to substantiate this.

4. The OLGR is a NSW govt body. Your Classicbet case leads me to believe that any sportsbook under NSW regulation is not safe for punters. If a SportsAlive situation developed with a NSW regulated bookmaker, I assume that all punters would lose their balances again, with no redress (as punters are not priority creditors). Do you agree?

5. Obviously given all the above, Classicbet must be avoided at all costs. If nothing else, your story shows that Classicbet behave unethically and one's money is not safe there

6. I understand from your SportsAlive comments above that the ACT GRC failed (and presumably will fail) to correctly regulate books. Therefore any Australian bookmaker who is regulated by the ACT GRC is unsafe - is that correct?

7. You state above that (contra ACT), the NT regulator is effective and trustworthy. Is there any additional information available to substantiate this (for example, a case where a bookmaker went broke but the NT regulator's actions ensured there was a segregated bank account and all punters were paid)?

8. As a summary, Australian books regulated by NSW and ACT are high risk as the regulators do not ensure segregated bank accounts and generally they do not police their own regulations. But NT regulated books are safe. Is that correct and do you agree?

9. As a point of interest, in the UK BetButler went broke and many punters (including me) also lost cash there. It was a similar case to SportsAlive. BetButler actually had a contractual term stating that customer funds were to be held in a separate, segregated bank account. It turned out that no such account existed and that the UK regulating body had failed to police BetButler's activities. They washed their hands and the punters have no redress against a penniless defendant in liquidation.

[Hareeba!]

Yes Ewan, regardless of what the law says the bookie must do, if they don't and the regulators don't ensure they do there is of course a high risk that punters will lose their money again.

However, I am generally very comfortable with the situation in Australia, particularly those regulated by the NT Commission. The ACT of course has a bad history but I'm sure that following the SportAlive case they will have implemented improvements. Not that it is of any great value because, apart from the ACT TAB, I think there may only be one small bookie regulated by them. And you are correct that my experience in dealing with their NSW counterpart left me less than impressed. But that's not to say they aren't ensuring compliance with the segregated accounts and guarantee fund requirements of their legislation.

Other than SportsAlive I am not familiar with any other bookie in Australia going belly up. I think there was one in WA a few years back but I don't know how that worked out. There have been a couple of others which closed their doors but did pay out their clients. But no, I'm not aware of any where one could definitely say that the segregated accounts and government regulation saved the day for clients.

It is obviously true that there is always some risk but I think Australia is clearly ahead of anywhere else in the world in this sphere by having the legislation and government authorities monitoring compliance. Most of the online bookmakers here are large European owned entities. There are a few smaller local ones such as Classicbet who you probably need to do some research into before joining up with.

Of the smaller ones I have accounts with Topsport, Palmerbet, Crownbet and ClubAllSports.
Then also with the TAB (incl. Luxbet) and Tatts (or Ubet as from today) - safe as houses!
As well as the large foreign owned corporates, Sportsbet (Paddy Power) and Bet365.
The other large corporates which I'd also class as very safe but which don't let me bet with them are: Wm Hill, Ladbrokes and Unibet.

[Ewan101]

Hi Hareeba.

Thanks again for your comments above. I am curious about Classicbet and may join them. Classicbet is not rated here at SBR. As stated, I read your article above about Classicbet and I'd like to summarise here. After this, I will search for a Classicbet thread here at SBR and if there is none, I will start a new thread to see if anyone has any experiences with them.

So, a summary of Classicbet:

1. All evidence so far suggests that Classicbet do pay out with no issues (i.e. they are safe)

2. If you accept a bonus bet, there could be issues including:

(i) Classicbet MAY not allow you to place a bonus bet you have in your account on sports (despite the bonus bet rules stating this is ok) and make you place the bonus bet on racing instead, HOWEVER:

(ii) If Classicbet DO allow you to place a bonus bet on sports then (if it wins) Classicbet will actually honour the bonus bet payout

3. It is likely that Classicbet will limit quickly (although this is not explicitly stated in your article). If that is true, there is a chance that making the rollover you undertake when you accept a bonus with Classicbet could be difficult (but not too difficult at 3 x the deposit at odds 1.5 or greater)

Thanks again for your help Hareeba. Do you basically agree with the summary above?

[Hareeba!]

Hi Hareeba.

Thanks again for your comments above. I am curious about Classicbet and may join them. Classicbet is not rated here at SBR. As stated, I read your article above about Classicbet and I'd like to summarise here. After this, I will search for a Classicbet thread here at SBR and if there is none, I will start a new thread to see if anyone has any experiences with them.

So, a summary of Classicbet:

1. All evidence so far suggests that Classicbet do pay out with no issues (i.e. they are safe)

2. If you accept a bonus bet, there could be issues including:

(i) Classicbet MAY not allow you to place a bonus bet you have in your account on sports (despite the bonus bet rules stating this is ok) and make you place the bonus bet on racing instead, HOWEVER:

(ii) If Classicbet DO allow you to place a bonus bet on sports then (if it wins) Classicbet will actually honour the bonus bet payout

3. It is likely that Classicbet will limit quickly (although this is not explicitly stated in your article). If that is true, there is a chance that making the rollover you undertake when you accept a bonus with Classicbet could be difficult (but not too difficult at 3 x the deposit at odds 1.5 or greater)

Thanks again for your help Hareeba. Do you basically agree with the summary above?

When I joined ClassicBet their bonus bet rule permitted use on anything. But when I attempted to use it on an sports bet they said no, racing only. I again checked their rule which was as I understood it. After I lodged a complaint about them they changed their rule to say racing only and submitted that rule to the authority in their defence of my complaint. And the authority quoted it back to me!

Based on my experience as detailed in the link I posted they are very likely to deny you your bonus bets in full. And they are very likely to limit or close your account if you have any success at all so completing any required rollover could well be a serious issue.

The one positive thing I can say about them is that they did payout promptly after closing my account.

However, when the NSW minimum bet rule came into force on 1 Sept 2014 I requested ALL accounts which had closed me down to reopen my accounts. ClassicBet remains one of those which have not yet done so.

Further, I have been told stories and found links about the key man, Ryan Kay. He has past "form" with authorities and courts for being less than honest. And that too was my experience in dealing with him.

In summary I couldn't possibly recommend anyone join up with ClassicBet. If you do, do it just for what you can extract in bonuses. You may just get lucky but there really are better options such as Topsport, Crownbet, Ubet, Flemington Sportsbook, Palmerbet and even ClubAllsports.

[Ewan101]

Hi Hareeba,

I have read all the above and the information is most useful. I am wondering of you have an opinion on how the Norfolk Island Gaming Authority are as a regulator? So far we have:

- NT - good
- ACT - bad (they failed to police whether or not SportsAlive had a segregated bank account, costing punters $1,000,000's in total)
- Norfolk Island Gaming Authority - ???????

[Hareeba!]

Hi Hareeba,

I have read all the above and the information is most useful. I am wondering of you have an opinion on how the Norfolk Island Gaming Authority are as a regulator? So far we have:

- NT - good
- ACT - bad (they failed to police whether or not SportsAlive had a segregated bank account, costing punters $1,000,000's in total)
- Norfolk Island Gaming Authority - ???????

Sorry, I have nothing to go on re NI. No experience dealing with them, nor any stories good or bad that I can recall.

One would hope that the ACT have picked up their game since the SportsAlive shemozzle which is now 4+ years ago?