"Untouchable Betfair" confiscates another account

[Justin7]

I've now received 2 complaints about Betfair in the last month. In each, an account was confiscated. The player was never provided proof, and Betfair refused to give any information explaining why they did this other than citing rules about "We suspect you are acting illegally".

Betfair cites the data protection act in refusing to explain anything to SBR. On a legal point, this does not apply when a player consents to the disclosure. Betfair does not let player consent get in the way of stonewalling players and/or SBR.

In a third complaint, a player lost a bet on what was likely a fixed match. Betfair agreed with the player that the wager should be canceled. Betfair didn't void the wager, and stopped responding to the player. Betfair wouldn't discuss the match, even though such an investigation was not protected by the Data Protection Act.

Betfair has a fantastic history. I hope these are isolated incidents, but you have to be worried when they steal player balances with no explanation to anyone.

[JoshW]

They are a big enough organization with few enough complaints that they should be able to have staff and policy in place to resolve this. Just like SBR can work to resolve issues, BetFair should have senior managers tasked with handling player disputes on their end.

[Stumpage]

Not their finest hour at the moment, as they are currently having problems with all e-wallet withdrawals as well with no answer as to when this might be resolved. In the meantime, funds that have been withdrawn are in limbo.

I'm quite sure I know which fixed match you are talking about as well Justin, as I raised a similar complaint with them after watching it. However, the impression I got was that they wanted to sweep it under the rug as quickly as possible and move on.

[acw]

Oh good Lord,
Let me not be surprised if this company does start seeing losses.
And they got it all to blame to themselves.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article4174799.ece

Betfair, the world's leading online betting exchange, with whom the sport has a memorandum of understanding, voided all bets. An investigation into the match remains unresolved ten months later; Davydenko and Vassallo Arguello are in a state of limbo. “It's obscene what's been allowed to happen to these players,” Findlay said. “We are dealing with a sport and sportsmen who are more straight than most people in business and if it continues to be tarnished, it's unfair. I've heard about all these supposedly suspect matches but these are in satellite events where no money changes hands. ”

BetFair should have never decided on their own which matches are fixed and which ones are not. They must have been receiving legal letters after these incidents and cannot stand on their feet, so end up paying both sides. Ouch! Expensive.

[fiveteamer]

For them to see losses, wouldn't they need a competitor?

[Santo]

Have any of the players contacted either the UK Gambling Commission (for accounts) or IBAS (for specific bets)? In either case, I think Betfair would be compelled to provide a statement of explanation.

[fiveteamer]

Are these government agencies? Or are they funded by the gambling industry themselves?

[GoodOldTed]

UKGC - govt agency
IBAS - funded by the industry, but usually quite fair to the punter.



re Betfair voiding on that Davydenko match - they did it to spark the ATP into action. The ATP had simply swept it under the carpet for quite some time, with former CEO Mark Miles coming up with ridiculous comments like he'd prefer to ban gambling all together, instead of getting off his arse and doing something about the bleeding obvious. Since then, the UK Gambling Commission has taken responsibility for making the call on corrupt matches - they have it in their power to force all UK licensed books to void all bets on a match. In the two yrs since the body was created, they are yet to make that call, although four tennis matches in the past month, the odd snooker match and some lower league football last season means they will be getting closer to that historic day.... perhaps.

Betfair will never make that call again on their own.

ACW - Betfair never lost a penny on that match, other than missing out on the standard commission. Most other UK firms were right behind them in calling that match fixed.

Santo's advice is the only one to follow. Betfair don't deal with third parties who aren't recognised/hold no power in the UK.

[pico]

betfair can do whatever they want. no one can challenge them

[pavyracer]

The General needs to handle these complaints. He is very intimidating and would bury these fukks if they don't pay.

[acw]

re Betfair voiding on that Davydenko match - they did it to spark the ATP into action.

LOL!
Sure not! The no.1 reason is that BetFair loves the publicity they get from it.

[moonbeam]

".


In a third complaint, a player lost a bet on what was likely a fixed match. Betfair agreed with the player that the wager should be canceled. Betfair didn't void the wager, and stopped responding to the player. Betfair wouldn't discuss the match, even though such an investigation was not protected by the Data Protection Act.

They have a lot of pressure from russian mafia.

Not enough with this, they act on their own account on their platform to make money. If you hit them, they give you a 20% premium charge

[ijustwant2bpaid]

sounds like a scam shop, are we going to see a drop in their grade or what Justin?

[Toit]

What's betfair supposed to do about fixed matches?
They've tried something with the Davydenko match, only to see nothing came out of it, apart from some vague Italian tennis players that wagered 5€ on other players matches getting suspended.

They report unusual betting patterns to the governing bodies, that's all they can do and as long as they don't react or do something about it Betfair will settle the bets.

Punters would move their business elsewhere if betfair would still hold their funds concerning the Wimbledon Meltzer fix, to name just one.
The ATP and FIFA should do something about it, as long as they play ignorant I see fixed matches being settled almost on a weekly basis nowadays.

[betpartners]

sounds like a scam shop, are we going to see a drop in their grade or what Justin?

Now lets get serious

Betfair have one problem and it is a fairly big problem and that is their customer service, it is poor to say the least.

You just have to check out their own forum to see the huge amount of complaints about their customer service.

They are a mamouth of a company, absolutely huge and probably one of if not the biggest in the world now and since they have become so big they have become complacent.

But the truth is that the overwhelming majority of its customers never have a need to use their customer service and until something happens that effects a load of people they will continue as they are.

Santo is right as well, if the complaints are legitimate then IBAS will handle it and Betfair will listen to them, not to a USA sports forum

[Santo]

Forums like SBR, and player-regulation bodies in general work well for the offshore scene because it is otherwise unregulated by a body of any repute, but (rightly) have next to no influence on European/Australian books for a couple of reasons -- lack of critical mass (i.e. most people don't care what SBR say about Betfair) and the existence of more rigid regulation mechanisms and restrictions imposed by legislative regimes.

Too many of the comments here try to interpret the Eur/Aus scene under the rules of offshore, which will never work.

[flyingillini]

Hell of a post by Santo!

[Santo]

Don't get me wrong, I like what SBR do and respect them as an organization, what they do for players, and I respect many of the people there whom I have spoken to on a personal level.

I have suggested (and continue to argue to various stakeholders) that the regulatory model they developed (along with Casinomeister etc) could well be applied to other cross-border semi-regulated environments, but the model can't be applied wholesale to the (regulated) European/Australian betting scenes when SBR (I expect by their own acknowledgment) have little/no experience in the operation thereof.

[flyingillini]

Have you ever been a mod at a forum? I recognize your name from years ago.

[Santo]

Never a mod, have been around the scene many years.