[noyb]

Well, the thread title says it all really.

Samvo, which acted as a brokerage for Asian accounts these last few years, seems to have closed down, but "forgot" to pay me my remaining balance of 2500 euro.

I have basically done everything I can think of to get in touch with them over the last month. All e-mails go unanswered, all phone lines are disconnected. I have reached out to employees through Linkedin (of which there still are 42, unless they don't update their profiles): either they don't respond or they no longer work there.

Samvo used to be licensed in the UK, Alderney and Curacao. They gave up their UK license a while ago, and we all know a Curacao license is meaningless, so I contacted the Alderney Gaming Commission. Samvo was still licensed there in October of 2017 at the very least and quite likely much more recently, but isn't licensed there as of today, according to their website. No notification of this at all, not sure how anyone was supposed to know their license had lapsed. Even worse: the Alderney Gaming Commission isn't responding to my e-mails at all.

Samvo, and their CEO Frank Chan, never struck me as a dishonest operation and have been around for a long, long time (they used to operate a sportsbook themselves ages ago), so I was a bit blind-sided by all of this.

Judging from the lack of complaints about Samvo on betting forums, nobody was using them or they paid everybody before shutting down (and not paying me really was an honest mistake). Either way, I'm looking for any kind of contact there to find out what happened, and (obviously) to get my money. There have been threads on Samvo here in the past: anybody here that knows anything at all?

[SBR Drew]

It does appear they are shut down. I'm still looking into this though.

[SBR Drew]

It does appear they are shut down. I'm still looking into this though.

Confirmed its closed down. If you want to file a complaint for the record we can try to contact Alderney Gaming Commission on your behalf.

[noyb]

Thanks Drew, I'll file a complaint. Have you guys had any other complaints?

[Alfa1234]

As mentioned on another forum, they have extreme liquidity problems and are unable to pay anyone including other brokers.

[Optional]

As mentioned on another forum, they have extreme liquidity problems and are unable to pay anyone including other brokers.

I'd be careful with that easysportbet one you like for a similar reason.

If that betfair skin they are offering does not pay them, could be trouble.


People need to understand these agents are in a business where they rely on trusting each other to be paid. Plus some of the direct deals they are on with books can see them lose money if they get caught out with too much share in a whale account. Things can turn bad fast for them.

[Alfa1234]

You are right about that.

This Betfair clone from Easysportsbet is a bit different though...they don't place the bets directly at Betfair but just copy the odds. They take 100% of the risk for themselves and offer a cashback for losses if the entire platform was profitable for them that week and actually will demand part of the players profit back if there are 4 consecutive weeks of losses for them (check the "exchange" rules). So far, there has never been a losing week for them though so every losing player has been getting a small cashback each week.

I have a very limited exposure there and merely use them for markets where Betfair has limited liquidity...I bet Betkeen first because it does not affect the Betfair liquidity and after that I place the bets on Betfair, effectively doubling the available liquidity.

[Optional]

Nice!

And thanks for sharing. Good info.

[SBR Drew]

Thanks Drew, I'll file a complaint. Have you guys had any other complaints?

We haven't had any other that I am aware of.