Bovada - Cancelled my winning bets day after I won and took my money

[Knight Ryder]

I had well over $1000 taken from my account by Bovada one day after I won few bets with just simple explanation that the bet I placed had a wrong line (there weren’t any additional details behind it which pretty much made me belief that they could do this without any accountability...). I looked through the transactions and actually there were three bets (all different lines and all winning bets) that were cancelled and the winnings annulled. I’ve lost thousands of dollars using this sports book and have never gotten any of the losses reversed because of wrong lines but surely they took my winnings... I hope this is just a mistake and I’m trying to get them to refund me back... Haven’t heard back yet but will post the updates on how this unfolds so folks are aware...

KR

[michael777]

need more details on the bets you placed son

[Knight Ryder]

There were handful of Over/Under “live bets” on about ten different soccer games I made. All the bets went through. I lost half of them but made about $1500 on 3 of the games betting under... those were the bets that were cancelled the next day due to “wrong line” and not much more details behind it. Is the line wrong if the odds favour the player? It appears to be...

[Knight Ryder]

This is pretty much what I got without much more details on the “Line Error” cancellations... Along with the customer service telling me the same thing and no more details besides that... There were bunch for three different lines as I made multiple bets progressively and continued to play with the winnings for over a day... What irks me the most is the lack of explanation on what is the line error that they are referring to and giving me no notice whatsoever that they took my money.... Initially I though someone hacked and drained my account... Has this happened to anyone else either at Bovada or any other books??? To me it’s pretty concerning cause it provides the Sportsbook the ability to nullify your winnings just by saying “Hey the lines we issued were wrong, we should have made them better”...

6:55 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 2.5 (1.770)Esbjerg vs Odense
4/24/196:55 AM	Canceled - Line Error - Single Under 2.5 (1.770)Esbjerg vs Odense
4/24/196:55 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 2.5 (1.770)Esbjerg vs Odense
4/24/196:55 AM	Canceled - Line Error - Single Under 2.5 (1.770)Esbjerg vs Odense
4/24/196:55 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 2.5 (1.770)Esbjerg vs Odense

[eaglesfan371]

File an SBR complaint.

[Daddy89]

Send complaint

[Optional]

This is pretty much what I got without much more details on the “Line Error” cancellations... Along with the customer service telling me the same thing and no more details besides that... There were bunch for three different lines as I made multiple bets progressively and continued to play with the winnings for over a day... What irks me the most is the lack of explanation on what is the line error that they are referring to and giving me no notice whatsoever that they took my money.... Initially I though someone hacked and drained my account... Has this happened to anyone else either at Bovada or any other books??? To me it’s pretty concerning cause it provides the Sportsbook the ability to nullify your winnings just by saying “Hey the lines we issued were wrong, we should have made them better”...

6:55 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 2.5 (1.770)Esbjerg vs Odense
4/24/196:55 AM	Canceled - Line Error - Single Under 2.5 (1.770)Esbjerg vs Odense
4/24/196:55 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 2.5 (1.770)Esbjerg vs Odense
4/24/196:55 AM	Canceled - Line Error - Single Under 2.5 (1.770)Esbjerg vs Odense
4/24/196:55 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 2.5 (1.770)Esbjerg vs Odense

We don't see many complaints like this about Bovada so it's probably safe to assume there was some real error with the market. When this happens the next day it is often due to people on the losing side pointing out a listing error and demanding a void.

That said, they should be trying to explain a bit more about the issue for you.

If you shoot in a sportsbook complaint form with your account details as suggested above, SBR can ask a manager to review it.

[eaglesfan371]

The thing that surprises me here, if true, which hardly ever is the case, he bets 10+ games, the winning bets were the only ones cancelled for bad line.

[Ant23]

I'm not sure what happened to this guy but if I had to leave $$$ in a sportsbook and not worry that it would mysteriously disappear it would be BOVADA. Not saying that other books are dependable but for my money Bovada is A+ for a reason. I've had up to 5-6 books with $$ in them and Bovada is as good as any other offshore sportsbook. Never 1 problem with this place.

[Knight Ryder]

Thanks for the advice, will do... Also, here are few more bets (losing bets that were not cancelled) I placed around the same time... Including few on the exact same game where my winnings were canceled (Esbjerg vs Odense)...

4/23/194:26 PM	Loss - Single Under 5.0 (2.050)Ajax vs Vitesse
4/23/194:03 PM	Loss - Single Under 3.5 (2.050)Ajax vs Vitesse
4/23/193:38 PM	Loss - Single Over 3.5 (3.850)AZ Alkmaar vs Heracles Almelo
4/23/193:38 PM	Loss - Single Over 3.5 (3.200)AZ Alkmaar vs Heracles Almelo
4/23/193:38 PM	Loss - Single Over 3.5 (2.350)AZ Alkmaar vs Heracles Almelo
4/23/193:38 PM	Loss - Single Over 3.5 (2.150)AZ Alkmaar vs Heracles Almelo
4/23/193:37 PM	Loss - Single Over 3.5 (3.700)AZ Alkmaar vs Heracles Almelo
4/23/193:37 PM	Loss - Single Over 3.5 (2.500)AZ Alkmaar vs Heracles Almelo

4/23/192:53 PM	Loss - Single Over 0.5 (4.050)Esbjerg vs Odense
4/23/192:53 PM	Loss - Single Over 0.5 (4.00)Esbjerg vs Odense
4/23/192:53 PM	Loss - Single Over 0.5 (3.750)Esbjerg vs Odense

Winning bet below was canceled...

4/23/193:37 PM	Win - Single Under 3.5 (1.741)AZ Alkmaar vs Heracles Almelo

[jtoler]

all the winners cancelled the losers not cancelled sounds about right

[Knight Ryder]

Well, eventually I figured out the money didn’t disappear mysteriously, but here are my 2 issues with them given that most of the offshore Betting business is based on trust as these guys are operating out of jurisdiction and can do whatever they want...

1) They took the money and still haven’t sent me a notice or explanation or email on why they did it... I found out by going through the transactions and contacting their customer service (however couldn’t get any more info on why besides that there were line errors...)

2) The concept of selective “line error” is extremely suspicious... $1500 is not a great deal of money, but the manner in which this was done is concerning... my betting strategy is to look for value... this opens the door for scenarios where winning bets on what I consider to be good value lines end up being canceled day later because they didn’t work out well for the sports book and that erodes the trust...

[Natty68]

Usually Bovada will cripple-limit or show you the door AFTER THEY PAY YOU WHAT THEY OWE YOU. This does seems unusual for them.

[7deuceoff$uit]

A couple years ago I was having a great night on live college hoops. Mainly betting live over/unders and probably hit 18 out of 20 bets. The next day my account was about 1500 less due to one of my wins being a bad line. The thing that sucks is there isn't anyway to compare a live line to the market. Usually I have no complaints about bovada, but this was a time I was very disappointed.

[JoeCool20]

LOL Why do these places only cancel the losing bets?

It's never: "You lost, but the line was bad, and we are refunding your losses."

It's always: "You won, but the line was bad, and we are stealing your winnings."

[infotimbo]

2) The concept of selective “line error” is extremely suspicious... $1500 is not a great deal of money, but the manner in which this was done is concerning... my betting strategy is to look for value... this opens the door for scenarios where winning bets on what I consider to be good value lines end up being canceled day later because they didn’t work out well for the sports book and that erodes the trust...

can you see at what time, or how deep into the match you placed those wagers though? Especially for the Esbjerg match it should be pretty easy to find out if the Under 2,5 was a line error or not, as it ended 0:0 anyway, and odds before the start were around ~1.9.

So if you placed your bet (@1,73) very early in the match, it should be fine. If not, it probably was a line error indeed.

[Headsterx]

I bet on different games during live wagering yesterday and my bets were canceled, too. I knew the lines were or most likely incorrect as it was 3u at 70 mins with 1 goal in the game for FC Emmen game. I can't recall Viking game but I believe it was 2 goals at 80-85 mins with 3.5u. Anyway, after winning 2 games I went on a losing streak and lost all my winnings so at the end of the night my balance was at zero.

The next morning I logged into my Bovada account and saw my balance was -$602. I then called CS and complained that I wouldn't have kept betting if they were going to cancel my bets which took them about 12 hours to correct. I argued that when I placed live wagering bets and either the scores or game clock is incorrect I'm still held accountable for the bets so even if the lines were most likely incorrect for live wagering, I think the bets should still be accountable. I contended that even if Bovada disagrees in not cancelling my bets, my balance should at least be brought back to $0. After waiting for several minutes on the phone while CS was checking it out, she came back on the phone and basically said no they won't erase the negative balance. I just hanged up and was planning on never using them again. I checked back later yesterday afternoon and they did eventually erase the negative balance and my account is at zero.

I agree w/ OP that, and especially in his case, that Bovada should cancel his losing bets for the same games, too, if they are going to cancel his winnings from the same games. Also, poor CS in that like OP, Bovada never sent an email about them canceling the bets and providing an explanation. But for my case I already knew the explanation so I'm fine, but for courtesy they should at least inform us that the bets were canceled instead of us waiting to find out when we open our account and notice our balance had been automatically adjusted. Sorry, somehow I couldn't copy and paste my balance on the right hand side. Viking game I bet $500 and Emmen was $200 and then another $231.

4/24/192:41 PM	Adjustment to remove negative balance
4/24/193:47 AM	Canceled - Line Error - Single Under 3.5 (-260)Odd BK vs Viking
4/24/193:47 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 3.5 (-260)Odd BK vs Viking
4/24/193:38 AM	Canceled - Line Error - Single Under 3.0 (-105)De Graafschap vs FC Emmen
4/24/193:38 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 3.0 (-105)De Graafschap vs FC Emmen
4/24/193:38 AM	Canceled - Line Error - Single Under 3.0 (-105)De Graafschap vs FC Emmen
4/24/193:38 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 3.0 (-105)De Graafschap vs FC Emmen

[Knight Ryder]

Just got response from Customer Service that bets were void for all games due to line error... Again, no explanation or details on what the line error was or why the losing bets were not void (just statement that it was done at discretion of their Sports team)... My request for at least partial refund via bonus was also rejected.. If I drop $4k per month on any service (my monthly average deposits this year...), i’d expect better customer service in exchange... I requested for my account to be closed and will be moving to another Sportbook... it’s unfortunate as I really like the User Interface and the offerings they provide but it’s more of a principle at this point than anything else especially in a market where there is a plenty of options.

[fried cheese]

i always thought that bad line cancellations were bs. if you book a bet then you honor it. if you cant post lines that net you a profit then you shouldnt be in business. imagine if ppl asked for their trades on the stock market to be cancelled because their trading algorithm had a glitch.

[Knight Ryder]

At least they honored my request to close my account and they did it promptly, which makes me even more glad to move on from them Any recommendations on alternatives? Based on both the pollsters and SBR ratings, it looks like 5dimes and Heritage both rank pretty well in top 5 in each ranking... I know there have been some complaints about Heritage’s new interface but from what I understand their old UI could be still used...

[michael777]

5dimes,heritage,bookmaker,good luck

[Knight Ryder]

Thank you sir. Just signed up and deposited with 5 dimes... Pretty extensive betting options and props - I like it a lot!!!

[Barrakuda]

I'm not sure what happened to this guy but if I had to leave $$$ in a sportsbook and not worry that it would mysteriously disappear it would be BOVADA. Not saying that other books are dependable but for my money Bovada is A+ for a reason. I've had up to 5-6 books with $$ in them and Bovada is as good as any other offshore sportsbook. Never 1 problem with this place.

If I had to bet that one A-book would go in and sneakily erase winning wagers for no reason, it would be Bovada. Easily. Other books, I spot check. Bovada (which I barely use now) I check every single bet every time.

[JoeCool20]

I bet on different games during live wagering yesterday and my bets were canceled, too. I knew the lines were or most likely incorrect as it was 3u at 70 mins with 1 goal in the game for FC Emmen game. I can't recall Viking game but I believe it was 2 goals at 80-85 mins with 3.5u. Anyway, after winning 2 games I went on a losing streak and lost all my winnings so at the end of the night my balance was at zero.

The next morning I logged into my Bovada account and saw my balance was -$602. I then called CS and complained that I wouldn't have kept betting if they were going to cancel my bets which took them about 12 hours to correct. I argued that when I placed live wagering bets and either the scores or game clock is incorrect I'm still held accountable for the bets so even if the lines were most likely incorrect for live wagering, I think the bets should still be accountable. I contended that even if Bovada disagrees in not cancelling my bets, my balance should at least be brought back to $0. After waiting for several minutes on the phone while CS was checking it out, she came back on the phone and basically said no they won't erase the negative balance. I just hanged up and was planning on never using them again. I checked back later yesterday afternoon and they did eventually erase the negative balance and my account is at zero.

I agree w/ OP that, and especially in his case, that Bovada should cancel his losing bets for the same games, too, if they are going to cancel his winnings from the same games. Also, poor CS in that like OP, Bovada never sent an email about them canceling the bets and providing an explanation. But for my case I already knew the explanation so I'm fine, but for courtesy they should at least inform us that the bets were canceled instead of us waiting to find out when we open our account and notice our balance had been automatically adjusted. Sorry, somehow I couldn't copy and paste my balance on the right hand side. Viking game I bet $500 and Emmen was $200 and then another $231.

4/24/192:41 PM	Adjustment to remove negative balance
4/24/193:47 AM	Canceled - Line Error - Single Under 3.5 (-260)Odd BK vs Viking
4/24/193:47 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 3.5 (-260)Odd BK vs Viking
4/24/193:38 AM	Canceled - Line Error - Single Under 3.0 (-105)De Graafschap vs FC Emmen
4/24/193:38 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 3.0 (-105)De Graafschap vs FC Emmen
4/24/193:38 AM	Canceled - Line Error - Single Under 3.0 (-105)De Graafschap vs FC Emmen
4/24/193:38 AM	Unsettled - Single Under 3.0 (-105)De Graafschap vs FC Emmen

HEY man DON'T send more money in and bet there! They will take every deposit you make and then wait until you win and say that you owe them the $601... They will never say a word while you are depositing! But don't think that they won't try to get it back if you ever win! I've been "taken" by that scam before!

[MrCavalier]

I hate when a book in New Jersey cancels a winning bet... Because of a bad line..Just another reason not to betonilne.. Even A books are crooks..

[futbolbettor]

i made this long post which still hasnt passed through the moderator yet but ironically i posted before searching for your post. i had the same thing they cancelled a 830$ payout because they said it was a line error. meanwhile i had hedged both sides to be at least a 670ish winner on bookmaker.
bookmaker hedge didnt pay and bovada bet hit, only for them to say it was a line error. I totally agree with what u said in your post about how it gives them a way to not payout any line by just claiming line error.
also when reflecting on all of the many headaches ive had with bovada (im a volume bettor like yourself and semi-pro bettor mostly in soccer) i realized that ive had 10+ misgraded winners where some i had to spend hours on the phone with idiots who just said it was graded correctly without even checking google lol.
what disburbs me most is that the type of volume im putting up, if line errors and misgrades are this common why have i never had a misgrade in my favor? i can send u the entire post if u want and hopefully it should be showing in the forum soon. i also have a lot of screen shots, ever since ive had issues with bovada i screen shot any bet over say 500$ and take multiple bet slip pics of bigger bets, with this being no exception.
honestly i kind of knew theyd get me one day but i like some of their alt lines.
did u ever go back to playing on bovada, because like you said its a principle thing i cant be worried every thousand dollar bet i make will be a "line error" and so im planning on closing my account too and im at one of the highest reward levels and actually love how much cash back they give lol.. but at the end of the day this is an unregulated industry and if u can't uphold simple integrity u dont deserve my action!