[Hareeba!]

Here's a most interesting story of one punter's recent experience:

THE ROBOT BANNED ME
This happened to me recently, when I was banned from any fixed odds bet on racing with a corporate bookmaker. Now, anyone who knows me well would know that I’m a recreational punter, lifetime loser (but getting much better), and so dearth of time with a young family and the seven day commitments of a company like www.rewardbet.com that many of my bets are tips from mates or just following market-movers – except for the Melbourne Cup (a race I have considerable success at) – I would not have properly read a form-guide for five years.
So why did I get banned? A net loser with this particular bookie and only placing fairly small bets to generally win less than $300?
Well, it turns out one of their computerised systems that “hasn’t made a mistake in 18 months" has deemed that I am an “arber” – someone who makes a guaranteed profit by taking a higher price with a bookie and laying it at a lower price with Betfair for a guaranteed profit.
Well, although I used to work for Betfair, I certainly don’t have much time to use them for racing. In fact here is my total Horse Racing history for the last 3 months:

That’s it. Just one horse racing bet. Hardly looking like an “arber” to me!
But this computer program that had me banned “hasn’t made a mistake in 18 months” I was told personally by the racing manager, someone whom I doubt has been programming computers since 1982 like I have. Management blindly following information they have no idea about. Well that’s another topic.
Well, I wonder how he knows it hasn’t made a mistake. When I replied to what I subsequently was told was a “computer generated banning email”, I received no reply – since it was sent from an invalid email address. So even if a customer wanted to challenge the banning, they had no opportunity to reply, and just how many of them would have given up when their reply just got sucked up by the internet ether?
With subsequent interrogation, I found out that I may have been banned because I committed the crime of using a free wifi network to place my bets! That’s right, this mistake-free analysis system has determined that I’m acting with a bunch of “mates” and placing bets from the same IP address in order to plunder riches from this corporate bookie. Indeed we were. My “mates” all happened to be fellow punters at the racetrack where we were independently and unknowingly sharing the same IP address to place a bet. How dare punters visit the races and use the free wifi network to place bets with a bookie that happens to sponsor the racetrack!
I’m still to hear if my account will be re-instated but really it doesn’t matter, does it?

Full blog post here: http://promo.rewardbet.com/content/w...l-punters-play

[muffins]

Given that he used to work for betfair and now works for rewardbet the company that banned him would've realised both those things and has no interest in accommodating an industry insider especially one getting "tips from mates" which are presumably also workers in the industry privvy to confidential winning punter information.

[Hareeba!]

Given that he used to work for betfair and now works for rewardbet the company that banned him would've realised both those things and has no interest in accommodating an industry insider especially one getting "tips from mates" which are presumably also workers in the industry privvy to confidential winning punter information.

No. You're on the wrong track there muffins. He has been assured by management that it was nothing more than a software generated message. He's been betting quite small and losing with them for numerous years and nothing's really changed.

[timbaland99]

Are employees of betfair allowed to wager while working at their company? And if so, did he have a different Betfair account while being an employee compared to the account you have now, since, he is just a regular punter?

how does someone go about being a lifetime losing bettor if you have insiders that you get tips from?

[Hareeba!]

Are employees of betfair allowed to wager while working at their company? And if so, did he have a different Betfair account while being an employee compared to the account you have now, since, he is just a regular punter?

how does someone go about being a lifetime losing bettor if you have insiders that you get tips from?

I understand that it was about a decade ago that he did IT work for Betfair.
Not sure, but I don't think Betfair employees are banned from having an account.
Where did he say he got tips from "insiders"? He said "mates". He's in the IT industry but providing services to bookmaking firms.
And who are "insiders"? Trainers, owners and jockeys have a reputation for being notoriously bad tipsters as a rule.
But all this really is irrelevant to the story about how the bookie (Centrebet) is using software to identify arbers and getting it so wrong.

[Optional]

Wonder if he made a high percentage of odd amount bets.

Like $13.50, $32.35 etc

[Hareeba!]

Wonder if he made a high percentage of odd amount bets.

Like $13.50, $32.35 etc

I very much doubt that. He's not into arbing. He does follow a tipping service and perhaps they identified his bets as steam playing as there would have been other subscribers betting the same horses around the same time. Steam players and arbers much the same to a bookie.

[dink]

It's scary they know who is mates are

[muffins]

Very strange if its only one example of backing a horse that SP over betfair that saw a losing account cut off.

No one would have software set up to cut off a punter based on that criteria. The decision and the email may well be computer generated, the criteria would take in to account a lot more factors than one SP > exchange.

Dont forget centrebet now = sportingbet so its not just his centrebet stuff they're looking at