[the_situation]

Absolutely fuming right now. This is legit fraud. Placed a few series bets for the NHL playoffs. I login today and notice the bets were altered by William Hill after the fact, and were graded as losers for the series. Please see the attached screenshot. Anyone who follows hockey knows that these series lines are flipped around. They were altered by William Hill's system AFTER I placed the wager. I am 100% certain of this. Pittsburgh should be -1.5 not +1.5, San Jose should be +1.5 not -1.5, Nashville should be +1.5 not -1.5 and St Louis should be +1.5 not -1.5. I mean it's so obvious that it's ridiculous. This can be confirmed by the same lines offered at hundreds of other sportsbooks.

How would Pittsburgh be +1.5 +150 (games spread handicap) for the series when they were -200 favorites to win the series?

How would St. Louis be -1.5 -175 (games spread handicap) for the series when they were +100 to win the series?

How would Nashville be -1.5 -105 (games spread handicap) for the series when they were +175 to win the series?

Etc.

Basically it looks like their system has flipped the +1.5 and -1.5 for each series. Obvious grading/system error, but this is what I was told in live chat:

I will be filing a complain with SBR obviously and hope this gets fixed. Just a warning to all of you. Do not bet with William Hill.

As a result of this error, I lose St. Louis +1.5 -175 because it was graded as -1.5 -175 and Nashville +1.5 -105 because it was graded as -1.5 -105. Absolutely ridiculous.

Beverly G.: In accordance with the William Hill terms and conditions all bets placed whilst you are logged into your account are valid as placed by yourself. Unfortunately we cannot refund bets placed. As such if the bet in question had won, you would have been paid the winnings.
Beverly G.: We apologise but the settlement of your bet stand. To avoid this from happening again, please always review the information on the Bet Slip before confirming it.

[dpeti]

go to http://www.oddsportal.com/ open an account and try to find the odds histrory

For example:
http://www.oddsportal.com/hockey/usa...tors-veXYeCta/

navigate to the market and move your mouse over the price (on willhill)

you will see the odds history (and if there was a flipped bug and oddsportal saved the price at that time too then you can find it )

( You can also ask arbitrage software developers to give you an odds archive on some markets , I have never tried it but I would try it )

Try to find the same bug and make video (screenshot is not enough, with browser extension everybody can manipulate webpage contents )

[Optional]

Shoot an email to second_opinion@willhill.com explaining the situation.

If you just explain the illogical prices that section should understand better and do something.

I half expect they might think about voiding them as bad lines rather than change them to winners though, so make it clear that you bet hockey regularly and there was no possibility that you could have accidentally taken even one of those let alone a bunch of them at those odds.

[Optional]

I'd avoid words like defrauded or accusing them of changing anything on purpose btw. You'll usually get a more sympathetic hearing if you just sound like a player who knows a mistake has happened and simply expects it will obviously be fixed once someone in there understands the issue.

[the_situation]

Thank you both for the advice. Will do. Voiding them would not be a satisfactory result in this situation, they should be graded as winners. I have emailed them so we'll see what happens from here.

[DeathAdder]

Thank you both for the advice. Will do. Voiding them would not be a satisfactory result in this situation, they should be graded as winners. I have emailed them so we'll see what happens from here.

Take the push, it's better than a loss. Mistakes happen.

[the_situation]

Take the push, it's better than a loss. Mistakes happen.

Why should I take a push for a wager that I won? I will accept nothing less than a win. They need to find out what happened in their system to cause the spreads to be flipped.

[the_situation]

Bump - still haven't heard anything back from them. Have seen others complain about the same issue so it was obviously a technical glitch. Will escalate this to the UK Gaming Commission soon. This is bad from a 'top notch' book.

[Optional]

Bump - still haven't heard anything back from them. Have seen others complain about the same issue so it was obviously a technical glitch. Will escalate this to the UK Gaming Commission soon. This is bad from a 'top notch' book.

If you do, email IBAS and UKGC at the same time and say that both customer service and their second opinion email has failed to provide any sort of dispute resolution system for you and that you would like the regulator to step in and help make this happen as you believe you have an obviously valid claim.

If you email both like that making a direct request to meet their brief, which is to make sure books offer a 'proper' dispute resolution system they are more likely to respond, so as not to look like the delinquent one to the other. That's the time to give them the details of what happened, in the second message once you have someone on the hook to look after you.

[JayZ]

Inadvertent flipping of home and away teams is rare but not unknown with UK-orientated books on US sports (or ones attempting to serve both markets) because of the different ordering conventions. Sometimes it is manifested on the odds displayed, but can also happen at settlement so the wrong team is graded as a winner. Handicap betting can make the error more difficult to spot. Ordinary CS might not understand this, but a higher level ought to.

[the_situation]

Update - I received an email (pasted below) from second opinion. It is pretty disgusting they are blatantly admitting to the error, yet will not rectify it fairly. I fail to see how their system altering a line after it was placed by me is agreeing to their terms and conditions. It is not like I placed the wager with these odds. They were altered by their system at a later date. A freeplay offer is actually pathetic. I will be escalating this to IBAS and UKGC as Optional suggested. Such a scummy book. Will be withdrawing all my funds from there.

We are sorry to hear of the issues you have encountered whilst using William Hill Online.

We have now completed a full investigation into your complaint and can confirm there was an error in regards to the handicap being incorrectly placed on our site due to a Trading Error. We had the underdogs with a minus handicap and the favorites with a plus handicap, which should of been the other way around.

We have settled the markets according to this information and we apologies for this error.

As I’m sure you will appreciate we try to maintain the high levels of accuracy on our site and on this occasion we have fallen short of our high standards.

The bets cannot be resettled as you did choose this selection and as stated in our terms & conditions

9.2 It is your responsibility to ensure that the details of any bet, stake or similar transaction that you place using the Services (a "Transaction") are correct in the following manner:

9.5 Once a Transaction has been accepted by us, you cannot cancel the transaction unless we agree otherwise. If You are making a telephone-betting transaction and the relevant telephone connection becomes unexpectedly disconnected, we shall nevertheless place the relevant bet if (a) we are clear as to your intended instruction; (b) the bet details have been provided to us by You prior to the point at which we cease accepting bets on the relevant event; and (c) the bet is acceptable to us in the ordinary course of business. In the event of any such telephone disconnection, you should immediately contact our Customer Service team for confirmation as to whether your bet has been placed.

However as a gesture of goodwill for bringing this matter to our attention we would like to offer a $50.00 free bet to resolve this matter.

Please reply back to this email if you wish to accept this offer of resolve.

[shaunovery]

As per the rules it's the customers duty to check the bets before confirming

Don't use will hill online myself as sometimes it is rather confusing when placing bets

[rangerz2478]

In San Jose/Pitt, it did not matter but they seriously kept your Preds -1.5/Blues -1.5 series bets as losers? If so, that is incredibly absurd.

[rangerz2478]

A fair St Louis -1.5 price would have been in the +200 range and a fair Nashville -1.5 price would have been over +250.

[the_situation]

As per the rules it's the customers duty to check the bets before confirming

Don't use will hill online myself as sometimes it is rather confusing when placing bets

Read before making comments please. I placed the bets and they were altered after the fact.

[the_situation]

A fair St Louis -1.5 price would have been in the +200 range and a fair Nashville -1.5 price would have been over +250.

Exactly. The issue here though is they altered the bets after the fact. I placed them with the correct odds. They were altered from +1.5 to -1.5

[the_situation]

If you do, email IBAS and UKGC at the same time and say that both customer service and their second opinion email has failed to provide any sort of dispute resolution system for you and that you would like the regulator to step in and help make this happen as you believe you have an obviously valid claim.

If you email both like that making a direct request to meet their brief, which is to make sure books offer a 'proper' dispute resolution system they are more likely to respond, so as not to look like the delinquent one to the other. That's the time to give them the details of what happened, in the second message once you have someone on the hook to look after you.

Thanks for the advice. I will likely do that. Is this how you would proceed in this situation?

Also, is there anyway you or SBR can help with the situation? Perhaps getting through to someone at WH with a clue?

[squareshot]

If you do, email IBAS and UKGC at the same time and say that both customer servic.

Why does the player even have to email regulators? It takes two seconds to see the Book is 100 percent in the wrong.

This isn't even close. How come SBR isn't helping the player get their money. They even admit the error and its massive.

Optional you're a dispute arbiter working for SBR why aren't you actually helping the player get paid? Instead of wasting their time.

Does SBR even deal with disputes anymore?

[Optional]

@Squareshot. Neither IBAS or UKGC will address disputes directly with anyone but the player themselves. Secondly, if I go in complaining and they say what they have to The Situation where do I go next? Just say I believe the player didn't make an error themselves? How would I know is what they will say/think. So it's best for him to try this personally first. But if I thought it was best to leave it to SBR I would say so.

Thanks for the advice. I will likely do that. Is this how you would proceed in this situation?

Also, is there anyway you or SBR can help with the situation? Perhaps getting through to someone at WH with a clue?

I'd write back to them saying thanks for the offer and that you understand that players can sometimes make errors and not realize... BUT in this case you are an experienced hockey bettor and it is just not possible that you could have selected and confirmed so many different obviously out of whack lines that were disadvantageous to you.

If you would prefer SBR to try this sort of response on your behalf then forward the reply from second_opinion to cases@sportsbookreview.com

[the_situation]

@Squareshot. Neither IBAS or UKGC will address disputes directly with anyone but the player themselves. Secondly, if I go in complaining and they say what they have to The Situation where do I go next? Just say I believe the player didn't make an error themselves? How would I know is what they will say/think. So it's best for him to try this personally first. But if I thought it was best to leave it to SBR I would say so.



I'd write back to them saying thanks for the offer and that you understand that players can sometimes make errors and not realize... BUT in this case you are an experienced hockey bettor and it is just not possible that you could have selected and confirmed so many different obviously out of whack lines that were disadvantageous to you.

If you would prefer SBR to try this sort of response on your behalf then forward the reply from second_opinion to cases@sportsbookreview.com

I have sent cases@sportsbookreview.com an email with screenshots. Thanks for your help.

[squareshot]

if I thought it was best to leave it to SBR I would say so.

Not sure what you're talking about.

This is a open and shut case. Why would the player need to waste his time contacting regulators when its so straight forward that SBR can easily resolve the dispute in the players favor.

Sounds like he filed a complaint with SBR. How long till SBR rules in the players favor?

Optional are you the one dealing with the issue?

[Optional]

Of course SBR agree he should be paid. And for the record I 100% rule in his favor. But we don't just get to tell them what to do and they jump. There are dispute procedures under UK law that make it much easier to negotiate a friendly settlement with this department rather than acting too confrontational from the get go.

If that doesn't work SBR can try going to management but we also need to be somewhat reasonable and try to allow their normal system to work first.

I believe they have already made him a couple of increasingly better offers.

[Hareeba!]

Sounds as though the bets taken were at obviously incorrect lines so they ought to simply be voided per standard industry practice.

OP clearly realised that the lines were wrong and attempted to take advantage. He's probably arbed the bets and thus voiding still leaves him a loser.

Lesson: don't take obviously bad lines or odds!

[Optional]

Sounds as though the bets taken were at obviously incorrect lines so they ought to simply be voided per standard industry practice.

OP clearly realised that the lines were wrong and attempted to take advantage. He's probably arbed the bets and thus voiding still leaves him a loser.

Lesson: don't take obviously bad lines or odds!

Definitely not. Player is being honest here. William Hill have already agreed the mistake was theirs.

Only dispute left is if he should be paid as winners or bets voided. Hopefully they will come around and make the right decision for him today.