Betfair has decided to make (partial) amends for the “obvious technical fault” that allowed a punter with less than £1k in his account to create a theoretical liability of hundreds of millions of pounds on the Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown on Dec. 28. On Wednesday, the betting exchange announced it will pay out on all in-running ‘win’ and ‘to be placed’ wagers made on Voler La Vedette prior to the 58.2 second mark of the race (when the aforementioned punter’s ‘bot’ allegedly went rogue), plus all in-play winning wagers on the ‘to be placed’ market before the race’s completion.
About 100 punters – roughly half the estimated number whose bets were accepted by the rogue ‘bot’ – will find new money in their accounts, but bets matched in the ‘win’ market after the glitch will remain void. Punters who would have owed money had the bets not been voided are also off the hook from having to pay out. According to Betfair, this ex gratia (i.e. done as a favor, you ungrateful sods) payment “complies with, and goes beyond” the recommendations of its Gibraltar regulator, the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner (GGC). Anyone who still feels ill-treated by the betting exchange is invited to contact the Independent Betting Arbitration Service.
Speaking of partial payments, some US sports bettors have dutifully informed SportsBookReview.com that last-seen-on-life-support sportsbook World Sports Exchange (WSEX) is apparently not quite dead (yet). Two players reported receiving partial payments — one received $500 of an $1,100 withdrawal request made in Jan. 2011, while another received $700 of the $8k he’s been trying to withdraw since Aug. 2011 — and a third player received payment in full ($244) from a withdrawal requested last February. Another player, owed $1,979 since April 2011 received an ‘update’ from WSEX that apologized for the “continued delays and grave inconvenience caused to you,” but suggested that the backlog was entirely down to the “lack of processing companies and US corresponding banks.”
(As intolerable as the WSEX situation is, it can at least be argued that they’re trying to make things right with their disgruntled customers. Unlike, say, the folks involved in last year’s Covers/BetED heist. FYI, the Covers folks are spending some of that pilfered player cash on a VIP table at the upcoming Fire and Ice party in London on Jan. 25. Any stiffed BetED (or TopBet) players who wish to vent their dissatisfaction in person are encouraged to stop by. CalvinAyre.com will even have a camera crew on hand to record the beads of sweat forming on the Covers crew’s upper lips. But we digress…)
Anyway, SBR estimates there are around 123 bettors that WSEX has ‘inconvenienced’ for a collective sum of nearly $739k. Some of these punters have been waiting to be reunited with their money since 2009. Nevertheless, WSEX maintains that their customer support team “will always be available to address any further queries.” We managed to obtain video footage of the WSEX support staff handling a customer call (or, at least, how we imagine such a call would go). Say, has Jay lost weight…?
