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Winning bet cancelled! (small claims court?)
unsernam
Posts: 13 Forumite
Hi guys,
About a month ago I placed two bets on the Rowing at the 2016 Olympics through NetBet. I don't usually gamble at all, but as a keen follower of the sport, I have some knowledge so felt confident.
I placed 2 accumulators, one 3-fold and one 5-fold.
One of the crews I bet on in the 5-fold were 51-1 outsiders due to poor performances at previous world championships, but having seen them race I felt they were better than their form suggested.
Anyway, when I went into my account on the morning of the final of the races, I saw that my bet on the Dutch Ligthweight Double (51-1) had been cancelled! I contacted support at NetBet and they said they didn't know why it had been cancelled, or why I had not been given notice of this. So the bet was cancelled AFTER the heats and AFTER the semi-finals, only when it looked as though the boat could win.
Netbet have since informed me that they cancelled the bet due to a 'typo' when writing the odds, claiming it was supposed to be 2-1. I know that in their terms it says they are allowed to cancel bets if the odds are a mistake (the palpable error rule), however, I have two issues with this;
1) They claimed the odds were supposed to be 2-1, rather than 51-1. However I know that 2 days after I placed the bet, they were offering 37-1, there's no way they made two typos with the odds. So this is not consistent with their reasoning.
2) They did not cancel the bet (or realise their "mistake") until the crew had won the heat and the semi final. They also did not contact me about the cancellation.
Furthermore, I have read a lot of advice suggesting the Palpable Error rule (where they can cancel a bet due to incorrect odds) would be thrown straight out in court, given that it is in breach of UTCCRs (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Reguations), specifically the Unfair cancellation clauses which specifies 'Both parties should have rights of equal extent and value when it comes to cancelling a contract'.
My question is, should I proceed to making a claim in small claims courts? Does anyone have any advice at all that could help me. It feels like a serious abuse of terms in their contract and in fact it does really appear that they are lying for the reason for cancelling the bet altogether which is disgusting.
Surely NetBet cannot get away with cancelling bets that they think they might lose a good amount of money on?
Thanks in advance to all of you amazingly helpful people!
Kind regards,
Frazier
About a month ago I placed two bets on the Rowing at the 2016 Olympics through NetBet. I don't usually gamble at all, but as a keen follower of the sport, I have some knowledge so felt confident.
I placed 2 accumulators, one 3-fold and one 5-fold.
One of the crews I bet on in the 5-fold were 51-1 outsiders due to poor performances at previous world championships, but having seen them race I felt they were better than their form suggested.
Anyway, when I went into my account on the morning of the final of the races, I saw that my bet on the Dutch Ligthweight Double (51-1) had been cancelled! I contacted support at NetBet and they said they didn't know why it had been cancelled, or why I had not been given notice of this. So the bet was cancelled AFTER the heats and AFTER the semi-finals, only when it looked as though the boat could win.
Netbet have since informed me that they cancelled the bet due to a 'typo' when writing the odds, claiming it was supposed to be 2-1. I know that in their terms it says they are allowed to cancel bets if the odds are a mistake (the palpable error rule), however, I have two issues with this;
1) They claimed the odds were supposed to be 2-1, rather than 51-1. However I know that 2 days after I placed the bet, they were offering 37-1, there's no way they made two typos with the odds. So this is not consistent with their reasoning.
2) They did not cancel the bet (or realise their "mistake") until the crew had won the heat and the semi final. They also did not contact me about the cancellation.
Furthermore, I have read a lot of advice suggesting the Palpable Error rule (where they can cancel a bet due to incorrect odds) would be thrown straight out in court, given that it is in breach of UTCCRs (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Reguations), specifically the Unfair cancellation clauses which specifies 'Both parties should have rights of equal extent and value when it comes to cancelling a contract'.
My question is, should I proceed to making a claim in small claims courts? Does anyone have any advice at all that could help me. It feels like a serious abuse of terms in their contract and in fact it does really appear that they are lying for the reason for cancelling the bet altogether which is disgusting.
Surely NetBet cannot get away with cancelling bets that they think they might lose a good amount of money on?
Thanks in advance to all of you amazingly helpful people!
Kind regards,
Frazier
0
Comments
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Might be better posting in the 'betting' forum which is a couple up from this one where they are more knowledgeable about bookies and the rules.0
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What odds were other book makers offering at the time you placed the bet? This would go a long way to proving your case, in other words if they were 51/1 and everyone else were 2/1 or thereabouts you have no case.
In any case it's the gambling commission you want to complain too.
Ok update, found them, http://www.worldrowing.com/news/lightweight-women-double-sculls-lw2x-olympic-final they are the current European champions and one of the front runners, there is no way you were getting 51-1 sorry but not in form as you say, think not.0 -
If it looks to good to be true.............then it usually is!0
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Honestly, they were the only bookies we could find offering odds on the rowing at the time.
I've posted this in the 'matched betting' forum too now. Should I delete this thread?0 -
Did they actually win?0
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Yep, sorry, should have clarified0
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Sorry if it seems like I'm being deliberately obtuse, I'm really not trying to be!
I actually placed the bet over a month ago, which maybe explains why there were no other bookies offering odds at the time?
Or maybe there were, but I didn't find them for sure.
With regards to OddsChecker, is it possible to find previous odds for Rowing? I don't seem to be able to, but don't completely understand how the site works!
As for the introductory offer, I really don't think this is the case. I didn't see any reference of that, and customer service at NetBet did not give that as the reason for cancelling the bet?
Thanks for all your help, sorry for all the questions0 -
Looks to me like OddsChecker only shows odds for events that have not yet taken place (for instance, it shows the men's 5,000m but not the 10,000m) so I can't see that it's going to be of any help to you.0
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