Betfair bonus funds confiscation

Betfair Casino, the Malta-based casino branch of the UK Betfair sports exchange, has recently been subject to player complaints of bonus funds confiscation.

For the first case, see the Betfair bonus funds confiscation discussion at Casinomeister:

After receiving the sign up bonus, fulfilling the terms and requesting payment, the player in question received the following communication from Betfair:

Please be advised that following an investigation into your activity in the Betfair Casino, we have concluded that your bets were carried out with the express purpose of abusing the bonus offered.

This is in accordance to the bonus terms and conditions which stats that “Betfair also reserves the right not to pay any bonus to customers that it suspects to be abusing this promotion.”

Please be advised that you balance reflects your activity regarding your deposits and game play, minus the bonus amount.

Citing vague, undefined terms for the purposes of confiscating any part of a player's balance is unacceptable behaviour, and on the part of an apparently reputable company like Betfair it is outrageous. If a customer wagers in such a way as to flag themselves as potentially unprofitable but otherwise breaks no specific rule, they must be paid in accordance with good business practice.

Betfair, it seems, does not subscribe to this way of thinking.

This is to say nothing of the fact that, business nicities aside, the confiscation of customer funds based on the casino's interpretation of vague terminology is challengeable under Maltese law - see part 6 page 25 of the Malta Consumer Affairs Act, parts 44 to 47.

To date, Betfair has failed to address any of these issues.


The second case, the Betfair “bot” allegations issue, Betfair cited “bot” use as the reason for the bonus confiscation. This is acceptable, as bot use is prohibited in the terms. However, Betfair has not to date provided any corroboration of the allegation, and since the player claims to have used a wide range of bet sizes it seems unlikely that a robot programme, designed to repeat the same action over and over to save manual clicking, was used. As such, the question is begged as to whether or not the allegation, unproven and possibly unlikely, is being used an an excuse to deny the bonus.

On this matter, Betfair has to date rather bizarrely responded that all complaints must be made through one of the administrators of the forum where the complaints originated, at Casinomeister:

i have now designated an email address to assist you with any queries on the forum

gamesdutymanager @ betfair.com

Our aim is to resolve your issues quickly and fairly

We are currently investigating the complaints and i would ask you to go through forum Player Grievance Manager.

I am mystified by this. Betfair should be dealing with this themselves.

The Betfair issue has also been commented on in the Midas Oracle BetFair Casino offers a registration bonus but reserves the right to take it back later blog report, and also by me in the Winneronline Betfair is rogue thread.

I no longer recommend Betfair.

Bonus abuse, bonus abuse.

It's about time these gaming firms realised that it's the punter's prerogative and duty almost, to win as much as possible, whenever possible.

The fact a bonus is part of the equation, has no bearing on the matter whatsoever.

Comment Posted By  Sand Racer, at 2:50 PM