Brighton bookmaker refuses to pay out on bet (From The Argus)

Brighton bookmaker refuses to pay out on bet

11:40am Thursday 10th January 2008 in

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Punters Ian Mathewson and Andy Clarke thought they had won thousands of pounds by betting against England in the Euro 2008 qualifers.

But their joy soon turned to anger when they tried to collect their £8,700 winnings from bookies Betfred and were told the bet was void.

Mr Mathewson, 48, of Portslade, had placed a £100 double bet on England losing against Croatia at 15-2 and that Russia would qualify at 15-2.

He placed the same bet for his friend Mr Clarke with a £20 stake at the Betfred branch in Roedale Road, Brighton, in November last year.

Mr Mathewson said: "I went in at 11am the next day to pick the money up. They told me the bet was not totally valid because the double was related. I told them that they had written the prices down and had taken the bet.

"I couldn't believe it - I didn't force them to take the bet and I had put it on in good faith.

"If the bet had gone the other way would they have given me my money back?

"I have written to customer services and they've not got back to me and I've also written to the betting ombudsman, the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS).

A spokesman for Betfred said: "The case has gone to IBAS and they have ruled on it. It was taken in error."

He added: "You can't expect the cashier to check every bet."

IBAS, has recently ruled that Betfred's stance was right.

In its ruling it said: "All bookmakers have a rule which forbids related bets where the outcome of one part has a major bearing on the outcome of another. That was the case here as Croatia beating England and Russia qualifying for the Euro 2008 finals was virtually one of the same thing.

"While Russia also had to beat Andorra, the chance of them losing was slim against a team which failed to score a point in their previous 11 fixtures. The central point is that once Croatia beat England, then Russia would certainly not have been 15-2 to qualify which means the double could not be allowed under rule."

It concluded: "The company have settled properly as per rule, namely splitting the stakes on two singles. In this case, the two singles were more or less the same, giving the customer a winning £100 at 15-2."

However Mr Mathewson is unhappy with the response and has yet to collect either his or Mr Clarke's winnings.

He said: "The letter I had from them looks as if a child had written it and they said it was a related bet. The point is though Betfred took the bet.

"My soliciter is now writing to Betfred."

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