Last week, Betfair was in a betting dispute that is likely to be one of the biggest the world has seen in the past few years. The betting fiasco happened in the Leopardstown Hurdle which was won by Voler La Vedette, the second favourite by 13-8. Following this, the online sportsbook real money tried to take steps to deal with the incident. Nevertheless, punters at Betfair, who were affected by the incident, were not satisfied with the way it was handled.
In-Running Bet Created Potential Payout
At 28-1 odds, a layer placed ₤21 million stake, which would have gone to the backers in-running. This would have been possible if the bet was matched. In that case, punters would have seen a payout that would have been the biggest, at ₤600 million, in the history of betting. But, a stake of ₤800,000 was made. This created a potential payout that amounted to ₤23 million. Following this, the sportsbook decided to void all in-running wagers on the hurdle. This angered the punters.
A spokesperson for Betfair stated that the sportsbook was very embarrassed by the incident. He went on to clarify that the incident happened as a result of a number of unique events. According to the spokesperson, a bot, an automated programme that carries out trading activities, had placed the bet.
Glitch in System Failed to Block Mispriced Bets
The CEO of the sportsbook stated that the betting fiasco was a result of a wager made by a punter based in the UK. The punter had been using the Application Programming Interface (API). The bet was made by a bot that was faulty. It tried to make several wagers of huge sums on the betting exchange.
The sportsbook mentioned that the incident happened despite the fact that it has established a system that blocks bets that exceed a punter’s ability to cover the liability (maximum amount) on it. In the recent incident, the punter had below ₤1,000. When bets exceeding it by a large margin were made, the system should have blocked the wager, but it did not. This was a result of a technical glitch in the database of the core exchange. This was the first time the betting site had experienced an issue of this magnitude.
Sportsbook Operates In-House Bots
The sportsbook has confirmed that it operates bots in-house and that it has been transparent about it with the Gambling Commission. Betfair has requested punters to take up their concerns with the Independent Betting Arbitration Service (IBAS), the body that resolves issues between operators of betting sites and punters.
