177. Free Rolling

One thing I am increasingly hearing about is bookmakers effectively free rolling customers. This comes in all sorts of different guises. The basic principle though is that if the bookmaker is able to get themselves into positions where they can’t lose. If the bookmaker wins the bet they keep the money. If the customer wins they are able to void the bet using one of their various T&Cs. It isn’t always straight forward and the customer isnt always acting ethically. Let’s look at a few examples.

There was the recent case with Bet365 and multi accounting that Greg Wood talked about in detail. It was a complicated and messy case that had serious consequences. The gentleman in question was facing a prison sentence if he was found guilty. His crime was using family and friends to open Bet365 accounts. Obviously, this is against the T & Cs of Bet365. The interesting point to me is that Bet365 were able to choose the moment to flag up issues with the linked accounts.

One thing that has happened a lot since doing these tweets is people sending me DMs asking for help with issues they have with bookmakers. This same issue has come up time and time again. I even had one yesterday. The software that bookmakers use is very complicated and has improved significantly over time. They are able to identify linked accounts better than ever before. The problem is when they are choosing to link accounts for multi accounting purposes.

It may be that the person doing the multi accounting is pretty proficient and they slipped up late on and that is what helped them to be identified. Or they were identified very early on in the process. The bookmaker didn’t decide to act at that stage though. They maybe decided to sit on their hands and wait to see if the accounts were profitable to them before flagging the issue. They are in essence free rolling the customer. If they win they win. If they lose they just keep the money in the accounts and say T&Cs were breached. I am sure the bookmakers would never partake in this sort of behaviour. It clearly happens frequently and is something the Gambling Commission should be aware of. If two accounts are linked they should be frozen immediately. Not just when it suits the bookmaker. Otherwise bookmakers are taking bets knowing that the customer can’t win. The huge majority of linked accounts will happen incredibly early on in the process. The breaches are often only flagged when withdrawals are attempted. 

A different example is the dreaded spinning clock of doom in running. When the bookmaker is deciding whether to accept a bet or not it is always favourable to them. If something significant happens against them they reject the bet (rightly so fwiw). If it goes against the customer then they obviously accept the bet giving the customer a very poor value bet. They are essentially free rolling the customer. The bigger the delay the bigger the advantage they have. (Tweet 28). 

There was an example in America with MGM this week that was slightly different and we don’t know the whole story. It related to some bets on corners markets in the Women’s World Cup. The bets were voided after the outcome. ($214k worth) The customers bets had been settled as winning bets before they were reversed. I have no idea what the prices on those markets should have been relative to what they actually were. I have talked about Palpable Errors before though (Tweet 82). They are routinely abused these days by bookmakers and we end up in situations where customers get free rolled. There is no way if the bet he placed loses, that the customer is refunded their stakes. They will just be settled as losing bets.

There was the Greyhound acca with Geoff Banks. He decided to void bets after the races had started and having seen some of the results. He decided the bets were linked to other parties. You can’t make decisions after you have seen outcomes. If he had voided the bets before any of the dogs had run then fine. You can’t be doing it once they start winning. We know he wouldn’t have voided the bets had they lost. If your systems aren’t good enough to pick it up, pay for better ones. 

The business of bookmakers free rolling customers has to stop. It occurs in so many different ways and as I say sometimes the customer isn’t being totally ethical. There should never be a situation in this game though where you can’t win but only lose.