I think what has been really telling in the last couple of weeks is the reaction of people to the black market situation. It is always tricky when you say you haven’t been paid by a company or they haven’t acted in an honourable manner. When making that decision to say something you are potentially affecting others from getting paid out or potentially using them in the future.
I have seen the Racing Post get a lot of criticism for their expose on ‘The Post’. People saying that they have caused people to now not get paid out. The problem is where do you draw the line. The earlier you alert people to these companies and the way they are behaving the more forewarned people will be. If you say nothing, the bigger the issue will become. The more people affected by it. The reality is that most of these people will have had problems getting paid out eventually anyway. Maybe the big expose isn’t the way forward but I have to give credit to the Racing Post for at least talking about these things.
If people don’t talk about which companies are behaving in an unsavoury manner then how will people ever know. They won’t. They will just be blissfully unaware until they too are scammed/stiffed. So much of the betting chat these days is on private Whats App groups or Telegram groups. The masses will never hear about them. At least 15 yrs ago you had various forums, which would be insightful for this sort of stuff.
I am disappointed but not surprised by how few big names on this platform are actually willing to help the people they are supposed to be. It takes five seconds for them to retweet something that might help their followers from getting scammed. What to look out for. Are they willing to do that? Nope. It says everything.
I also find the role of something like the Sporting Life in this situation fascinating. They hardly ever comment online on any of the black market, restrictions, affordability checks or KYC issues. I never see them called out for it. They are in essence an online newspaper that makes it money from advertising and betting affiliate revenues. On the one hand we are told that they have these world class tipsters. On the other they make their money from affiliate revenues. On the one hand these tipsters must be making their followers so much. On the other they never talk about restrictions or black markets or affordability checks or KYC issues. They are doing their followers an enormous disservice by not raising awareness of these issues. Or trying to fight the corner of their customers. Why is it always left to the Racing Post to make some token effort? A lot of the focus of the Sporting Life is on Horse Racing. It is not the only sport though. Football. Golf. Tennis. Darts. Other sports. People betting on all these sports are affected by these issues. Let’s pretend none of these issues exist.
If you are providing betting content and are happy for your followers to get scammed and ripped off it really doesn’t sit well. Ignorance of the issue or complete denial like the Gambling Commission is not a defence. It needs to be talked about.
ProPunting 