Horse Racing Betting Disputes

Rightly or wrongly, some bookmakers get a bad rap when it comes to not paying out, withholding payouts or even limiting or restricting accounts.

Horse Racing Betting Disputes can be avoided by making sure you read the individual bookmaker’s terms and conditions.

With responsible gambling being more and more at the forefront of the industry, punters need to be aware that any disputes they may have, can be raised with either The Gambling Commission, IBAS or directly through the sportsbook’s own grievance channels.

THE GAMBLING COMMISSION

The Gambling Commission is the main regulatory body when it comes to licensing bookmakers and sportsbooks in the UK and they have very clear rules in the way in which bookmakers should treat customers, particularly those that are subject to illegal or non-compliant advertising and communications.

Another stipulation from The Gambling Commission is that a bookmaker must have at least one ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) organisation available to punters for any horse racing betting disputes or other types of betting disputes.

The Gambling Commission has an approved providers list for alternative dispute resolution and you can find the links in the list below.

GAMBLING COMMISSION-ACCREDITED ADR ORGANISATIONS

Below you can find a table with all of the accredited ADR organisations, along with the address and contact information, fees (if applicable) and the types of disputes they arbitrate on.

You can contact any of the above mediation companies who can help you if you have a horse racing betting dispute.

IBAS (The Independent Betting Adjudication Service)

The Independent Betting Adjudication Service is the main arbitration service for consumers who might have a betting dispute with one of the major online or high street bookmakers.

It is important to note that the IBAS Adjudication Panel is made up of a specialist team, but this team are bound to make their decision based on the operator’s publicised terms and conditions. During any check or arbitration, IBAS has a legal obligation to check that operators have complied with the standards set by the Gambling Commission.

Below is an excerpt from the IBAS website:

IBAS rulings are legally non-binding on consumers, who are free to pursue any case through the court system after using IBAS. Rulings are binding on registered operators up to the value of £10,000. Above that threshold, operators may demand that the dispute is also heard by a court.

It is important to understand that IBAS can only place rulings on disputes up to £10,000. If you feel you have a dispute and would like to use IBAS or one of the other adjudication/mediation services, it is advised to contact your bookmaker first to try and resolve any dispute.

Many times these issues are caused not by human error but by machine or trading error, and more often than not can be taken care of by contacting the customer support team of your bookmaker.

If you need to raise a dispute through IBAS then you can use their claims wizard to facilitate that.

You can see the screenshot above, and we have highlighted the claims wizard in the box above. Just click on the arrow and that will take you to a page like the one below where you can get started.

HIGH-PROFILE HORSE RACING BETTING DISPUTES

Over the years there have been some major disputes between punters and bookmakers and some of these have made the newspapers and TV because of the sums of money involved that have been disputed by the punter.

But none bigger than the £1.7 million that was disputed by Andy Green after he had won on Frankie Dettori’s Magnificent Seven. This was one of those unusual horse racing betting disputes as it was not an accumulator or one of the bookmaker’s horse racing betting combinations offers but it was based on a slot game operated by Betfred, which had a glitch in it according to the game provider.

Green originally won the amount of £1,722,923.54 back in January of 2018 after playing a game provided by Betfred called Frankie Dettori Magic Seven Blackjack, a game that was based upon the famous Italian Jockey’s monumentous seven timer at Royal Ascot in X, which at the time actually nearly put Betfred out of business, so it is ironic that a game named after that most famous horse racing event should come back to haunt them some x years later.

Green, from Lincolnshire, had been playing the blackjack game online and at the end of a long session, his online account held the princely sum of over £1,700,000 and of course he was on cloud nine.

However, when he hit the withdrawal button, this is where a three-year-long journey to hell and back begun. His withdrawal was rejected and the following day he received a call from a director at Betfred saying that the software that ran the game had thrown an error and that they were not going to be paying him out.

What was going on in Green’s head at that moment nobody knows except Andy Green himself.

After a three-year-long court case, and the judgement passed, Green was finally awarded his payout as Mrs Justice Foster ruled that a single element in the Betfred terms and conditions was not ample enough to merit withholding the payment.

There were a full forty-nine pages of Betfred’s terms and conditions that were scoured during the case with both sides lawyers arguing the merits of their client’s case.

However, in the end the award was made and Betfred apologised to Mr Green and paid him in full, as well as covering the interest due.

This is a unique landmark case in terms of horse racing betting disputes, although it was not a real horse racing bet but one based on a game. Although Betfred’s lawyers argued the case, which they had every right to do, they did the right thing and did not contest the decision.

We all know that bookmakers make plenty of profits from punters, but you have to feel for Betfred here, as they clearly had a game that was provided as faulty by a third-party provider.

Fred Done has always been the “Punters King” in terms of bonus offers and in the cold light of day, they have honoured the ruling of the courts.

TOP 3 BIGGEST HORSE RACING BETTING PAYOUTS

So we have looked at one story of a horse racing betting dispute but on a much more positive note, we want to share with you some stories of punters who really did hit the jackpot with various bets down the years, life-changing sums of money that every punter dreams of when he goes into his local bookie to place a big odds accumulator or combination bet.

Below we share three of the most famous horse racing betting payouts.

1. Steve Whitely – £1,500,000

Sorry, but if there was ever a movie made about lucky punters and big race betting wins, then this one has to be high up on anybody’s list.

Steve Whitely had gone to Exeter Racecourse under a free ticket promotion by the racetrack as the Tote Jackpot had reached an amazing £2 million pounds which saw a huge crowd on the day.

Punters up and down the country were betting online trying to scoop the huge pot, but Whitely and his pals were there live to enjoy what they thought would be a “nice day out at the races”

Little did Whitely know that today he would be going down in the record books as the punter who at the time had won the biggest amount ever in UK horse racing.

As the day unfolded, Whitely’s £2 bet would become the centre of attention both on the course and up and down the country, but the bet nearly didn’t happen. One of Whitely’s pals suggested he have a go at the Tote Jackpot, a pool bet where you have to pick the winner of six races on the bounce.

Whitely picked out two horses in each race and proceeded to place his bet at the tote window, only to be told his bet would cost him £32, which he could not afford, so he decided to go with just a single line and picked one horse in each race. The rest, as they say, is history.

As if picking the first five winners was not enough, Steve’s final choice Lupita was having her 29th start over hurdles and had not won a single one of her previous twenty-eight attempts, but today was her day and the stuff of dreams was etched in UK sports betting history forever.

2. CONOR MURPHY – £1,000,000

Conor Murphy, an Irishman from West Cork was at the time of his famous win, working as a stable lad to the top national hunt trainer Nicky Henderson, who many horse racing fans will know as the trainer of many great horses down the years including the treble winning Champion Hurdler See You Then, Gold Cup winners Bob’s Worth and Long Run and the unforgettable Sprinter Sacre.

Henderson now has another superstar on his hands in Constitution Hill who is the odds-on favourite for the 2023 Champion Hurdle, and it is this firepower that Murphy tapped into in 2012 when selecting 5 of the stables horses in a £50 win accumulator.

Murphy had decided to place an ante-post bet on five of Henderson’s horses that were going to the Cheltenham Festival and they were.

• Sprinter Sacre’s – Arkle Chase
• Simonsig – Neptune Hurdle
• Bobs Worth – Royal & Sun Alliance Chase
• Finian’s Rainbow – Champion Chase
• Riverside Theatre – Ryanair Chase

Most seasoned punters will know what an Ante Post bet is, but for those that don’t, it is a bet you place in advance of the event (Murphy placed his four months before Cheltenham)

These bets are high-reward as the bookmakers will be giving higher odds at this time because they know that if one horse gets injured or does not run for some reason, then the bet is a loser.

As the action unfolded, it came down to Riverside Theatre in the highly competitive Ryanair Chase to seal Murphy’s 64,000/1 accumulator and take out the maximum payout from bet365 which was a cool £1 million, which he did by battling bravely all the way to the line.

3. PAUL DEAN £2500,000

We put this one in at number three, not because of the amount, as there have been some much bigger wins, but really as a lesson for punters. Many bookmakers now offer a cash-out facility and it is a betting tool that many punters need to be aware of.

In 2021 a £5 ante post accumulator became the talk of the racing and betting industry as Paul Dean won a cool quarter of a million pounds.

He had placed a £5 accumulator on with Betfair and in one day picked out four winners

The 40-year-old punter from Teesside could have actually pocketed over half a million pounds if the fifth horse in his Acca had won the next day.

His first four winners were:

• Bob Olinger at 25/1
• Golden Horde at 12/1
• Hello Youmzain at 10/1
• Shishkin at 4/1

So with four winners in the bag and £250,000 riding on the fifth and final leg the next day at Cheltenham, Dean was in a tough spot, did he go all in and let the strongly fancied Envoi Allen carry his money to a half a million-pound jackpot, or would he use the cash out function and take the £250,000 on offer from Betfair.

He deliberated long and hard about his bet, but in the end, went for the option of cash out. Up and down the country punters were talking about the bet. Some said he was shrewd to cash out while others said he was silly as Envoi Allen was a short-priced odds-on favourite to win the Marsh Novice Chase. It seemed all he had to do was jump around to win.

And there lies the story. Envoi Allen jumped off but was never really travelling with any fluency and took a tumbling fall at the fourth fence.

This story just goes to show the merits of how cash out is a great tool for punters, especially when you have those big Accas running up.

CONCLUSION

A lot of research went into finding you the latest information and contacts if you have any horse racing betting disputes. It is important for us to give a balanced viewpoint and provide horse racing and sports bettors the resources they need to get solid information and help if they find themselves in this situation. Hopefully, it does not happen to you.

Not only do we cover the information you need from the Gambling Commission, but it is also important for us to entertain and we hope you enjoyed reading about those huge life-changing wins from horse racing punters from all walks of life.

We hope one day it will be you holding that golden betting slip.

Make sure to follow our horse racing expert Richard Smith here at Ontheballbets and his regular pieces on all the big race meetings including the Cheltenham Festival, The Grand National, Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood, Qatar Prix De L’Arc de Triomphe, Breeders Cup, The Melbourne Cup.

Over the last year, Richard’s analysis has provided readers with a 70+ points profit margin.

RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING

The information on this page and across the Ontheballbets website is meant for entertainment purposes and should be viewed as such.

If you are betting on horse racing or any other sport then please make sure to bet responsibly. Only bet an amount that you can comfortably afford to lose.

If you feel you have a friend or relative has an issue with gambling, then there are groups and organisations that can offer support, such as BeGambleAware, GamStop and The National Gambling Helpline