Punter fails in NT Racing Commission dispute to claim $1.3 million in winnings after bets voided by Sportsbet
A PUNTER has failed to get a gambling company to front up nearly $1.3m in winnings after it voided three multi-bets he placed on a professional darts tournament
Northern Territory
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A PUNTER has failed to get a gambling company to front up nearly $1.3 million in winnings after it voided three multi-bets he placed on a professional darts tournament.
The man, known only as “Mr L”, lodged a dispute with the Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC) claiming bookmaker Sportsbet owed him $1.29m in winnings after it voided three separate multi-bets he had placed on the 2017 Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Grand Prix tournament.
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But the NTRC, while finding the bets were both lawful and winning, ultimately ruled Sportsbet weren’t wrong to cancel his multis as the bookmaker had, “unfortunately”, clearly offered the bets “in obvious error”.
This is because the bookmaker had mistakenly let people bet on a selection of odds even though under the unique rules of professional darts’ double-start format there could be only one winning outcome.
That outcome happened to have the largest possible payout.
Under Sportsbet’s terms and conditions, the bookmaker reserves the right to “correct any obvious errors and to void any bets where such has occurred”.
The NTRC noted, as it said it had before in other decisions, that bookmakers do need error limiting clauses like this one to avoid “unjustly suffering a loss where a legitimate or innocent error has occurred”.
“It is the view of the Commission however, that obvious or manifest error rules should not be used to protect sports bookmakers from errors of judgment, lack of vigilance or movements in the market that they have failed to detect and respond to,” the NTRC noted in its judgment.
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“It is unfortunate that such errors are made by sports bookmakers at times, and the Commission urges Sportsbet to be more vigilant when framing and offering markets to their customers.”
The NTRC found Sportsbet had acted within its terms and conditions and owed nothing to Mr L.
Originally published as Punter fails in NT Racing Commission dispute to claim $1.3 million in winnings after bets voided by Sportsbet