BetOnline.com Won’t Pay Out on Future Bets
Panama City-based BetOnline.com is embroiled in a dispute with a player regarding a March Madness future bet. Few are taking the side of BetOnline.com as the complainant posted his gripe on the SBR Forum website.
"I am having a major wager dispute with this book now. They are saying my future bet on Syracuse to win the Big East Championship (made in November) was actually for the Big East Tournament. I have been battling them all week"
Anyway, he said that on his wager detail page, there is an "event date." When he printed his wager detail in February, the event date was 3/1/2010, which is BEFORE the conference tournament. Now, when he looks at his pending wager, the event date has been changed to 3/14/2010, which is AFTER the conference tournament.
It seems to me as though they don't want to pay this bet. The Operations Manager at The Greek concurred with my sentiment. For all of the reasons described on my complaint, the wager was clearly for the regular season. This latest evidence now suggests the management at BetOnline knew it was for the regular season but then changed it when they decided they didn't want to pay.
It should be noted that the operations manager for TheGreek.com, which is among the more respected online sportsbooks, was a former employee of BetOnline.com and has expressed his distain for that company in the past.
This is not to say he is wrong in his assessment of the situation.
One member of the SBR.com website had this to say about BetOnline.com:
I agree that a succession of errors were made, but if the dates were changed on the wager, that is a pretty egregious act. I really thought that BetOnline was a real good entry into the market at first, but after my initial deposit there a while back, I have not returned because of stories like this.
BetOnline.com has been terribly mismanaged over the past two years and the company is looking to change this situation by hiring some well known industry professionals.
Late last year, one of the principals in BetOnline.com was arrested and taken into custody on US soil for illegal bookmaking.
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
