Ever had your payout blocked? You are not alone…

Dear Bet Advisor’s clients Blocked payouts – becoming increasingly common Professional bettors spend considerable time, money and effort on designing winning bets strategy. Whether it’s a network of professional tipsters, arbitrage strategies or sophisticated algorithms, it is not a mystery, that it takes discipline, information and infrastructure to have big wins on a consistent basis. So, naturally, it is frustrating that increasingly often, bettors have their winnings delayed, blocked or forfeited. If you recently had a big win and you still haven’t received, you are not alone… Last month alone, we came across 10+ professional bettors who had their winnings blocked in one way or another by reputable bookmakers. Those cases ranged from extended delays with the payouts to, in the most extreme cases, closure of the account and forfeiture of the winnings. Why is it happening? Bookmakers make a comfortable living by providing entertainment to millions of amateur bettors. Professional bettors that know what they are doing, have good systems, timely information and manage to win on a consistent basis are bookmakers worst nightmare. Bookmakers customer services aren’t geared to professional bettors, their risk management policies weren’t designed with big single wins in mind and to put it bluntly, they would rather avoid and deter professional bettors business. Unsurprisingly so, if they can, they might try to avoid paying out the winnings. Bookmakers have two main ‘tools’ that can use to delay or forfeit the winnings:

• Anti Money Laundering regulations and
• Their own Terms & Conditions

Increasingly stringent Anti Money Laundering “verification” procedures mean that in case of a big win a bookmaker can ask you for further details on the account holder identity such as an additional ID, proof of address etc. and may ask you to explain the source of funds and demonstrate their legitimacy. In a bookmaker’s T&Cs one will find a set of rules to comply with to receive the payout, most important of which is the maximum payout limit. How to avoid the payouts getting blocked?   In most cases, it is difficult and frustrating to get the payouts released once they are blocked so it is best to avoid the problem in the first place. Betting accounts: Use a betting account for which you will be able to provide further details when asked, for example: additional personal ID documents, recent proof of address, bank statements in the account holder name, and selfies with all the above. Source of funds: Make sure you can explain the source of funds you used to bet and demonstrate their legitimate provenance.  Discrepancy between the account name and the payee name can be used by a bookmaker to block the winnings. Beware of the payout limits: Bookmakers have strict limits on the maximum payouts by various sports; and these can change often. For example, on English football, Bet365 will pay the maximum of £2m but 888sport only £250k. What to do when they payout has been already blocked? If your payout gets blocked, here are a few simple tips:

• Keep a friendly dialogue with a bookmaker’s customer service
• Try to escalate the case very quickly to senior customer service mangers
• To the extent possible (and, obviously, assuming it can’t be used against you!), provide all the additional information that a bookmaker is asking for
• Keep all communication with a bookmaker by email, avoid chats and phone calls as you won’t be able to demonstrate the communication history if need be
• Write coherent, well written messages providing solid arguments

Overall, If the winnings are big, it can be a lengthy, frustrating and very costly procedure to get that money back. Our established name in the industry and a great network of contacts with bookmakers and payment providers put us in a fortunate position to help our clients if they experience payout issues. We have recently helped a few clients resolve issues with bookmakers and if you are one of the unlucky people that experienced problems in that area, please get in touch with us @ accounting@betadvisor.com to discuss how we can help. Best, Bet Advisor Team]]>