"We don't restrict Losing Accounts" – The Reality

Account Restrictions – The Reality

At this stage we have all grown tired of the Betting Account restriction talk, however it is an issue that it going to rumble on for the foreseeable future as the problem is becoming worse and worse.

Any successful punter will know the annoyance of being limited to pennies or even zero as the case may be on an account that is beating the bookmakers and is in profit. In those cases I can understand the limits, don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with them what so ever but if you are turning a consistent profit its only a  matter of time before the firms put the shutters up and say no more. We could go into this with thousands of cases but they are common and will simply be rebuffed by trader’s decision, aka you’re not a mug so we don’t want your business.

However it’s the restrictions on losing accounts that shows the absolute dire state the industry is now in. To me this makes absolutely no sense for any firm concerned and leaves a thoroughly sour taste.

We hear it non-stop from the PR guys that losing accounts do not get limited, never, complete nonsense, does not happen. Most people would buy this story as fact, at the end of the day why would bookmakers close or limit the accounts of people that are losing money to them and lining their pockets? The honest answer is a really don’t know as it makes no sense.

On the Sunday Forum 24/11 with Kevin Blake, Sean Boyce and Simon Clare – Mr Claire tells us: The idea that Corals are somehow turning away profitable business for them is just not true – well the reality is they are and most other firms are in the same boat.

We usually hear of restrictions with little or no idea of the back story etc, and if the account is in a positive or negative profit since it opened. Below I am going to go through the process from start to finish and show the dire state the industry currently finds itself in.

So let’s break this down in realistic terms and what is really happening, I will start this by saying:

1.     There was no “arbing” (or line tracking or whatever nonsense term is being used now).
2.     There were no dirty e/w bets – there was no e/w bet at all on the account.
3.       .A winning account will not be used as this can be explained or pawned off as you are not profitable so we don’t want you.
4.     The account was a mix of Greyhound Racing/Football and Horse Racing.
5.     The last 27 bets a mix of multiples, accums, singles, all which were win only have LOST.
6.     The bets are not placed on night before prices.

Firstly lets look at the figures below:

We have a Coral account used by a recreational punter, lots of multiples and mainly just bets on televised sports that they are watching.

A total of 2344.68 staked in 43 bets which is an average stake of 54.52.

A total of 2344.68 staked compared to 526.91 returned which is a loss on the account of 1817.77 so 77% of the money staked on the account has been lost.

Given the big loss on the account I’m sure you can imagine the surprise to find out the account had been heavily restricted, restricted to the point it may as well have been closed.

Limited on racing bets? Oh I will try soccer, but no it’s the same outcome, limited on premier league games? How can any firm limit bets on soccer? The most bet on event in the world with no edge. 

And that’s not including the fact this is a big losing account which makes things all the more perplexing.

But Mr Clare said once more on the Sunday forum that systems were in place to allow people who are limited on one thing to bet on others e.g limited on racing but can still bet on football.

There must have been a mistake limiting this account surely? Let’s try live chat – I will have to apologise for the format, I asked for the chat to be emailed to me and was told it would be but never was but I had a copy saved to word.

So the massively losing account has been limited? No reason, just they wanted to do it so they have done it and we don’t have to tell you why – a thoroughly unsatisfactory response but then was advised to contact the escalations section through email to query this further. Surely they will see this is an error and sort it all out?

So below is my email sent to the Coral escalations section below to get this sorted.

After waiting a few days I got the following reply:

Another thoroughly annoying response that just in a roundabout way tells us that they are limiting the account, they won’t tell us why and they wont reverse it.

In a week where we have bookmakers moaning about the threat to them of lowering the max stake on cancerous FOBTs I find this all very interesting. Have they become that reliant on machines and casinos that they just don’t need to take sports bets? This is clearly a profitable account for them but yet they do not want the business. What other business in the world do you give a company money and they say no, I do not want your money? 

Given the large majority of peoples interest in racing is when they have a bet on it whether it be Saturdays watching on ITV or At The Races, we need not wonder why interest in the sport is in decline bar the big festivals and piss up concerts. When recreational and losing punters are getting their accounts limited why would they be bothered chasing around to get a bet on, they will just turn their attention to soccer and forget about racing.

There is no sign of a solution either for the foreseeable future, the obvious answer would be to introduce a minimum bet requirement like Australia which would force bookmakers to lay their prices to lose a minimum amount on all channels. Its safe to say that is no where near being introduced in this part of the world though, all we can hope for is that the maximum stake on the FOBTs get lowered way down to £2 a spin and then bookmakers might have to go back to being bookmakers again instead of  making money from being glorified casinos.

That said, its going to be a long road back to the days of fancying a horse, seeing a price you are happy with and freely having a bet on it without fear of restriction or being treated like a criminal for trying to take the best price available!