Comments on Sport is made for betting: It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

Seems that Betfair's T and C's have been i...

2011-12-29T12:49:08.937Z

Seems that Betfair's T and C's have been ignored on this occasion:
"Your betting limit is represented by the lesser of: (i) your 'Available to Bet' balance shown in your account and (ii) your ‘Exposure Limit’ (which is available in the “Account Summary” tab in “My Account”). However in the event that we process an offer for a bet or the acceptance of a bet in an amount outside the applicable thresholds, such bet will nevertheless stand."
You cannot trust Betfair.

George - maybe, but that's only part of the er...

2011-12-29T00:00:25.804Z

George - maybe, but that's only part of the error. Even if it was 2.9, the liability would still have been over £50m.

Whitey - that's an issue for the courts/regulators to decide. If it was your acct which fell victim to the tech bug, would you want it shown in public?

The liability cap on a particular acct has failed, and it appears the bot working that account runs an algorithm which links activity to available funds. How it has happened is the concern.... more on that in next post.

I agree George, it does look as if the lay was mea...

2011-12-28T23:48:42.847Z

I agree George, it does look as if the lay was meant to be at 2.9 instead of 29. That alone does not account for such a liability on one account.
Somebody would have had to inputted the 21 or so million in the stake as well.
After doing both of these things if the money was not in the funds the bet should have been rejected, which begs the question why it was not.
I almost positive that if you tried it all day long everyday for a year you wouldn't be able to do it yourself.
Betfair have messed up and have put forward a poor excuse and should be made to produce evidence of the account in question to validate their theory.

Betfair has posted an official statement: Custome...

2011-12-28T20:35:27.721Z

Betfair has posted an official statement:

Customers betting in-play on this race will have seen that Voler La Vedette was available to back at 29 when the in-running market was suspended, and that a considerable sum was matched on the clear winner at that price.

An investigation has revealed that this was due to an obvious technical fault which allowed a customer to exceed their exposure limit.

In accordance with our terms and conditions, all in running bets on this race, both win and place, will be made void.

We fully appreciate the dissatisfaction this will cause many customers, and apologise for a very poor customer and betting experience.

Voler La Vedette betfair SP was 2.96 while the in-...

2011-12-28T18:10:56.820Z

Voler La Vedette betfair SP was 2.96 while the in-play bid was 29 ... I think the error has to do with a fat finger moving the decimal one spot to the right from 2.9 pre-event.

Anonymous or the Chaos Computer Club? For me, i em...

2011-12-28T16:32:06.955Z

Anonymous or the Chaos Computer Club?
For me, i empty my Betfair-Account now.

OK, I've re-read your post slowly this time, I...

2011-12-28T15:57:47.936Z

OK, I've re-read your post slowly this time, I finally understand what you're getting at. Apologies.

no because, you'd need £600m in your acct to c...

2011-12-28T15:35:06.882Z

no because, you'd need £600m in your acct to cover the liability - highly unlikely that is an option for even the biggest client with a huge credit limit.

Oh I see, so someone might have missed typed a lay...

2011-12-28T15:31:40.829Z

Oh I see, so someone might have missed typed a lay bet you think?? Owch!

Matt - has to be a technical problem somewhere. Se...

2011-12-28T15:29:33.915Z

Matt - has to be a technical problem somewhere. Second image shows how much was matched - about £23m loss by the layer when you split the liability in two (amount matched shown equals double the backers' stakes).

Betfair is an exchange, can't see why they'...

2011-12-28T15:25:07.109Z

Betfair is an exchange, can't see why they'd be liable themselves, and it's unlikely that amount of money was matched at that price surely?

George - there have been cases of bots going wrong...

2011-12-28T15:18:36.874Z

George - there have been cases of bots going wrong before, to the tune of a few 100k, and the client had to pay up. But nothing like this, it defies all numbers, there can't possibly be a client acct with that much liquidity in it.

Amazing! Was looking at it as it was happening. Ha...

2011-12-28T15:16:53.372Z

Amazing! Was looking at it as it was happening. Has anything similar (even if on a smaller scale) ever happened on betfair/betdaq before? How was it settled back then?

well they'd have to have over 600 million in t...

2011-12-28T14:47:33.594Z

well they'd have to have over 600 million in the account to be able to lay that type of bet. Also, there was over 1.6 million matched which would equate to a payout of around 50 million pounds. Doubt they'd settle the bets as it's probably a technical error especially considering that Mourad was matched at 1.04