I had a recent dispute with Betfair over a bet they voided over an hour after an incident had occurred in a big football tournament.About 20 mins into a game I made a trade back bet and a lay bet later on to look to make a small profit as it is a trading platform.Everything onscreen showed the transactions going through and the bet matching. Shortly after the game finished they voided my lay bet which left my original back bet exposed. There was no indication on the betfair screens that there was any issue with the bet.If there are incidents in a game, the market should be kept suspended until the outcomes have been settled and then the market is unsuspended. Betfair failed to do this for me and many other customers. Betfair are leaving customers unaware that their trades despite showing correctly on the screen may be voided and left financially exposed if there is a game incident which the trading floors do not correct in play.Betfair uses this to take retrospective action:“If [the company] does not suspend a market on time for the occurrence of a MaterialEvent, [the company] reserves the right to void bets matched after the Material Eventhas occurred. Voiding of these bets may take place during the event orretrospectively once a game is completed"It's the retrospective nature that makes betfair an unsafe trading platform. I understand the need for a retrospective nature of a Sportsbook for instance if a favourite goalscorer like Harry Kane was given odds of 100 or 1000/1 instead of maybe a 4/1 price, this would be a clear and obvious error. But when there a game incident and the traders fail to do their job, the customer is left to take the fallout.IBAS has in their terms that they promote fair and transparent business practice terms yet side with Betfair who don't promote this. If a customer is completely unaware that they are financially exposed through no fault of their own and this is deemed fair and transparent, I have to wonder if IBAS is fit for purpose.I know from betting forums and Betfairs own forum that lots of customers are experiencing this yet they are allowed to get away with it time and time again.
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The Independent Betting Adjudication Service, founded in 1998, is a third party organisation that settles disputes between gambling establishments registered with IBAS and their customers in the United Kingdom.
