The Irish bookie relents and the winners get paid out

On Tuesday Peter the Punter (Peter Smith) reported on a battle that he had had with the Irish bookmaker, PaddyPower, over a bet on Mike Huckabee in the GOP caucus in Kansas on February 9th when Mitt Romney was priced as the hot favourite to take the state.

It will be recalled that the first indication here of a possible upset came at 8.11pm (GMT) with Jfsl posting – “Fox predicting Huckabee will win Kansas.” At 8.22pm, Caveman posted that Paddy Power were still offering 6/1 Huckabee. At 8.28pm, Peter took £20 of that 6/1 and had a further £20 at 3/1 with the same firm at 8.35. quite a number of site visitors also got money on.

Paddy Power took the market down around about 8.40pm, which was the time the result, proclaiming Huckabee the winner, was given on the official Republican website. Unfortunately the bookie decided that those who had got money on had made what is termed “late bets” and these were voided.

Peter Smith took this to the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS) which “acts as an impartial adjudicator on disputes that arise between betting/gambling operators and their customers.” Alas this proved fruitless with the panel adjudicating “in favour of the company who were within their rights to stand or declare the bets void.”

On Tuesday Peter reported here on what had gone on. The result has been a quick change of mind by the bookmaker.

This is the message that Peter was sent: “Having recently reviewed past customer queries/trading decisions we have come to the conclusion that a decision to void your bet placed on Mike Huckabee in the Kansas Caucus was incorrect…I can confirm that your bet (placed on the 9th February 2008) has now been settled as a winner and not a void selection…On behalf of Paddy Power please accept our apology for the initial decision to void this bet and for any inconvenience the delay in rectifying this matter has caused you..On top of this I have credited your account with a free bet of £50 as a token of good will..We hope this matter has not deterred you from continuing to bet with us as a valued customer and hopefully you’ll back a few more winners!” – Neil Macdonald, Customer Support Deputy Supervisor

Well done to Peter for all his did pursuing the case. Well done to Paddy Power for seeing sense. A black mark to IBAS for the decision it took.

I had refrained from covering this to allow Peter himself to report on his victory. Alas he has been in Cheltenham all week, his computer “has blown up” and he has now gone to Spain on holiday.

Mike Smithson