Betfair left Russia

News, chat and debate about the Betfair betting exchange.
Post Reply
User avatar
Rarog
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2019 8:05 pm

May 18 betfair left Russia. I can no longer use their services without registration somewhere in uk. Well, at least the money was returned from a closed account. Are there people here who know how to open an account bypassing these restrictions? If for the majority of documents it’s clear how to fake registration ... So what about the code that comes to your home address, does betfair still use this method of account verification? What do i need for registration witch documents? How much is it realistic for me to return to bidding? I do not see the point of life without this exchange which I have been using for 6 years.
User avatar
Derek27
Posts: 23474
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:44 am
Location: UK

A public forum isn't the best place to ask for advice on how to bypass Betfair's restrictions (it would be extremely difficult anyway), but if you don't see the point in living without the exchange, why not move to the UK or any other country where you can use the exchange?
User avatar
wearthefoxhat
Posts: 3205
Joined: Sun Feb 18, 2018 9:55 am

Rarog wrote:
Sat May 23, 2020 6:12 am
May 18 betfair left Russia. I can no longer use their services without registration somewhere in uk. Well, at least the money was returned from a closed account. Are there people here who know how to open an account bypassing these restrictions? If for the majority of documents it’s clear how to fake registration ... So what about the code that comes to your home address, does betfair still use this method of account verification? What do i need for registration witch documents? How much is it realistic for me to return to bidding? I do not see the point of life without this exchange which I have been using for 6 years.
Might help.

https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-pr ... ith-a-vpn/


I believe it impacts Estonia as well. Haven't heard about Latvia...maybe nip across the border and rent something there. (or Finland)

map.jpg
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Archery1969
Posts: 3192
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:25 am
Location: Newport

I believe BF and others have software to detect if somone is accessing via a VPN.

If you go on stackoverflow there is code to show you how to block VPN connections.
User avatar
Kai
Posts: 6092
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:21 pm

Rarog wrote:
Sat May 23, 2020 6:12 am
How much is it realistic for me to return to bidding? I do not see the point of life without this exchange which I have been using for 6 years.
I sympathize with your situation but the way gambling legislation works for most countries means that Betfair leaving your country is probably only a matter of time, so anyone that is serious about trading outside the UK has to unfortunately prepare for this eventuality. Some of my friends had the same or similar issues so I can try answering some of your questions.

You don't actually need to be registered somewhere in the UK, but your Betfair account cannot be registered in a country that has been restricted, like Russia now has. This in short means that there are realistically 2 ways for you to continue using Betfair, either by changing the address of your existing Betfair account to a non-restricted country via Betfair support, or by opening a new account from a non-restricted country. The second option may complicate things for you if you're a PC payer which I assume you are, although you can tell them to link your accounts and so on.

If you're going with the first option then from Betfair's perspective this basically means that you are moving to a new country. The important bit here is that there are 2 types of countries, regulated countries (UK and a few others where Betfair has licences) which require 2 different proofs of address, and non-regulated countries (non-restricted countries where Betfair still operates in the grey area) that only require 1 proof of address.

The documents that they accept as proof of address is usually the following list (less than 6 months old):
  • Utility bill
  • Bank statement or letters from the bank
  • A copy of a tax bill
  • A copy of a council tax bill
  • Insurance letter
  • Phone/landline number bills
  • Letters from Government hospitals
  • TV Licence letter
  • All letters issued by Government with logo, stamp and signatures
The tricky part here is that you need to have your own name on the document in order for Betfair to change the address and country of your account. This is why people usually open bank accounts and go for documents that have their own name on them, and it's easier to obtain 1 of those documents rather than 2. People talk about moving to a new country in order to trade but you don't actually have to do that, not permanently anyway, because once you change the address you can for example go back to Russia and keep using that account provided you connect via VPN etc, Betfair apparently don't care about any of this.

You also mentioned forging documents, I would never recommend resorting to such desperate measures, I personally like keeping everything clean and urge others to do the same, although I do know more than one fulltimer that managed to solve your exact issue by changing a simple utility bill from a different country to their own name, which did work for all of them.

In any case, I would suggest to open a dialogue with Betfair so that you can evaluate your options and doublecheck the above info. Maybe you can try PMing other Russian forum users (like Napshnap I think) for advice or find others with the same problems, I remember seeing a Russian football trading community on Youtube but I forget the name.

Good luck.
User avatar
Rarog
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2019 8:05 pm

I really thank for your answer and help, this shed light on many questions.
User avatar
Kafkaesque
Posts: 886
Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:20 am

Kai wrote:
Sat May 23, 2020 3:27 pm
I sympathize with your situation but the way gambling legislation works for most countries means that Betfair leaving your country is probably only a matter of time, so anyone that is serious about trading outside the UK has to unfortunately prepare for this eventuality.
Is this a general observation based on what you're see happening already, or are you really, as your wording implies, seeing something in the regulations that would suggest that the gambling world is moving towards markets being strictly legislated within seperate national borders?
User avatar
Kai
Posts: 6092
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:21 pm

Rarog wrote:
Sun May 24, 2020 8:02 am
I really thank for your answer and help, this shed light on many questions.
No worries man, it's the stuff of nightmares for many traders, equivalent to losing your day job.

Asked a friend to remind me of where the Russian guys hang out, I think it's at betfront.ru. Can guarantee you that the biggest of players will 100% find a way to continue working, some of my friends sorted it within the first day and had no real disruption to their trading.

You can also turn the bad situation into something good, if you hook up with your other native traders you may just come out on the other side of it much stronger, misery loves company and all that ;)

I don't speak Russian but I think this is one of their channels : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOfnQlJZKRQ

Best of luck.
User avatar
Kai
Posts: 6092
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:21 pm

Kafkaesque wrote:
Sun May 24, 2020 8:27 am
Kai wrote:
Sat May 23, 2020 3:27 pm
I sympathize with your situation but the way gambling legislation works for most countries means that Betfair leaving your country is probably only a matter of time, so anyone that is serious about trading outside the UK has to unfortunately prepare for this eventuality.
Is this a general observation based on what you're see happening already, or are you really, as your wording implies, seeing something in the regulations that would suggest that the gambling world is moving towards markets being strictly legislated within seperate national borders?
Just a general observation based on what has happened before, I think the trend is obvious enough! If it were a trade it would be an absolute banger, you'd be putting your bank on it :D

But your country is perfectly safe I'd say, as you well know Denmark is one of the rare ones where Betfair is properly licenced. Not to mention that it's been officially named as the best country in the world to live in (!), with some of the highest of standards in terms of wages and healthcare and so on.

I know you've got monopoly issues with Danske Spil but this is to be expected and it's for sure one of the lesser evils, if your country can find a way to co-exist with the likes of Betfair then you've truly made it.

Btw I think Darren Farley once said something funny about Denmark, that "it's a land full of beautiful blonde people that just can't play football" :mrgreen:
offlimit88
Posts: 68
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2019 2:29 pm

Kai wrote:
Sat May 23, 2020 3:27 pm

The documents that they accept as proof of address is usually the following list (less than 6 months old):
  • Utility bill
  • Bank statement or letters from the bank
  • A copy of a tax bill
  • A copy of a council tax bill
  • Insurance letter
  • Phone/landline number bills
  • Letters from Government hospitals
  • TV Licence letter
  • All letters issued by Government with logo, stamp and signatures
The tricky part here is that you need to have your own name on the document in order for Betfair to change the address and country of your account. This is why people usually open bank accounts and go for documents that have their own name on them, and it's easier to obtain 1 of those documents rather than 2. People talk about moving to a new country in order to trade but you don't actually have to do that, not permanently anyway, because once you change the address you can for example go back to Russia and keep using that account provided you connect via VPN etc, Betfair apparently don't care about any of this.


Good luck.
Hi, two questions :
1) Sorry i did not understand this point, if i move to a full regulated country, can i send 2 documents amongst that list, or some of these documents are mandatory? For instance, may i send only a water bill and a letter from the bank as proof of address?
2 ) I see you are from Croatia. Is Croatia full regulated? Do you think things could change there too from your perspective?
Thanks
User avatar
Kai
Posts: 6092
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:21 pm

offlimit88 wrote:
Mon Jun 22, 2020 3:17 pm
Hi, two questions :
1) Sorry i did not understand this point, if i move to a full regulated country, can i send 2 documents amongst that list, or some of these documents are mandatory? For instance, may i send only a water bill and a letter from the bank as proof of address?
2 ) I see you are from Croatia. Is Croatia full regulated? Do you think things could change there too from your perspective?
Thanks
1) Yes, any 2 from the list should suffice afaik. Always double-check with Betfair beforehand, things change.

2) See this post and thread viewtopic.php?p=221971#p221971

Good luck.
offlimit88
Posts: 68
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2019 2:29 pm

Thanks for the info
VilluV
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2020 1:13 pm

Does anyone know if Betfair had actual legal reasons or even right to not only left Russian and Estonian market, but to also void/cancel all the bets, or what is the backround of these market closures?

I was hit by over 250 000 EUR financial damage because of this closure and IBAS is currently dealing with my case, but I wonder if anyone in this forum has some unique or interesting insight to these closures.

Betfair’s official excuse has been new regulations and that country’s authorities have ordered to execute these actions. I talked straightly to Estonian gambling authority and they confirmed that there are no new regulations, neither have they contacted Betfair or ordered them to do anything this year.
Archery1969
Posts: 3192
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:25 am
Location: Newport

VilluV wrote:
Sun Sep 20, 2020 1:59 pm
Does anyone know if Betfair had actual legal reasons or even right to not only left Russian and Estonian market, but to also void/cancel all the bets, or what is the backround of these market closures?

I was hit by over 250 000 EUR financial damage because of this closure and IBAS is currently dealing with my case, but I wonder if anyone in this forum has some unique or interesting insight to these closures.

Betfair’s official excuse has been new regulations and that country’s authorities have ordered to execute these actions. I talked straightly to Estonian gambling authority and they confirmed that there are no new regulations, neither have they contacted Betfair or ordered them to do anything this year.
Apparently the following has something todo with it:

“Betfair domains have been regularly blacklisted by Russia’s telecom watchdog Rozkomnadzor.”
VilluV
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2020 1:13 pm

Archery1969 wrote:
Sun Sep 20, 2020 3:49 pm
VilluV wrote:
Sun Sep 20, 2020 1:59 pm
Does anyone know if Betfair had actual legal reasons or even right to not only left Russian and Estonian market, but to also void/cancel all the bets, or what is the backround of these market closures?

I was hit by over 250 000 EUR financial damage because of this closure and IBAS is currently dealing with my case, but I wonder if anyone in this forum has some unique or interesting insight to these closures.

Betfair’s official excuse has been new regulations and that country’s authorities have ordered to execute these actions. I talked straightly to Estonian gambling authority and they confirmed that there are no new regulations, neither have they contacted Betfair or ordered them to do anything this year.
Apparently the following has something todo with it:

“Betfair domains have been regularly blacklisted by Russia’s telecom watchdog Rozkomnadzor.”
Hmmm, I guess this is more of a motivation, but it shouldn’t give legal right to do these actions they’ve done? (even void earlier two-sided bets only for one side of transaction on Exchange)
Post Reply

Return to “Betfair exchange”