Online Betting Nirvana

[JollyGreen]

I recently had a visit from a very old friend, we had lost touch but he'd heard I was unwell so he popped in to see me on a flying visit. We were chatting about the good old days when we used to punt on the horses.

Many years have passed and so I am able to tell this story. It was something I didn't want to shout about previously and when you read it you will understand why.

I was prompted to write this post when I read the thread about Betfair not suspending a market quickly enough after the event had finished. I think it was Andy Fuller who pointed this out and because of my friends recent visit it reminded me of my day in betting nirvana.

In the days before Betfair I used to punt the horses and when online betting became available I used to look for arbitrage opportunities. I would scour the bookies websites and look to find errors in their prices. Obviously as time passed those errors became few and far between but it was good fun whilst it lasted. A Saturday afternoon was great fun for me and I would enjoy the racing on Channel 4 (occasionally BBC) and the racing Channel as it was known then. I was watching one race on the racing Channel and then switched back to Channel 4. Sadly my horse had lost but as I watched the cameraman focusing on the winner after passing the jam stick I noticed the event had not been closed on the bookmaker site. As many of you will know they normally put a suspended message, grey out the selections or totally close the event. On this occasion the event appeared to be left open which was quite a surprise. I decided to place a bet on the winner just to see what would happen. The horse was priced at 14/1 so I quickly placed a £5 win bet and clicked submit. You can imagine my shock and delight when it said "thank you for your bet, good luck!"

I naturally assumed there was an error and they would realise their mistake but I was rather happy when I checked my account and found £70! This was too good to be true but I thought what the heck I've nothing to lose the worse that can happen is they take the money back from my account. I looked at the next race and watched as the horses made their way up the home straight. The winner crossed the line and I checked to see if the event was still open and amazingly it was. The horse was an odds-on favourite and I knew I had to be fairly careful in terms of how much I could bet. Because the horse was odds-on the liability of the bookmaker was lower so I quickly placed a bet of £300. I had a message saying "liability on this selection has been exceeded, please reduce your bet amount". I tried £200 but that was also refused but the next amount of £150 was accepted. I checked my account and once again a few minutes later the winnings were sat there. This was simply too good to be true so I rang a friend of mine, the one who visited me recently and told him to quickly get online and fill his boots. I watch the next race saw the winner, placed my bet and collected my winnings. I managed six winning bets in total but even then I still believed they would realise their mistake and take back the money. I then had a dilemma did I take the money from my account immediately or should I wait? I was concerned that a large withdrawal may attract attention so I decided to wait. I cannot explain just how nervous and excited I was. That night I simply couldn't sleep, I spoke with my friend and he also agreed it was best to wait before withdrawing the amount. We both agreed the worse that could happen was they would take back the winnings so what did we have to lose?

The next day was a Sunday so I assumed there would be no way of the amount going via my debit card to my bank account immediately. I made the withdrawal anyway but left my original balance, only taking the winnings I had achieved. I kept checking my bank account over next couple of days and sure enough the amount appeared and perhaps I was home free? I phoned my friend and he too had managed to withdraw his winnings!

I was never contacted by the bookmaker and the subject never appeared anywhere. I cannot believe that I was the only one to notice it so I wonder if the bookmaker kept quiet for fear of embarrassment or perhaps they didn't notice. I spoke to someone involved with another online bookmaker and he told me in confidence that it was probably a time error on the server that did not close the event at the correct time.

How easy can that be having a bet on a horse when you already know the winner. Happy days! I wouldn't mind another one of those.

[PeterLe]

Hi JG
Now that is free money!
When I first started on here (in 2007) there was a singing knockout competition on a Saturday night (Sorry cant remember the name of the show)...there was three finalist and one due to be knocked out that evening. I watched the odds on the winners market as one contestant was notified that they wouldn't be going through and the odds stayed exactly the same. I laid them quickly and made £130, a couple of seconds later they suspended the market.

I was a bit naive as I though it would be like that every week! (It wasnt!)

Shortly afterwards they started suspending the market well before the transmission; on that show and others. I often wondered if others had done the same..happy days!

Regards
Peter

[CaerMyrddin]

but he'd heard I was unwell

I sincerely hope you get better quickly...

I had one of those moments twice. The first one was on an unmanaged market and the other one on an US race

It really is sweet