Betfair Account Closed - Help!!

[unclepuncle]

My account has been closed today at about 6.00pm.

Been on Betfair best part of 20 years and use it regularly, minimum of once a week. I only ever used a NatWest debit card linked to my Natwest current account which I have had for 30+ years. Mostly smallish back bets but plenty of big lays (£4-5k liability) at Cheltenham , Royal Ascot etc where I am covering (arbing ) positions I have with bookies.

Anyway I Invested £58k (life savings basically by cashing in Premium bonds and savings accounts) on the US Election in November (Popular vote market mainly) as I though I'd get a guaranteed 3-4% return in a week or two compared to 1% in a year - no brainer basically.

I then got the email asking for ID, proof of funding etc due to due diligence / money laundering regs etc. saying they would close the account if they didn't receive it by today.
Sent the id, proof of funds etc the next day and kept chasing it up and asking if they needed me to provide anything else but just got a generic replay saying the team were still looking into it. Only correspondence I got was a week or so ago saying that my daily deposit limit had been reduced to £5k - I hoped this was the final result of their investigation.

Had read lots of horror stories so actually cashed out £18k a couple of weeks ago as I feared this might happen.
Anyway market settled on Monday night and I had a balance of £42k (£40k stake and £2k winning basically) and tried to withdraw it. Message came up saying I could only withdraw £30k a day so took out £30k on Monday night and then withdrew the other £12k+/- on Wednesday morning.
The £30k went in the bank this morning which was a massive relief and I thought all was well. But then at 6.00pm tried to log in and got the message to say account is closed. Not sure if the second withdrawal is going into my bank or if Betfair have kept it. I also have a load of unsettled ante post positions on King George, Cheltenham, Premier League etc - about £500-1000 worth at a guess.

Can't access live chat as I can't log in (and they are basically useless anyway) and I doubt they will reply to the emails I send to the address that sent the initial email asking for id etc (escalations@betfair)

Tried twitter but after getting a reply asking for my username and email it went silent - guess it is Friday night?

Went to the Gambling Commission and Ibas sites and they both recommend Resolver - spent ages typing out the full case details and filed it - case thread immediately get a reply from Betfair:
Hi there,

Please note that this email address is no longer monitored.

If you require live assistance, please contact our Live Messenger Service which can be reached by clicking here.

If your contact is in relation to an ongoing complaint, please view our complaints procedure here.

You can also tweet us @BetfairCS or click here for our handy help pages.

Thanks again,

Betfair

Anyone got a contact email or phone number I can try??

Surely if they aren't happy with the amount of money someone is trying to stake they shouldn't allow the deposit in the first place - bloody crooks.

[Euler]

I recently helped somebody else out in the same situation. I can't do anything directly as I don't have any leverage, but the chap I spoke to was able to resolve the matter by contact the CEO directly.

Peter Jackson <[email protected]>

Betfair are making a right pigs ear of compliance at the moment and are not being responsive enough. This chap was a VIP account believe it or not and had been betting for 15 -20 years with them.

He was given a number to call but that wasn't that helpful. His account manager said

I’m really sorry mate but there is nothing more I can do on my end as this process has been dealt with by [email protected] . If you want to give them a call you can try +44344 209 0000

[unclepuncle]

Thanks.

It is unbelievable that they can act so arbitrarily..
If they want more evidence (not that they should need it) they could have had the decency to contact me.

Also there was the best part of £2billion traded on the various US Election markets which they publicised to great fanfare - my £58k, from a UK based 20 year Betfair veteran, must be a drop in the ocean,

[Euler]

I contacted them to represent the view that it looks a mess and basically WTF is going on. But didn't really get a positive response back. I've no idea what they are up to at the moment or why. It sullies their reputation unnecessarily in my view. No need to risk your brand if you are an exchange rather than a traditional bookmaker.

There are quite a few threads on this now on the forum. I'm sure somebody will link to them in a reply. The only link I can make at accounts they are targeting are that they seem to be net negative accounts who place a big bet. So it feels like a compliance issue, but they need to really beef up that department if they are ramping up the compliance.

[jamesg46]

It baffles me why they would do that, they're draining a lake of fish. Winner v Winner?

[jamesedwards]

I contacted them to represent the view that it looks a mess and basically WTF is going on. But didn't really get a positive response back. I've no idea what they are up to at the moment or why. It sullies their reputation unnecessarily in my view. No need to risk your brand if you are an exchange rather than a traditional bookmaker.

There are quite a few threads on this now on the forum. I'm sure somebody will link to them in a reply. The only link I can make at accounts they are targeting are that they seem to be net negative accounts who place a big bet. So it feels like a compliance issue, but they need to really beef up that department if they are ramping up the compliance.

Thanks for the info. If I may ask what sort of size are we talking when you say a 'big bet'? Keen to avoid any issues like this myself.

[poklius]

Last time my account was closed because of few 5-6k deposits I made. That was after racing came back after quarantine.
It does seem to me, that irregular big deposits/withdrawals raise most flags, at which point they just close account, and play deaf and dumb.
OP, you'll get your account back, it just takes a loong time, 2-3weeks in my case.

[verance]

Your account will be re-opened, just keep on emailing/chatting/tweeting them every day.

This has happened me several times. Seems like there's no communication between the support teams and the compliance team.

[unclepuncle]

Quick update.

Followed the advice to email the CEO which I did about 8.30am on Saturday. An hour later get a phone call from his team saying they had got the email and raised a case and I would hear from Betfair inside 3 days.
By lunchtime I had got an email from the complaints department asking for some more docs (Premium Bonds and Savings account) which I sent yesterday lunchtime.

Email at 3.00am morning to say account is now fully reopened.

Many thanks for all the advice.

[Dallas]

Quick update.

Followed the advice to email the CEO which I did about 8.30am on Saturday. An hour later get a phone call from his team saying they had got the email and raised a case and I would hear from Betfair inside 3 days.
By lunchtime I had got an email from the complaints department asking for some more docs (Premium Bonds and Savings account) which I sent yesterday lunchtime.

Email at 3.00am morning to say account is now fully reopened.

Many thanks for all the advice.

Thanks for the update, it does give hope to others that there are routes they can take to get their issues resolved

[manimal1]

thanks so much for posting your response.
I am in the same position and will send the CEO an email
Can't believe it is taking so many weeks for them to act

[manimal1]

I managed to get my account open today

I emailed the Betfair CEO last night.
This afternoon I received a call; they apologised it had taken so long for them to open my account (6 weeks)

Thanks so much OP for posting the method!

[Derek27]

I managed to get my account open today

I emailed the Betfair CEO last night.
This afternoon I received a call; they apologised it had taken so long for them to open my account (6 weeks)

Thanks so much OP for posting the method!

Good to hear.

[Shaung89]

Hope the CEO is soon realising there is a significant issue with compliance...

I jumped on the “email the CEO” bandwagon today after a random account closure on Monday. Apparently an email requesting docs had been sent in January but I’ve checked and it hasn’t.

Soon enough a “customer champion” phoned me and has said they will be personally handling my case tomorrow and chasing up on my behalf.

Question is: Should I expect them to reimburse any open positions I’ve been unable to manage in the past 72 hours?
(This is based on their admission that the email was not sent and therefore closed without notice).

[Derek27]

Hope the CEO is soon realising there is a significant issue with compliance...

I jumped on the “email the CEO” bandwagon today after a random account closure on Monday. Apparently an email requesting docs had been sent in January but I’ve checked and it hasn’t.

Soon enough a “customer champion” phoned me and has said they will be personally handling my case tomorrow and chasing up on my behalf.

Question is: Should I expect them to reimburse any open positions I’ve been unable to manage in the past 72 hours?
(This is based on their admission that the email was not sent and therefore closed without notice).

I don't think there's any chance of them doing it automatically (they won't know if you were trading or straight betting) but there's no harm in asking for their mistake to be rectified.