February 07, 2008

Betfair asks for money back after online poker glitch

Betfair is asking for its own poker customers to return tens of thousands of pounds after a software glitch was exploited by colluding players on its site.

The collusion was noted by the company and “within a couple of hours” the situation was rectified, according to a source close to the company.

Up to 20 players had funds deferred after the company noted the irregularities. It was reported that players had received payouts of up to £100,000, which Betfair wishes to be returned.

The Daily Telegraph reported late last week that Betfair had written to a number of account holders demanding the funds be returned or it would bring legal action. According to the source, the press reports were accurate. “There was a software glitch exploited by colluding players. Sit and go single table tournaments were suspended for a few hours, and funds which were improperly gained were frozen,” the source said.

The glitch resulted in players being given second prize payouts at sit and go tournaments over a number of sessions.

Betfair moved from a Cryptologic poker software platform to its own in 2004.

The company has also been in the news after officials from the French Tennis Association said that they wanted to ban Betfair, along with other operators from taking bets on this year’s French Open. This follows an ongoing investigation into match fixing after Betfair noted suspicious betting patterns in a game involving Nikolai Davydenko in Poland and suspended betting, also alerting the game’s authorities the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

The French governing body has filed two injunctions, one in France, and another other in Belgium which call for Ladbrokes and Bwin to be banned from accepting bets on the tournament as well as Betfair.