Rx, You Need To Address This Issue ASAP ... SportsBook.com Cancelling Pending Wagers

Halifax · Oct 13, 2006

SportsBook.com just notified me that, in addition to closing all Canadian and other non-US accounts, they are also declaring all pending wagers and pending future bets to be "no-action".

This is totally unacceptable.

Many people (myself included) have pending future bets that have a tremendous amount of equity built into them, including future bets on the Cy Young award that are virtually certain winners.

Many people have pending straight wagers that are currently middled / hedged / scalped against another book. If SportsBook.com cancels these pending wagers, these players would be exposed for very large amounts of money on one side of the game.

Many people have pending straight wagers that were bet before a line move, and that now have a lot of equity built into them, and a high chance of winning. Cancelling these bets would be very unfair to the bettors.

Rx, you need to do something ASAP to rectify this situation ... it's one thing for SportsBook.com to close these non-US accounts. It's a really stupid thing to do, but it is within their rights.

Cancelling these pending wagers, however, is not within their rights. It's unethical, unacceptable, and borders on stealing.

SportSavant · Oct 13, 2006

why r they closing Canadian and all other NON US accounts? is this because they are staying as a USA only book?

wont your account be shifted to their European facing book? maybe they can re-institure the futures there?

Halifax · Oct 13, 2006

SportSavant said:
why r they closing Canadian and all other NON US accounts? is this because they are staying as a USA only book?

The Disposal

Sportingbet announces that it has sold, on 12 October 2006, its US-facing sports betting and casino business (the “US Operations”) to Jazette Enterprises Limited (“JEL”) (the “Disposal”). Sportingbet received cash consideration of US$1 for the shares and related assets of the US Operations, and has discharged excess liabilities amounting to approximately US$13.2 million. Had the business been closed, the Board estimated that the cost of severance and closure would have amounted to approximately US$14.0 million – a total saving of circa US$27.2 million.
Following the Disposal, neither Sportingbet, its Directors nor related parties will have any interest, commercial or otherwise, in JEL or the US Operations.

The US Operations employed over 500 people and the Board understands that JEL intends to preserve the operational structure to all material extent.
Under the terms of the Disposal, Sportingbet will retain the URLs and intellectual property of wallstreet.com, aces.com and sportingbetUSA.com though these will not be used for any US gaming purpose. In addition, JEL has agreed, for a period of two years, not to take bets from non-US residents and for a period of three years, not to take bets from customers outside the Americas region. Further, Sportingbet has retained the details of all non-US resident customers currently registered with the US Operations. Sportingbet will attempt to migrate those customers to its ongoing European business.

Canadians are getting the boot.

SportSavant · Oct 13, 2006

yeah, I saw that before, are you still logging into the same website for SportsBook.com right now? (or will they be directing the US customers to a different website?)

are your pending wagers still visible?

MrCleo · Oct 13, 2006

yikes, there's not much the RX could do here, if anything I would think

SportSavant · Oct 13, 2006

do you know what bookie they are moving the canadians too at this point? any chance that the new euro/canadian bookie will honor these futures?

so am I right in assuming that sportsbook.com will be 100% USA customers? (at least for the next 2 years)

Halifax · Oct 13, 2006

SportSavant said:
why r they closing Canadian and all other NON US accounts? is this because they are staying as a USA only book?

If you've played at Sportingbet.com before, you know that they're a completely different animal than the Sportsbook.coms, SportingbetUSAs, PlayersOnlys, etc.

Sportingbet.com have much smaller limits, worse lines, virtually no props, and many other things that make them inferior to the Sportingbet Costa Rica books for US sports.

Not only that, but Sportingbet.com uses a completely different software platform, so even if they wanted to transfer over the pending future wagers, they probably couldn't. But who's kidding who, they don't want to transfer the pending wagers anyway .. that would involve a gesture resembling good customer service, and as every last person who has ever played with this group knows, their customer service is terrible and their mid-level management's respect for their customers is non-existent.

Halifax · Oct 13, 2006

SportSavant said:
do you know what bookie they are moving the canadians too at this point? any chance that the new euro/canadian bookie will honor these futures?

so am I right in assuming that sportsbook.com will be 100% USA customers? (at least for the next 2 years)

The only thing I know is that I've been locked out of my account, and that I have 5-figures worth of pending wagers that are now in limbo.

Par for the course as far as the quality of customer service from these clowns.

primetime21+ · Oct 13, 2006

Halifax said:
borders on stealing.

borders on stealing? it it is stealing.

xpanda · Oct 13, 2006

Halifax, given the time of night, there's not much we can do right now. Give us a day and we'll at least have some kind of feel for how this issue will be addressed.

Emails have been sent.

Halifax · Oct 13, 2006

primetime21 said:
borders on stealing? it it is stealing.

LOL ... I guess I was just being polite.

But you're right .. for a large portion of these pending wagers, it is stealing.

Halifax · Oct 13, 2006

xpanda said:
Halifax, given the time of night, there's not much we can do right now. Give us a day and we'll at least have some kind of feel for how this issue will be addressed.

Emails have been sent.

Yeah, I know there's not a lot that can be done right now, but given the fact that I just found out about this, and the fact that there are time constraints involved with these pending wagers, I figured I'd get the ball rolling so that this might get resolved sooner rather than later.

xpanda · Oct 13, 2006

I understand. We'll be in touch with you tomorrow with an update.

Promise.

HinesWard86 · Oct 13, 2006

Halifax said:
Yeah, I know there's not a lot that can be done right now, but given the fact that I just found out about this, and the fact that there are time constraints involved with these pending wagers, I figured I'd get the ball rolling so that this might get resolved sooner rather than later.

Have to give you credit man. Normally one of these threads is filled with numerous vulgarities but you seem as calm as one can be about this. Very nice to see and I'm sure the mods greatly appreciate it too. Very different and much classier than the typical "SPORTINGBET STOLE MY MONEY!!!!!!! WHAT F%$&IN CROOKS!!!!!! WHAT IS THERX GONNA DO ABOUT IT????????" And then the guy ripping everyone who gets involved. Very respectful, if only others acted like this more.......

Slotech · Oct 13, 2006

Specializing since 1998
in online and interactive gaming law

http://www.trade-attorney.com/

GL

gynecologist · Oct 13, 2006

HinesWard86 said:
Have to give you credit man. Normally one of these threads is filled with numerous vulgarities but you seem as calm as one can be about this. Very nice to see and I'm sure the mods greatly appreciate it too. Very different and much classier than the typical "SPORTINGBET STOLE MY MONEY!!!!!!! WHAT F%$&IN CROOKS!!!!!! WHAT IS THERX GONNA DO ABOUT IT????????" And then the guy ripping everyone who gets involved. Very respectful, if only others acted like this more.......

I was just going to say something very similar.. :103631605

Halifax has class...

beetman · Oct 13, 2006

I'm in the US, not in one of the "banned states," and my sportsbook.com account is via Paradise Poker. They've disabled my account, cancelled my pending bets, and transfered the balance to my Paradise Poker account.

Paterno · Oct 13, 2006

Busy day for Mods.

sean1 · Oct 13, 2006

All of my sportsbook, hollywood, etc accounts work.

I have a feeling that sportsbook will transfer Canadians over to sportingbet. Sportingbet will likely honor wagers. Remember there are probably more losing $$s pending than winnning $$s. Sportingbet will also probably add higher limits and more US sport options. Remember these guys dont want to lose customers.

Give them a few days to get this all straightened out. If in 2-3 days things are still screwed up, that is the time to start bitching.

Sean

Halifax · Oct 13, 2006

sean1 said:
I have a feeling that sportsbook will transfer Canadians over to sportingbet. Sportingbet will likely honor wagers. Remember there are probably more losing $$s pending than winnning $$s. Sportingbet will also probably add higher limits and more US sport options. Remember these guys dont want to lose customers.

Give them a few days to get this all straightened out. If in 2-3 days things are still screwed up, that is the time to start bitching.

Sean

As it stands now, there won't be any pending wagers transferred over to Sportingbet.com. They won't be transferred over, nor will these pending wagers be honoured.

You seem to forget what company we're dealing with here .. this is not some group that is renowned for their customer care ... this is Sportsbook.com/EFS, King of the Piss-Poor Customer Service, Crown Prince of Disregarding the Customers.

If left as is, these wagers will NOT be honoured. It's going to take some immediate intervention from some entity with more pull than I have. That's why I started this thread at the Rx.