Ghana’s leading sports betting firm Supabets have generously opted to pay some disgruntled punters 35% of their disputed winnings even though the odds for the bets have proven to be mistakes from the computers generating the numbers.
But the firm has warned that future claims arising from such errors will not be tolerated insisting it will seek the backing of the Gaming Commission and the law to resolve such disagreements.
This comes after huge and unusual odds in the Israeli top-flight league and Austria’s Bundesliga were advertised as 99/1 in favour of the favourite for the two matches on Monday night. This means betting 1 Cedi on the favourite team could win the punter 99 Cedis which is far remote from the usual 2/1 odds offered for known favourites.
Spotting the obvious mistakes in the odds, the punters took advantage of the mistakes in the odds of the matches between Hapoel Raanana versus Beitar Jerusalem and SC Austria Lustenu versus FC Wacker Innsbruck respectively to strike gold.
The information of the errors spread like wild fire as several bettors rushed to the offices and online betting portal of Supabets to take a punt before operators spotted the mistakes.
Several individuals made winnings ranging between 400 Ghana cedis and 30,000 Ghana cedis in the short period of the computer error, resulting in the company’s decision to rectify the odds to the correct odds globally.
This measure taken by Supabets to rectify the odds falls in line with the betting laws or an arbitration by the Gaming Commission in the case of such disputes in the odds.
However, the disgruntled winners refused the offer to rectify of the odds or go for arbitration by the Gaming Commission resulting in the media giving wide coverage to the stand-off.
In an act of magnanimity to keep their customers happy despite the legitimate claim, Supabets will from Monday pay the affected bettors 35% of the winnings but insist such claims from obvious mistakes will not be tolerated in future.
Police have been keeping surveillance at Supabets offices to avert possible attack on the facilities by angry winners.