after the multimillion-dollar mistake, Betclic ends up paying its bettors – Libération

2024-10-02 09:19:47

Several sports betting sites had failed to take a competition-specific rule into account when adjusting their odds during the 64th finals in late September. Unlike bettors, who managed to make significant profits.

This is a detail of the regulation that costs a lot. After a week of silence and controversy, Betclic assured in a press release sent to the team Tuesday 1 October in the evening that will validate “All bets are off […] following the official publication of the results” of the French Basketball Cup, apologizing for the “confusion […] absolutely exceptional”.

At the origin of the scam, a specificity of the specific regulation of this competition which pits professional and amateur clubs. To ensure a certain fairness between two teams of different levels, the French Basketball Federation (FFBB), organizer of the competition, established an advantage of 7 points in advance per division of difference in favor of the smaller team. This “handicap rule” was valid until 2019, when it was suspended. Before being reintroduced this season during the 64th Coupe de France final, which took place from 23 to 25 September.

A change that betting operators – in addition to Betclic, Parions Sport and Française des Jeux are also affected – have forgotten to take into consideration. Whet the appetite of bettors: many of them, seeing the unexpected profit by looking at the match odds, have decided to bet their nest egg on the number of points scored by a team at the end of a quarter (which is new this year ) anticipating these handicaps. Second the teama total of several hundred thousand euros were played in around twenty Coupe de France matches, for a total winnings estimated at several million euros.

Betclic, which is also the flagship sponsor of the National Basketball League’s flagship championship, the “Pro A Betclic Elite”, first tried to justify its mistake by invoking “the application of these new rules [qui n’a] was not clearly communicated by the French Basketball Federation (FFBB)”, tournament organizer. However, the changes were clearly written on the official Coupe de France website.

“No manipulation or attack on the integrity of the competitions”

Also questioned by sites about technical problems in accounting for these handicaps in its real-time statistics, the FFBB acknowledged the bugs but these had no impact on betting. The Federation also rejected any other form of responsibility. “It turned out that the software used to collect the statistics did not allow the integration of handicaps before the start of the match, contrary to what was reported in the information on the official scoresheets and in the rooms.explains the FFBB in a press release. Statisticians then added these points in different ways and at different times. The statistics have been corrected by the Federation, without any influence on the results. ensuring it“no manipulation or attack on the integrity of the competitions should be detected.”

Faced with the fury of bettors, Betclic first decided to cancel the bets and refund them. But feeling aggrieved, punters threatened legal action to recover their winnings. On Sunday the FDJ decided to return the winnings to the interested parties after carrying out checks. Leaving Betclic alone in the controversy. And on Tuesday, a press release published by the National Gaming Authority (ANJ) clarified the point, going in the same direction as bettors: “Bet execution must be made prior to the first announcement of results by the FFBB.” Leaving Betclic no choice but to finally give up.