SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Sky Bet have been criticised by UK Labour MP Graham Jones for not honouring it odds on last Wednesday UEFA Champions League match between Chelsea FC vs Paris Saint Germain (PSG).
Sky Bet customers had complained that the operator did not pay out on 25-1 odds for PSG to win the knockout tie in extra time at Stamford Bridge. The customers had taken up the offer using the Sky Bet mobile app which displayed generous odds of 25-1 for PSG to win the tie in extra time.
Sky Bet management claimed that the 25-1 odds were offered on its app by mistake, and that it is not forced to pay for the higher winnings since its actions are in-line with its customer terms and conditions. Sky Bet have paid the customers at its adjusted rate of 9-2 odds for the PSG extra time win.
The actions of the bookmaker have been criticised by Labour MP Graham Jones
“This is outrageous. What would have happened if a rival firm had better odds but people chose Sky Bet because of the 25-1 odds? Customers would have lost out. You can’t change the price after the sale”.
‘Sky Bet are clearly a rip-off company who are willing to take their customers to the cleaners and deceive them. This is typical of the gambling industry”
Sky Bet Richard Flint CEO responded to the criticism by stating
“Occasionally mistakes happen. In this case a wrong price was displayed for around three minutes, and a small number of customers bet at the incorrect odds.
“These odds were clearly wrong – we showed odds of 25-1 when the true odds and the odds displayed by all other bookmakers was 9-2. We settled at the correct odds.The terms and conditions for the Sky Bet app – which has been downloaded 700,000 times on to iPhones and iPads – reserve the right to ‘correct obvious errors and either settle bets at the correct odds or void bets”.
