Further to my post yesterday, here is the transcript of a conversation between myself and a Bet 365 customer services representative, conducted over their 'live chat' facility...
Rowan Hi. I received a message that today B365 have decided to impose restrictions on my account.
Karl D Can I take your username and four digit security number please?
Rowan ********. Not sure of security code...possibly ****.
Karl D Thank you.
Rowan Can you please tell me my overall profit and loss balance on this account since it was opened?
Karl D The information regarding profit and loss can be reviewed via your account history online.
Rowan Are you sure - how do I do that? It will only give me details on bets placed within the last six months.
Karl D One moment please.
Karl D You can adjust the time ranges to locate further than 6 months.
Karl D The largest time that you can search in one time is 6 months though.
Rowan So how do I go beyond the last six months? As soon as I input a date prior to six months ago, I get an error message.
Karl D Once you enter your start date, don't click on search but change the end date. Then you will be able to search your required date range.
Karl D We have not heard from you. Do you wish to continue the chat?
Rowan Right ok - but you don't have a figure there in front of you? Am I right in thinking a decision has been made on my account then, without you actually being aware of whether I am making money or not?
Karl D I do not have a profit/loss figure for the account.
Rowan Do the traders?
Karl D In order to obtain a profit/loss for your account you will need to review your account history for the required time period.
Rowan That doesn't answer my question. Do the traders have an overall profit/loss figure?
Karl D I do not have the profit and loss available to myself however, the account may have been reviewed on betting patterns and not the profit/loss of an account.
Rowan So the traders may have restricted my account despite the possibility it is a losing account. That is what you are saying?
Karl D That is correct.
...at which point I terminated the 'call'.
The interesting part of this is at the bottom there. A frank admission, admittedly a rather forced one, that an account does not necessarily need to be profitable for a decision to be made to impose restrictions upon it. I suppose we already knew this, but to have it confirmed like that still surprised me.
Anyway, it's time to move on. My restrictions on this account are that I'm only allowed to win £30 from any individual bet on horse racing, £100 on football, and a whopping £10 on darts!
What I have done is discover a dormant Bet 365 account that was opened in 2007 but had never been used. I successfully updated bank card details, deposited some money, placed a couple of bets and had a nice 11/2 winner (thanks Peter at Chasemaster!) with it today. I see this as an experiment. I don't hold out much hope of the account lasting particularly long, but it will be interesting to see just how long. I'll keep you posted.
In the meantime we just have to continue gritting our teeth whilst various smarmy bookmaker reps come onto Channel 4 Racing with details of their special offers, making out like they give a shit about the punter. Honestly, the spin-king that is Fred Done saying on the 'Morning Line' today that "We'll take a bet. It's what I do", nearly had me sticking my foot through the telly! You didn't take many from me, son, before closing my account.
Right - not such a good day today. Gave a bit back to the bookies but still well up at Cheltenham for the week. Chasemaster helped reduce the losses everybody else made at the Festival with a very easy winner (Silver Adonis - Fakenham - 11/2). I say everybody else...Northern Monkey made a couple of points having tipped Synchronised antepost at 14s for the Gold Cup, and getting a couple of bets to place. Trouble is, the way the staking is and with 4PA having a blowout, this wasn't enough to prevent a pretty poor final day.
I'll post up the results over the weekend. Right now, I'm bet weary - too many bets placed in too short a timeframe and tbh, I'm knackered. Going to have some tea, watch a film with the kids, and go to bed. It's been a long week.
Laters.
A voice from the inside(not b365): it is pretty easy to determine when user has placed bets on markethigh odds and when you see that has happened 10 out of 10 times then it actually doesn't matter if the account is in +/-.
ReplyDeleteexactly this has happened to me with Bodog Coral & Sporting bet.....the speciality were bodog i placed 2 bets of 50 each on 2 horses @ 8.00 both losers and have been restricted to maximun bet of 1 immediatly.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend, a born loser without a restriction to his name, try to place £20 on a horse this morning with Bet 365 all he got was 'bet has been referred to trader and you will be informed of how much we will allow you to bet' type of message. They kindly allowed him £0.00 then re-offered the bet at a ridiculously low price. Why go a standout price if they don't want to lay it and close you down for shopping around? It looks like they will all go the way of High St and only welcome FOBT players.
ReplyDeleteHi Rowan,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your Bet365 account. I have no idea how, but I still haven't been restricted there and it's not like I'm losing money with them - I'm actually staking four-digit amounts on doubles, 1X2 and asian handicaps without being referred to traders and I took tens of thousands of euros from them in the last couple of years alone. I'm sure a couple of things helped though - I've never tried to stake an amount that needs further authorisation and I've never placed a horce racing bet in my life. I don't know, maybe they want to keep the market movers under their wing to help them adjust their odds - I've seen an interview with one of Pinnacle's senior traders lately and he said his company likes long-term winners because they help them adjust their odds - and get rid of followers of paying services, but I'm a follower of other services as well and I can still stake huge amounts on, for example, Matt's FE bets (not that they usually offer the best price, but it happens from time to time). Lots of question marks and it's obvious Bet365 are far from Pinnacle or SBO when it comes to welcoming smart punters, but at least they've not hit the fair-play rock bottom like StanJames, VictorChandler and, unfortunately, many many others. I hope the likes of Pinnacle and SBO enter the horce racing market sooner rather than later.
cheers,
skeeve
Iv had my account restricted today. i was winning lots of money on friendly games and cup games with high odds. taken over 15,000 in last 3 months, maybe its a sigh that i should quit while im ahead! However not happy with b365.
ReplyDelete