Punters frustrated but Betfair insist technical problem 'identified and fixed'

Betfair moved on Tuesday night to reassure punters there would be no repeat of a technical problem that reduced the balances of some customers on Friday and in some cases left punters puzzling over a negative balance. The issue appears to stem from ante-post bets on certain Cheltenham Festival races placed through the company's exchange on horses that have since been withdrawn.

When those horses were deleted from the relevant markets on Friday evening it appears that stakes relating to them were deducted from customer balances for a second time, having also been deducted at the time the bets were placed. That at least is the conclusion drawn by some of the affected punters who described their experience to the Racing Post.

A typical experience was described by one, who estimated he had around €25 left in his account on Friday and found the next morning that it was showing -€119.54. Another said his balance had changed three times since Saturday morning without any action on his part, which he ascribed to efforts by Betfair to restore him to his former position.

Betfair Exchange: spokesman said no-one will be out of pocket

In several cases, the sums deducted were a match for losing ante-post bets placed by the punter through the exchange. Understandably, those left with a negative balance were reluctant to simply deposit more funds to enable them to resume trading on the markets for next week's action, the biggest betting week of the racing year.

"That's the worst of it," said one. "Most festival markets are formed and there's not much left to go at until nearer the day, but to not have the option of using the exchange is frustrating."

"It doesn't seem wise to deposit anything until this is in hand," said another. "Hopefully it will all be sorted before the festival. I can imagine some of the larger-stakes punters are livid, or some simply haven't noticed."

A Betfair spokesman insisted that the cause had been "identified and fixed" and there should be no repeat when further horses are deleted from markets in the coming days. "We have identified that the issue was triggered by a small number of markets after a technical change," he said.

"As we now have the root cause, we are working through it and expect to have the small number of affected accounts corrected by the end of today [Tuesday]. Again, no-one will be out of pocket and all accounts will reflect their exact position."

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