United Kingdom‘s IBAS or Independent Betting Adjudication Service has responded after media reports raised concerns about customer complaints about how bookmakers settle bets using third-party data services. They have called for the introduction of a mechanism to allow customers to challenge sports betting data.
BBC has raised a report about an issue where customers feel robbed after losing bet builder bets. This is allegedly due to inaccurate data supplied to bookmakers. According to The Gambling Commission, Andrew Rhodes, the CEO will meet with stakeholders. It includes data providers to discuss the matter.
The article referenced Richard Hayler of IBAS. He detailed that nearly 300 people tried to appeal their football data bets. That data disputes made up around 15% of their workload.
It has been clarified by the IBAS that disputes around data are often a matter of fact vs a matter of opinion. It clarified that it believes it is fair to use the data from third-party suppliers to settle bets but there is an imbalance in the fairness of access to the data agencies.
At IBAS, they have made no secret of their frustration at this type of betting. Bettors can confidently place and settle bets on numerous matters of fact. The majority of these football statistical betting markets rely on matters of opinion. From their experience, that makes avoidable disputes inevitable; it said.
In such cases, customers should have a way to question data directly with providers, it argued.
It also stated their belief that if bookmakers can directly query the decisions of an agency about event classification, a mechanism should be available for punters to do the same. They recognized the practical challenge of the scale of queries it might generate.
