Nigeria betting company, Bet9ja is in big trouble. Bet9ja has been accused of refusing to pay over N42 million won by three people who played some of their games.
Those in the know told us that on Saturday, January 9th, 2016 that; Peter Ayomide, Sobamke Samuel, Akinwusi Funsho and Okunade Toluwalope staked games on the following coupon/bet slips: B926APZAAQWAA-1143424 with N100; B918APZATPTTC-1143424 with N100; B90APZATRRST-98000 with N100; and B92A4ATCTQS-98000 with N200. We were told that the games were played at 17:19, 17:28, 17:44 and 17:45.
Each coupon won the following amount of money; B926APZAAQWAA-1143424 won N2,193,501.94k; B918APZATPTTC-1143424 won N2,193,501.94k; B90APZATRRST-98000 won N12,588,793.72k; and B92A4ATCTQS-98000 won N25,177,587.44k. The total amount won by the quartet was N42,153,385.04k and the winnings were announced on the data base of KC Gaming Networks, owners of Bet9ja.
Be that as it may, Bet9ja fraudulently recalled the winnings it has announced on its database around 12 midnight and 1.00am of Sunday, January 10th, 2016. However, attempts by the winners to actualise their winnings were ignored by the management of the betting company.
On Friday, January 22nd, 2016, the quartet through their lawyers: Emawodia and Attorneys, Legal Practitioners and Arbitrators, wrote to the management of Bet9ja, explaining the staking of the game and winnings by the clients attaching all necessary documents proving their case and demands to the betting company. The letter was signed by Barrister Kayode Oyemakinde.
In the letter signed by Chuks Emele, Company Secretary and Legal Adviser stated that the winnings could not have been paid because the games on which the quartet of Peter, Sobanke, Akinwusi and Okunade placed their bets have been played before the bets were placed.
“The game in which your clients placed a bet on the 9th of January, 2016 at about 17:19pm, 17:28pm, 17:44pm and 17:45pm had already been played earlier on that same day at about 16:00pm. The kind of bet placed by your Clients is called ‘Anytime scorer’ which means first to score. Therefore, as at the time your Clients placed their bet, they already knew the result (and) the names of first scorers”.
Bet9ja explained further that in view of this, the gaming quartet have contravened one of its cardinal rules under Clause 13 termed as “Palpable Errors” which means “whenever a bet has been erroneously accepted on a market which should have been suspended or removed such a bet is outrightly cancelled.
“You would agree with us that the bets placed by your Clients on the particular game whose results are already known and Even If Wrongly Allowed To Be Placed On Our Network Is A Mistake and therefore cannot be considered a winning bet and based on our Terms and Conditions particularly the paragraph “Palpable Errors” mentioned above, we are right in declining to pay for the bets”.
But betting industry experts told us that Bet9ja needs to explain why its betting portal remains opened when the matches on which bettings are being placed have commenced. All over the world, betting portals are closed whenever the kick-off time is up.