We hope that you will never need to complain about anything in the betting industry, but the reality is that at some point you may need to know who to turn to. There are several routes that you can walk down, as listed below, but bear in mind that more often than not a resolution is likely never too far away.
Before diving in to it, we would recommend that you go in with a cool head and try to pull together as much detail and information about your situation as you can. This will help you in the long term and should it come to it, may act as evidence alter down the line.
Customer Service
Your first port of call should be with the bookmaker to see if you can resolve the issue internally. Most bookmakers will have a more than adequate support team on site that can help you with your problem. It’s highly likely that the issue you are having isn’t or hasn’t been just specific to you personally, and likely that someone at some time has been in the same boat.
Customer services are likely to do all they can to help you and what can often happen, if you feel like you aren’t getting the right customer service for your needs, you can then escalate it to the management.
Bookmakers these days are vey wary about making sure that their players are well looked after. One bad review can hit social media and spread like wildfire. Whilst this won’t drastically affect a company’s reputation, if multiple people chime up with the same issues or problems, it can have a detrimental affect on future sign ups, especially if coming from an authoritative figure in the industry.
One thing to remember is that the bookmaker will want to resolve your issue as much as you do. There are strict guidelines in place these days to make sure that the player’s needs are number one priority and no longer can they simply make up rules as they go.
What we would advise to check the terms and conditions before contacting the customer service department and see if you are in breach of those. This not only highlights where your problem might lie, but it also gives you a proof that if you think you haven’t breached any terms, these were in fact the terms at the time of the issue.
IBAS
If your issue cannot be resolved internally, then it’s best to head over to IBAS. The IBAS is the Independent Betting Adjudication Service and it’s their role to take an impartial look into your case.
IBAS will be bang up to date on rules that the bookmaker can and cant enforce, in turn noting you on what the best course of action for you to take next. They are specialists dedicated to helping players in the betting industry that feel they have been unfairly treated and the bookmaker is simply not willing to help.
They will also assist you with any legal hearings that may arise from the subject and also advise you on what your rights are in relation to your circumstances. As we mentioned, they have no affiliation to any bookmaker, and it’s their job to keep players safe when trying to stand up to what are often multi billion pound corporations.
ASA
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) are in place to help you when you feel that you are being misguided by an offer or advert that has been promoted by a certain bookmaker. If you are familiar with the industry then you will know that many bookmakers have a plethora of terms and conditions for each of their promotions that you must adhere to. It’s your responsibility to read up on these and know them before accepting into any contract.
But, they are on hand should you feel that the advert in which you signed up as a result of was misleading in any way. This may be not stating terms of a certain promotion or highlighting an offer that is next to impossible to obtain.
The ASA work in many different sectors, not just gambling, but they do have dedicated support teams that work specifically with online betting cases. They are thought of to be a massive authority within the gambling industry and bookmakers have in the past have had to adhere to their final words on any case.
UK Gambling Commission
The UK Gambling Commission was set up in 2005 to oversee all matters related to the protection of players within the gambling industry in the UK. They cover everything from sports, casino, bingo, poker and even the National Lottery.
These guys are often the go to when things really start to escalate with any issue that you have and can be a massive help when it comes to any legal help that you may need. The UK Gambling Commission are the ones that issue the majority of bookmakers’ licenses in the first place, so with the potential that these can be suspended or permanently revoked it can be mean massive consequences for the bookmaker.
The website just on it’s own should allow you to see if any wrongdoings have occurred in your case, but if you still need further help, then you can escalate your issue to an advisor who will be able to inform you exactly on where you stand. If you need to make a complaint about a certain situation, then these guys are about as high as you can go.