Comment IBAS F
our years have passed since the implementation of the Gambling Act and still the
betting industry in Great Britain waits for a Court of record to hear a case on pal- pable error. Rumours cir- culate that some operators have settled disputes on the steps of Court, presumably rather than risk adverse publicity or possibly to avoid a Court judgement that might go against them. Looking at most opera- tors’ error rules it is some- what surprising how different the error ruling is expressed. Some operators talk of ‘reserving the right to correct a clear error’ others talk of ‘reserving the right to correct an obvious error’, others say ‘we will correct any error that is materially different from that available in the general market, or clearly incorrect given the chance of the event occurring’. Others simply say that they will ‘correct any error and the bet will be settled at the correct price’ i.e. no qualifi- cation of how the error will be judged.
One could say that quali- fying the error by using the word ‘obvious’ or ‘clear’ complicates matters inas- much as how can one deter- mine if an error is clear or obvious, or to use an old and once commonly used expression, ‘palpable’? What is considered obvious to a shrewd or every day punter may not be obvious to a once in a while punter, and in all likelihood will not be obvious to a one off or novice punter. Subjectivity then comes into the equa- tion and thus the need to
contract law, and the error rule in particular, in Court. Thereafter, no doubt fol- lowing subsequent hear- ings and appeals etc., precedents will be set which hopefully will provide some clarity for all. Better still, and maybe wishing for something of a utopia, more sophisticated systems or more thorough checking could be put in place that ensure errors in pricing are substantially reduced or avoided alto- gether.
discover what type of punter the customer is! Not always easy to determine. There are also the impli- cations of unfair advertis- ing and inducements to bet when, say, a screen or poster mistakenly displays 5/1 for what should be dis- played as a 5/2 chance. Some occasional punters may see the advert, con- clude that it is a bet worth having, only to discover, should the bet become a winner, that they will only get 5/2. If a loser they remain none the wiser that they have been induced to place the bet.
Possibly worse still is the less obvious type of error where, say, 5/1 is adver- tised, but the correct price is 4/1. One could ask ‘how clear, obvious or palpable an error is that?’
As stated in some of my previous articles, the general betting public gen- erally perceives the betting office employee to be a bookmaker, and betting shop employees are thus expected to act like an on- course bookmaker. This perception includes the maxim of the on-course bookmaker, and similar to
that of an old fashioned stock broker on the floor of the Stock Exchange: ‘My word is my bond’. Thus, when a price is agreed on a betting slip, or even on the telephone or internet site, it is expected to be hon- oured. To correct the price (almost always down- wards) only once the bet is a winner risks harming not only the reputation of the operator concerned but also to the betting industry in general.
It is currently the case however, and it is IBAS’s present view that, off course, bets taken are subject to the operators’ terms and conditions. This is from the understanding that operators have com- plied with the Gambling Commission requirements and have carried out a health-check on their oper- ating rules. However, from the content of some dispute submissions that IBAS receives, which quote con- tract law, it is expected that there will soon come a time when operators and cus- tomers, via their legal rep- resentatives, will need to debate the intricacies of
Quotes of the month
“Going to court always makes you focused, Ivor, I’m sure you’ll find that out when you’re going to face your traffic offences.” WILLIAM HILL’S RALPH TOPPING HAS A PLAYFUL DIG AFTER ‘IMPISH’ QUESTIONS FROM NUMIS SECURITIES ANALYST IVOR JONES
“It’s never difficult to tell the difference between a ray of sunshine and a Scotsman with a griev-
40 BettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 2011 ance.”
JONES INVOKES PG WODEHOUSE TO RETURN FIRE
“What surprised me was the good deal of naivety in football circles.” CHRIS EATON, FORMER INTERPOL OFFICER NOW HEAD OF SECURITY FOR FIFA, HIGHLIGHTS THE LACK OF PROFESSIONALISM IN THE SPORT REGARDING MATCH FIXING
“The Football Pools are one of our great institutions.”
TOTTENHAM MANAGER HARRY
REDKNAPP ON HANDING OVER A WINNING CHEQUE TO ONE OF FOUR WINNERS WHO SHARED A £3M JACKPOT ON THE FIRST WEEKEND OF THE ENGLISH FOOTBALL SEASON
“If a player is not being paid, and some- body comes along and offers money to fix a match, it is a danger.” UEFA PRESIDENT MICHEL PLATINI SUGGESTS THAT ONE WAY OF AVOIDING MATCH-FIXING IS FOR THE SPORT TO ACTUALLY PAY ITS EMPLOYEES
Some, but not all, opera- tors attempt to act in good faith when an error has been made by their organi- sation. Dependent upon the type of bet, it will be settled at SP or the price the selec- tion was when the bet was taken whichever is greater. Or, for early or ante post prices, the bet will be settled at the price that the selection was at the time the bet was taken or the best price available in the general market, whichever is the greater. The latter approach tends to elimi- nate the cynical point of view that incorrect prices were deliberately displayed to attract customers away from their competitors. Maybe more operators should consider having such a customer friendly term in their rules.
As a final point of inter- est, and in relation to our friends in the Emerald Isle, none of the aforemen- tioned, relating to contract law applies, as the 2005 Gambling Act is not enforceable either in the Republic of Ireland or in Northern Ireland, where reviews of local gambling laws are both underway.
“Both the American people and nations that censor the internet should understand that our government is committed to helping promote internet freedom.”
US secretary of state Hilary Clinton’s statement last year doesn’t quite equate to its gambling legislation
The price is (sometimes) right
Somehow the betting industry has avoided the courts regarding its flimsy palpable error rules, but John Samuels of IBAS believes that such an outcome is inevitable.
Get closer to your customers
Ahead of the EiG show in Milan, Brian MacSweeney of Boolabus looks at what operators should be looking at for in-play betting.
rience. We’ve worked with many different operators, platform providers and col- leagues at other B2B suppli- ers. We’ve integrated sportsbetting products with Openbet, Finsoft, Geneity and more. Our role is to get all of these elements working well together so that the end user gets the best betting experience. The results across proj- ects can vary but the opera- tor will always look at the bottom line as the one true measure of success. Our snooker module powered by Sportstat resulted in a 180 per cent uplift in rev- enues in a controlled test. Other projects are harder to judge scientifically, espe- cially when there are multi- ple changes being implemented to a website at the same time. Our own analysis of sportsbooks is revealing some key success factors.
A
First up, the closer we get to a seamless synergy between front and back- end, the bigger the impact on turnover and profit. Our close work with Betgenius’ In-play Manager has always reinforced this.
The power of live data and media in the online offering has become apparent to all in the last few years. The second success factor is the ability to instantly deliver the right content to the user across all channels and devices. The emergence of the content hub or feed aggregator as a piece of strategic technology is an indicator of this.
As the major sportsbet- ting platforms reach the point where the base product is very similar, the
t Boolabus we’ve focused a lot on the in- play betting user expe-
important points of differ- ence between operators start to emerge further up the value chain. There is a school of thought that sug- gests that all that is left to differentiate bookmakers online is the user experience and marketing skills. So the third success factor, and arguably the most critical in the years ahead, is the ability of operators to easily adapt your offering in real-time and engage with your cus- tomers on an individual basis. Not the easiest thing to do when you have multi- ple suppliers and frag- mented marketing approaches. We’ve tagged all our betting products and sites with Connextra and Google Analytics so the operator can track and react to the user’s journey from the banner to the betslip. But this is just a small step. We need to get closer than that. To build a complete rela- tionship with a customer is to allow the customer to bet the way they want on their preferred device, to quickly serve them what they want and to surprise them with continuous improvement of the offering. Real-time mar- keting of the full live offer- ing in banners, apps, widgets, retail touchscreens and more will be the point of difference that counts. We’re focused on one user experience platform that can easily integrate all of the great content that a cus- tomer wants and to deliver it in an engaging, trackable form, whatever the device. Deeply integrated systems, a strong content offering and the ability to market all of this to a fragmented audi- ence in real-time are what’s required to drive turnover and profit in the years ahead.
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