Betfred Heads to the High Court Over £1.7 Million Jackpot Non-Payment
British gambling giant Betfred is heading to the High Court later this month over the non-payment of a jackpot weighing in at more than £1.7 million.
Andy Green thought all his dreams had come true in January 2018 when he literally hit the jackpot in the Betfred online casino. Green, who hails from Lincoln, thought he’d won £1,722,923.54. Betfred representatives initially confirmed Green’s epic win, resulting in Green racking up a £2,500 bill celebrating with friends and family.
Green’s elation turned to despair four days after his apparent life-changing win when one of Betfred’s representatives contacted Green and informed him Betfred would not be honouring the jackpot. A “software malfunction” was the reason Green wasn’t being paid. They offered to reimburse the £2,500 Green spent celebrating his win.
While Green had solicitors engaged, Russell Young, a Betfred director, is alleged to have offered Green £60,000 compensation in exchange for signing a legal Non-Disclosure Agreement, which would prevent him from ever speaking out about the jackpot win that never was.
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Betfred Then Playtech Refuse To Show Evidence of Malfunction
Green’s solicitors applied to Betfred to provide evidence of the glitch that ultimately stopped them paying the massive jackpot. Betfred resisted, claiming only Playtech, the creator of the game in question, could provide that evidence. Playtech stated the game’s coding is too confidential to share publicly.
The decision was made, by Green, to sue Betfred for what he believes is rightly his. He applied to the High Court in April 2019 and it has taken 18-months for it to reach this stage.
Betfred is now faced with the prospect of paying Green more than £2 million if the High Court rules in Green’s favour. He is seeking almost three-years worth of interest on the jackpot amount plus all of his legal costs.
Should the High Court not rule in green’s favour, it isn’t the end of the road for Green and his quest for justice. He still has the right to a full trial where the technical evidence of the supposed malfunction will have to be provided to industry experts.
Betfred's Terms and Conditions Are Extremely Complicated
A date of October 15, or 16 has been pencilled in for the court hearing. Green’s solicitor, Peter Coyle of Coyle White Devine, gave his thoughts of the upcoming hearing.
“An application for summary judgment is a high risk strategy because we have to satisfy the judge that Betfred has no chance at all of defending its position at a full trial. To do that, we have to accept Betfred’s case as its been presented to the Court; namely that the blackjack game malfunctioned in some way. Whilst Betfred’s betting terms and conditions are incredibly complicated and span across numerous different documents, we are confident that, on their proper construction, the terms simply don’t allow for Betfred to withhold payment when the alleged glitch is within Playtech’s game and not Betfred’s own software.”
Green has described his situation as like being “hell on Earth.” He said he’d never won the money and that he and his partner have been living in a perpetual state of stress. That stress may have contributed to a heart attack Green suffered that resulted him being confined to the hospital for a couple of weeks in 2019.
Lead image courtesy of Wikipedia
