Sportsbet ordered to repay AFL bets after pricing system error
Flutter’s Australian subsidiary forced to withdraw betting market after pricing issues
Flutter Entertainment’s Australian subsidiary Sportsbet has been ordered to honour previously cancelled bets on nine Australian Football League markets by the Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC).
Several bets were processed on whether players within matches would complete 40 or more so-called “disposals”, more commonly known as passing the ball to another player.
However, all bets taken were voided by Sportsbet prior to the first match between Sydney Swans and Geelong Cats on the grounds they had been offered in error and were based on “obvious or manifest errors” in the pricing process.
In nine out of the ten matches concerned, neither team had any players whose passing exceeded 40, with all bets winning on this outcome.
Initial prices offered by Sportsbet before the error was identified
Sportsbet’s voiding was later disputed by several bettors, who submitted complaints to the NTRC which assessed whether the firm had breached its own terms and conditions.
The terms say the firm reserves the right to “correct any obvious or manifest errors and to void any bets where such has occurred”.
Responding to the NTRC’s enquiry, Sportsbet said the prices on offer in the nine betting markets were not a result of the firm making a conscious pricing decision, underestimating the betting markets or providing generous odds but rather, “…an automatic and erroneous calculation by the AFL pricing model using derivative data from the individual player market.”
These prices were later adjusted by Sportsbet on two separate occasions following identification of its error due to technical issues.
Details of the various adjustments made to the betting markets were published by the NTRC
As a result of the pricing issues, the firm stated its belief that its AFL pricing model “could no longer be relied upon” to produce accurate pricing for the markets in question and the market was pulled.
However, as a sign of goodwill, Sportsbet later decided to pay an amount to each of its customers equivalent to the winning payout amount on the adjusted price.
Sportsbet advised the Commission that the total amount of these payments totalled $675,000.
In a decision released on Thursday, the NTRC said it was satisfied the markets had been offered in error, but error did not meet the threshold required to be considered “obvious” and ordered these bets to be honoured.