[SBR_John]

12.07.2006 (08:10 AM CST)

Player Complaint: SportsInteraction (SBR rating C-) cancels wager after event begins; does not alert player. Bettor tells SBR that he watched an entire NBA game rooting for his team, the Phoenix Suns at +4. After the event was over he found that the winning bet was void due to a "bookmaker error." The bettor is upset that: 1) He did not receive a time-stamped email showing when SIA canceled the bet, and; 2) The book had the luxury of viewing the match in play. Players who compare sportsbook odds were aware of the market price and that the line was erroneously reversed. Sports Interaction claims the bet was canceled 7 minutes after post time and tells SBR they plan to email players when wagers are canceled in the future.

You have to be smarter than this. If the line is Phx +4 at SIA and painted Phx -4 on SBRLines then dont waste your time betting Phx +4. Yes, SIA has well documented problems. Most are simply some level of incompetence such as this one.

If an NBA side is off by more than 4 points you better call the book and confirm the line. Even that is not always assured because a lot of clerks dont know the difference either.

Bottom line; dont waste your time shooting at bad lines.

[compaqDikk]

always give the Book benefit of the doubt. less than 1% may have a legit concern

[acw]

John,

How about players that only play at one book?

[Stumpage]

John, you are absolutely correct...It's at best risky, and at worst just plain stupid to try to take advantage of a line like what happened here. Believe me, I have very little to say in terms of supporting SIA (from personal experience), but I feel that they should not honor this bet from what I've read about anyway.

Hell, many times you can grab yourself a little bonus by pointing out the error to the books. For example, Pinnacle today was still offering NHL combined games totals, even after the early game had started at 3:00. I brought this to their attention, simply because I had been thinking of wagering on it and was looking for clarification, and they gave me a nice little $25 Thank you bonus. Not earth-shattering, but better than a kick in the teeth.

I don't know...It just seems to me that some commom sense is a must in this industry.....

[Bill Dozer]

Not much you can conclude from what was known but I think if you assume the player has to know the market you take a lot of the responsibility off the book to get it right or at least get it canceled before tip-off. Granted, a lot of the players in this situation checked other books.

In this mess you can assume the player knew and took a shot; you can assume the book was aware of the line and canceled his bet in the third quarter taking a shot, or you can assume all parties are telling the truth and a recreational player got hosed and a sportsbook has bad procedure not sending out email notifications.

A question from the players POV...
If the Suns are down 12-0 in the first 3 minutes or if Steve Nash blows an ankle....does SIA cancel the bet?

[JoshW]

I think SIA consistently would cancel the bet regardless of the score. I don't feel any love for someone who bets a flipped line. Even if you only have one books, just have to accept that books can't stand by those lines.

[BuddyBear]

Yeah I think SIA gets the benefit of the doubt on this one for sure...other things not so sure.

I may be the only guy left on here who has had largely positive experiences with SIA. I can't complain....opinionated lines, free unlimited NT withdrawals, pretty decent customer service.....

[pags11]

friday evening, Creighton opened +14 vs. Xaiver...I didn't bet it out of respect for pinnacle...all these guys were betting an obvious bad line...when it's this far off, (even 8 points), you just know it's going to get canceled...

[BadAzz]

Nope BB, I also have only positive things to say about SIA. So that makes two of us.

[jjgold]

Most poster complaints are scams only that is why I laugh my ass off at players complaining about book troubles.

[Bill Dozer]

This thread is surprising me. This case was not a reason for an SIA user to run for the hills and again, most players do know what the line is supposed to be. But, book has to prove what time the bet was canceled. SIA could have void the bet at halftime. No excuse for not catching the line on mainstream sport when the game goes OTB. If you say the player is taking a shot then same argument can be made that the book responds by taking one.

Funny how most books want players who don't have a clue and then when a line is off the player is always supposed to know it.

[pags11]

yeah bill,

books seem to take advantage of this rule as much as they can...a bad line to me isn't a couple of points off, but rather 5 to 10 points off...