[Justin7]

SBR received several complaints against BetFair for refusing to honor the bonus. Players came in, lost thousands of dollars believing they would get half their losses back. Then Betfair made up a new rule -- that you are only eligible for the promo if they sent you an email.

I couldn't find the terms in English, but here is a link to the Russian rules:
http://promo.betfair.com/wb/int/051010/rutc.html

Courtesy of google translate, I am including a translation of that page in English. There is no mention of a requirement that Betfair email you an invitation of this promo. Betfair might be big, and a great exchange, but they are conducting business as criminals in their conduct of these bonus disputes.

1. You need to register for this promotion. Register here.
2. Validity of actions: 00:00:01 GMT October 7, 2010 - 23:59:59 GMT October 11. ("The promotional period").
3. You need to register to share until Saturday October 9, 2010.
4. This promotion will last 5 days, starting on 7 October 2010. To take action, do paired bids worth at least € 50 a day (including express) for at least two days.
5. All rates should be calculated on the day of placement.
6. If you are satisfied all the conditions of the shares, then the client will receive a refund according to the net loss. Net loss will be calculated on the basis of the rates for all the action. For example, if you bet on the first day and won € 75 € 200, but bet € 50 per day 5 and lost € 250, you will be put to return € 7.50 (15% of the net loss of € 50).

Number of days
Wagering requirements
% Return

RATE € 50 per day (including Express)
2 DAYS
Bids worth at least £ 50 per day
15%

3 DAYS
Bids worth at least £ 50 per day
20%

4 DAYS
Bids worth at least £ 50 per day
25%

5 DAYS JACKPOT
Bids worth at least £ 50 per day
50%

7. Cancelled and unmatched bets will not be counted as a credit shares.
8. The maximum refund to one customer is € 1,000.
9. Refund will be processed until Tuesday, October 12.
10. Applicable standard terms and conditions Betfair.

Standard conditions:

1. To participate in promotions, and / or tournaments, you must be over 18. Players who have not attained the age of 18 will be excluded from promotion.
2. Betfair employees or their family members may not participate in (1) prize promotions or (2) tournament, which decides the outcome of Betfair. This provision also applies to all partners, Betfair and their representatives.
3. Users to refill your account via Moneybookers or Web$, will receive a bonus only after the documents will be checks of the Customer (KYC). More here.
4. For promotions, for each participant is allowed only one registration. Taking part in the promotions, tournaments, etc., you agree to these terms and conditions, as well as provisions for a separate tournament, contest or promotion.
5. Fraud, abuse and misuse the conditions promotions not permitted under any circumstances on the basis of these terms and conditions.
</span>6. Betfair reserves the right to exclude any player from competition, the tournament site and Betfair, if Betfair believes that the user has used a variety of user names or otherwise abused the terms of promotions (including taking part in the territory, where it inhibits the local jurisdiction), or activity conducted </span>which is at the discretion of Betfair Betfair could harm the business or its clients.
7. Prizes can not be changed or transferred to another person, except where agreed with Betfair.
8. Taking part in the raffle prizes, and in case of your victory, you agree to the acceptable use of your name and image on Web sites and promotional materials Betfair.
9. When you register at Betfair, you acknowledge all copyrights and intellectual property rights, thus confirming that Betfair is the sole and rightful owner of those rights.
</span>10. Betfair in its sole discretion, reserves the right to cancel or amend the terms of competitions and promotions, and / or any other proposals, if adopted relevant decisions of the legal and regulatory organizations.
</span>11. Betfair decision regarding any matter related to the tournament or promotional action is final and not negotiable.
12. In case of violation of these terms and conditions Betfair reserves the right to take whatever decision it sees fit in its sole discretion.
13. If necessary, travel to participate in the competition, you assume all costs (including insurance), if these costs are not included in the terms of the action.
</span>14. Betfair reserves the right to amend any tournament rules or these Terms and Conditions at any time.
15. Betfair takes no responsibility for the failures of the system, communication problems, which may affect the players taking part promotions or tournaments.
16. Betfair, its partners, affiliates, employees and partners are not liable to the costs incurred by the actions of the participant or winner in the case of corrections, cancellations or changes in the tournament. </span>Any responsibility in this case lies entirely on the party or the winner.
17. You agree that these Terms and Conditions are designed and supervised under the laws of England and Wales and you agree to the statutes jurisdiction of the Courts of England.
</span>18. 1999 Law on the rights of third parties does not apply to these terms, and any rights or benefits can not be transferred to third parties under the Act.
19. Any use of a registered trademark BETFAIR ® and / or logo BETFAIR possible only with the permission of the trademark owner The Sporting Exchange Limited. </span>

[Hareeba!]

I would think that any player who successfully registered has every right to demand Betfair pays up.

I'd be shooting off a complaint to IBAS on this one.

[bubba]

doesnt this promo/offer sound "too good to be true"? an exchange giving back 50% of losses? that sounds crazy

[Dark Horse]

14. Betfair reserves the right to amend any tournament rules or these Terms and Conditions at any time.

Who's running this outfit? Can we have some background info about the type of people behind BF?

[Hareeba!]

doesnt this promo/offer sound "too good to be true"? an exchange giving back 50% of losses? that sounds crazy

there were limits on it if you care to check the fine print

[austin]

foul play by betfair. that's what happens when there is a monopoly - despite providing excellent service, they can do what they want and would not care about any A-Z rating

[lukahh]

interesting case.
a fantastic offer by EXCHANGE - up to 1000 EUR refund!
it's a pity it has turned against them by this bad press. i think it is exaggerated vastly by SBR, to make poor users of costa rica cowboy shops feel better.
if you got the email, you're entitled to promotion. if not - it's very debatable. at least one ought to know he's taking a risk.

[Hareeba!]

if you got the email, you're entitled to promotion. if not - it's very debatable. at least one ought to know he's taking a risk.

even if they accept your registration for it?

[Santo]

The argument would be that if you didn't get the email you wouldn't have the link, so you couldn't register... unless you were collaborating with somebody to defeat the promotion. It's not like they plastered the promotion link all over their front page, it was a link you only knew of it you got the email (or somebody posted it on a forum you read).

I would think it's 50/50 before IBAS at best, and knowing that they ruled Blue Square could exclude people who didn't receive promotional emails from promotions in the past, probably much lower.

I echo the concern that SBR are perhaps not even-handed with books who are unable (by law) to co-operate with their inquiries. Personally I would contend that SBR should pass them off to the proper regulatory authorities and withhold comment until such time as those investigations are complete.

[Salamander]

The argument would be that if you didn't get the email you wouldn't have the link, so you couldn't register... unless you were collaborating with somebody to defeat the promotion. It's not like they plastered the promotion link all over their front page, it was a link you only knew of it you got the email (or somebody posted it on a forum you read).

I would think it's 50/50 before IBAS at best, and knowing that they ruled Blue Square could exclude people who didn't receive promotional emails from promotions in the past, probably much lower.

I echo the concern that SBR are perhaps not even-handed with books who are unable (by law) to co-operate with their inquiries. Personally I would contend that SBR should pass them off to the proper regulatory authorities and withhold comment until such time as those investigations are complete.

Well stated, play there everyday, never saw or heard anything about this promotion.

[Wulfman14]

i never played at betfair but it seems offering to give back 50% of your losses is not something they would offer every customer

[austin]

The argument would be that if you didn't get the email you wouldn't have the link, so you couldn't register... unless you were collaborating with somebody to defeat the promotion. It's not like they plastered the promotion link all over their front page, it was a link you only knew of it you got the email (or somebody posted it on a forum you read).

not exactly, there are many forums where punters share the links to the promotion, so potentially he followed the link uninvited, also it is easy just to forward the promotional email to your pals and claim it was from betfair.
! i am not suggesting anything, just trying to be objective.

[kkkkk]

is this promotion for new customers? if so what is the possibility betfair to send emails to unknown people and they register and get rabate ?

[Santo]

It was for existing customers, and here are the English terms Justin couldn't find: http://promo.betfair.com/wb/int/051010/uktc.html , except it looks like the max cashback for Brits was 30%.

[Santo]

not exactly, there are many forums where punters share the links to the promotion, so potentially he followed the link uninvited, also it is easy just to forward the promotional email to your pals and claim it was from betfair.
! i am not suggesting anything, just trying to be objective.

I think we're making the same point. The only way to get access if you didn't receive the email was by somebody sharing the link, which Betfair would consider conspiring to take advantage of the promotion.

The same happened with Blue Square 2-3 years ago; people took it to IBAS and IBAS ruled they only had to pay those they promoted the offer to directly. There was another case where BlueSq published a link to a promo to all customers on their site, which they claimed was an honest mistake only meant for a select few; in that case they had to pay everyone. On that precedent, Betfair would be on safe territory here.

[peterd78]

every bookmaker runs promotions to specific players and they are the only ones emailed, they are usually people who haven't bet in a while so it's a way to get them back, these promotions are always limited to those people.
If you didn't get the email then it wasn't open to you so tough luck.

[protein]

It was invitation only and not for new customers. Don´t know what was it they used to choose the bettors to give the promotion but am playing there a lot and did not get the invitation.

[Hareeba!]

every bookmaker runs promotions to specific players and they are the only ones emailed, they are usually people who haven't bet in a while so it's a way to get them back, these promotions are always limited to those people.
If you didn't get the email then it wasn't open to you so tough luck.

fair enough, I can accept that but if a player did successfully manage to register for the promotion under his own login I think Betfair should honour the deal.

I know that there areed a number of members who elected not to receive promotional stuff when the first registered with Betfair so the only way the are likely to know about these deals are from friends or forums.

[wrongturn]

Does BetFair really need to give out this kind of promotion? That surprised me. Matchbook, are you listening?

[yisman]

interesting case.
a fantastic offer by EXCHANGE - up to 1000 EUR refund!
it's a pity it has turned against them by this bad press. i think it is exaggerated vastly by SBR, to make poor users of costa rica cowboy shops feel better.
if you got the email, you're entitled to promotion. if not - it's very debatable. at least one ought to know he's taking a risk.

Read the rules.