GH₵350,000 "winners" bet on already played match - Supabets
The Managing Director of betting company Supabets Ghana Limited, Eric Oppong Yeboah says patrons who besieged their Madina offices to demand their winnings sought to illegally stampede the company into paying-out bets totalling GH₵350,000 on matches that were played before the bets were placed.
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According to him, the misunderstanding occurred after a match scheduled to be played in Brazil at a later date was played earlier which allowed the irate punters to still place their bets on the Supabet portal although the results of the match had already been declared.
"What happened was that we had an incident that a match that was fixed to be played in our system was played earlier, the outcome became known and several of these punters took advantage to place bets already knowing the results of the match," Mr Yeboah told GraphicOnline in an interview on Wednesday.
"That defeats the whole outcome of betting if you already know the outcome of matches it is not gaming. It does happen and what they are saying it is still in our system and when they win we have to pay.
"...The rules and regulations the world over state that when it does happen we shall not pay all we do is that we pay you the original stake and this is posted on our website and in our offices and the bet slip says all bets are subject to our rules and regulations."
He said bettors who take advantage of such scheduling loopholes to place bets on already played matches are fraudsters who set out to cheat the system.
He said his outfit explained to the bettors what had happened but the angry young men declined and shut down the Madina offices of the company from Monday till the Police were called in to settle the situation.
Mr Yeboah also advised all bettors to be abreast of the rules of sports betting and to channel their grievances through the right channel instead of taking the laws into their own hands.
The disagreement resulted in the staff and management of the Supabet Madina branch being locked outside their building following a misunderstanding with irate gamblers who claim they have been fleeced off GH₵350,000 in winnings by the betting company.
One of the men protesting the non-payment of winnings said on Friday, October 13, they placed some bets which turned out to be correct.
“We won the game and the manager said he would not pay. He said the game was “azaa” and 419,” Mohammed Iddris told Citifmonline in an interview.
But Mohammed Iddris maintained that the mistake was from Supabet, and not any antics from the winners, thus their demand for the money.
“Yesterday [Monday], we came that they should pay us our money, and we [threw] all their staff outside so they went to call the police at Madina police station.”
“They brought a lot of policemen because we closed the office down and said if they don’t pay us, nobody will operate there.”
Mohammed Iddris also alleged that the police even threatened to shoot him and assaulted him and his brother” and stressed that Supabet “must pay us that money or this office will not be open.”
