Betfred must pay blackjack player £1.7m after “software glitch”

The High Court in London has ordered Betfred to pay a UK blackjack player £1.7m in winnings that it withheld claiming they were caused by a software glitch.

UK.- The gaming giant Betfred will have to pay a Lincolnshire blackjack player £1.7m in winnings that the betting site withheld because of a software problem, the High Court of England and Wales has ruled.

The case started in January 2018 when Andrew Green, 54, won the jackpot playing Frankie Dettori’s Magic Seven, a blackjack app.

According to Green’s lawsuit, Betfred refused to pay his winnings, arguing that there had been a software error. Instead, the company offered to pay Green £60,000 by way of an apology.

Green refused to accept that, and in April 2019 he filed a lawsuit to cover his winnings plus interest.

This week, the High Court found that Betfred must meet its contractual obligations and that the company’s terms and conditions, said to be 49 pages long, were insufficient to dissolve that commitment.

High Court judge Mrs Justice Foster said: “I am of the clear view that these clauses in the terms and conditions are inadequate to exempt Betfred from the obligation to pay out on an ostensibly winning bet or series of bets.”