Punter left sore after betting is suspended

A DISGRUNTLED Beechmount punter was left fuming with bookmaker Sean Graham last week after one of the matches he took in his ‘Goalrush’ bet was suspended.

The punter placed £15 on the popular bet on Friday night (March 12) and picked six games in which he thought both teams would score.

He checked his bet on Saturday night and saw that all 12 of his teams had scored – happy days, he thought, a few quid banked for the upcoming festival. Sean Grahams priced the six games at 25/1 and our punter expected a very tasty £390 payday to fill his Cheltenham war-chest.

His missus got the shock of her life when she went in to draw the winnings for him on Monday morning.

She  was told by the settler that there was only £195 off  the docket – around half of what our guy believed he was due. The settler explained that they had suspended ALL betting on the Glenavon v Dungannon game on Friday morning at 10.30am. This meant that the match on the ‘both teams to score’ market was now deemed a non-runner.

We contacted Sean Graham who replied with the following: “On Friday, 12th March at 10.30am a decision was taken to cancel all betting markets on the Irish League match between Glenavon and Dungannon Swifts. The same decision had already been taken by all major betting companies throughout Ireland and the rest of the UK. A message communicating this to customers was displayed on the screens and notices were displayed on the point-of-sale football coupon dispensers in all our shops.

 “At 8.14pm on Friday, 12th March a customer did place the bet you refer to in our Whiterock branch. On Monday, 15th March the customer’s representative returned to collect winnings and she was informed that all betting markets on the Glenavon v Dugannon game had been cancelled the previous Friday at 10.30am, over eight hours before the bet had been placed. The customer was also shown several notices in the shop that were still on display that day and was informed that if she was not happy with our decision then the customer could write to the Independent Betting Arbitration Service (IBAS) and we would abide by their decision. Sean Graham is the only bookmaker that offers the Goalrush bet on all football matches. Other bookmakers offer this bet on selected games only. While we are delighted to be able to offer our customers the opportunity to pick any football match in this bet, there will inevitably be occasions when there is a need to cancel betting on certain events. 

“There was unusual betting activity on the outcome of this particular game and we therefore suspended betting. We were the last firm to respond by suspending the betting markets on this game. We do not wish to alienate any customer when taking important decisions, but we did so well before the game and in a way that was clearly displayed to all our customer.” 

Fair play to Grahams for that comprehensive reply – we’ll leave you to make your own minds up about it all.  

884-1 GOLF DOUBLE

SHORT Strand golfing punter Ed Renick was on fire at the weekend after touching with a near 884/1 double.

Ed placed his usual bet of of a £2.50 each-way double.

He took Rhys Davies to win in Morocco and the young Welshman won by two shots to claim the Hassan Trophy at rewarding odds of 33/1.

He was waiting on former world number two Jim Furyk  in the Transitions Championship and he got home by one shot from Korean KJ Choi in Florida at odds of 25/1 to secure Ed’s fantastic double.

He woke up to a £2,600 payday on Monday – a great piece of picking by Ed.