The online gambling company Bet365 has been flooded with complaints after it suffered an outage during one of the busiest nights of European football this season.
Customers claimed to have lost out on thousands of pounds owing to what the company called “issues with our service” during the second half of Wednesday night’s 18 Champions League games.
The outage could prove particularly embarrassing for Bet365, run by the multi-billionaire Denise Coates, because the Stoke-based company is an official sponsor of the Champions League – club football’s most prestigious competition.
Customers were apparently unable to “cash out”, an option that is in effect a compromise between bettors and the company on an open bet.
Cashing out allows bettors to settle a wager before the final whistle for a smaller prize than they would get if the result stayed the same until the end of the match. This guarantees a return for the customer, but means the operator does not have to pay out as much as it would if the score remained unchanged.
For gamblers, this option can be particularly attractive on “accumulator” bets, where money is staked on the score in multiple games, meaning outcomes can change rapidly from a large payout to nothing at all.
Bet365’s technical problem meant customers seeking to cash out while the result was favourable to them were unable to do so. Many customers said results had swung against them by the time the issues were fixed, meaning they missed out on winnings through no fault of their own. It is also possible that some customers won more than they would have done, had they cashed out early.
Dozens of users on social media platforms such as Bluesky and X vented their fury at missing out. One Bluesky user said: “They [Bet365] should be forced to return every single penny that has been bet on tonight’s games. This is disgusting man.”
Matt Zarb-Cousin, the director of Clean Up Gambling, said: “If we had effective consumer protection regulation, as well as a gambling ombudsman like the government promised ages ago, then all bets would be settled as a cash-out at the point Bet365’s website crashed.”
The Guardian has approached Bet365 for comment.
The company told customers it was “experiencing issues with our services and our technical team are working to resolve this as soon as possible” at about 10pm on Wednesday night.
The outage appears to have started midway through the second half, a particularly busy time for cashing out bets as the clock ticks down to the final result. About an hour later Bet365 said “services are now resolved” and apologised for any inconvenience.
