Hello all!

I’d like to tell you about my problem situation with bookmaker bet365. I’ll be very grateful for your advices, what to do in this situation. Maybe someone has already encountered this problem and succeeded in solving it?

I registered my account in bet365 January 17, 2016. I made a few bets and made a withdrawal. After that my account with a good amount of money was blocked without any explanation from bet365 (January 21, 2016).

When I asked about this situation bet365 in the support chat, they said that my account was suspended and asked to send them:
- photo of my main and alternative document;
- copies of my main and alternative document which needed to also be certified by a notary public.

After I sent them photos, bookmaker asked to provide them:
- unique postal verification code.
Bet365 said that they sent this document – PVC (postal verification code) – when I made my account (please remember – I made it January 17, 2015). For now I didn’t receive any letter from them. I asked bet365, when exactly they sent a letter, any proof of sending, a name of the post service, a tracking number – anything. They didn’t tell me any information – sometimes they pretended that they didn’t understand my question (as an answer, they sent me their post address, I don’t know why), sometimes they said that they already sent me another letter. As an alternative, I offered to provide a certificate from police about my address – and received this answer from bet365:
“Unfortunately the documentation that you have suggested will not be sufficient in the verification of your account.”
Copies of my main and alternative document which needed to also be certified by a notary public were sent via DHL. I specially chosen this expensive post service, because I wanted to be sure that my documents will be delivered. DHL confirmed that all the documents were received by the employee of bet365 Mr. J. Brereton February 08, 2016 to Bet365 – this information is displayed on official site of DHL, and also I personally called to DHL – they also confirmed the delivery. I didn’t receive any information from Bet365 about the delivery, so I contacted them February 20, 2016 with this question. From this date Bet365 started to tell that they didn’t receive any documents – even when I sent them a screenshot from official site of DHL + DHL receipt with tracking number.

Bet365 denied the delivery from February 20, 2016 till April 19, 2016 (!!!), when I sent them DHL PoD (Proof of delivery). After about 5 hours (!!!) I received an answer from Bet365:
”Dear Mr XXXXXXX,

Thank you for your email in regards to your account.

I have reviewed this for you, and I can see that you have now provided all requested documents to us.

However, before we can proceed we will also need you to confirm the PVC code that would have been sent in a letter to you when you activated the account. This would have been sent to your registered address, and you should have received this within 28 days of your account being active.

Once you have confirmed this, we can then advise you further on your account.”
As you can see,
- bet365 accepted my deposit, accepted my bets;
- bet365 blocked my account as soon as I wanted to make a withdrawal;
- bet365 pretended that they didn’t receive my documents as long as I did not provide a conclusive evidence;
- bet365 required to provide a letter which “was sent” to me, at the same time they can’t provide any evidence that they ever sent this letter, and they rejected any alternative ways to confirm my address.

I think you will agree that this behavior of the bookmaker may indicate only one – this bookmaker doesn’t plan to pay me.

Please advise, what can I do in this situation? I already sent complaints to IBAS, Gibraltar government, UK gambling commission, European Commission’s online dispute resolution. Thank you all in advance!

I would continue to contact them directly again by phone, email, and fax if need be.
All of their contact info is easily found on the site.

They've got your money that belongs to you and they need to give you a way to complete the PVC requirement. What they are doing to you does not seem reasonable.

I use Bet365 and the PVC step was very simple.

Good luck.

Surely they must be able to send you a new postal verification code?

Also, why did you need to send all that stuff with DHL, wouldn't they accept scans and/or photos?

They said that they already sent me another PVC - but if I didn't receive it earlier, where is a guarantee that I will receive it this time? Moreover, I can't even check if they really send something - they don't provide any information about it.

About DHL - they asked to send it them:

"For you to proceed with the account, we will need you to in a form of
face ID with a photo of the Id with your face next to it. Also,
you will need to send another form of face ID with that, and
both need to be signed by a notary public.
These need to be sent via post mail.

Please send this to the below address:
Customer Services, bet365
Hillside, Festival Way
StokeonTrent
Staffordshire
ST1 5SH
England"

Wow that sucks. I've only had good expercienses with them but this is not a good look for them.

Hope everything gets sorted out. GL

They've been doing this for the past several months. It's pathetic that they are abusing KYC regulations to create unnecessary hassle for winners, delaying huge payment for months. Post about it on their twitter and facebook and create a thread at SBR.

https://www.facebook.com/bet365/
https://twitter.com/bet365

They also seem to fear threats of legal action based on reports I've heard. That tends to get them in line.

I have recently heard that threatening to post in public forums and causing a stir in general gets them in line also. I was a little worried as I recently had a big score and had my account limited and "under review". But I have just cashed out the full amount and so far so good. Although won't land in my account for another few days yet.

I do have a friend of a friend who sports bets for a living and I did get a message through to him that I was concerned about getting my money of bet365. The message I got back through a friend was that I will most likely have no problem and if I do he knew of a public forum or something or rather which outed them and seemed to sort them out pretty quickly. I did not press for any more info cause they guy is a busy man and I was happy getting than info alone, but if you get desperate let me know and I could ask for him to clarify exactly what he meant.

Keep us posted and good luck.

I'll be very grateful if you could ask your friend about this forum

I have tried to get a message through to the friend of the friend but heard nothing back yet I will post here if I do hear anything.

I had all my withdrawals land in my account today with no issues.

I know it's a pain in the ass but I would try to follow the instructions they sent you and hopefully get it sorted that way. From what I have read in forums etc bet365 seem to be pretty straightforward and legit if you can prove your identity etc.

Otherwise try posting on their facebook and twitter like another poster mentioned.

Good luck and keep us posted.

I already talked with guys from SBR - they told that "unfortunately Bet365 will not discuss these KYC related account issues with us", but they gave me some advices, links and email addresses, so I very grateful to them.
IBAS ignores me for a month already, Gambling Comission (UK) declined my complaint because "As previously advised the Commission can only provide information about complaints to customers physically located in Great Britain. Unfortunately we are unable to advise or assist you any further in this matter and now consider the matter closed."
I think I'll try to post my complaint on bet365 twitter and facebook, as you adviced. Thank you for your attention and participation! I'll keep you in touch

You have read wrong.

tl;dr: We won't pay you until we will ask for 15 different items and each time you send something new we'll lose it or it won't be clear enough or we'll make up some other random arbitrary detail that it doesn't satisfy and ask you to send another copy.

lol, try again

lol, bet365 answered in Twitter:
"Hi, our Customer Services team can look into this if you call 01782 684757 or use Live Chat on PC. Thanks."
They think that my collection of their standard useless answers is not full enough

keep trying, get that maney

On a related note

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...share_btn_link