Mum refused £1 million William Hill jackpot payout to receive thousands from rival betting firm
The boss of an online betting firm has offered to hand over tens of thousands to the woman who claims William Hill are refusing to pay out her seven-figure cash prize.
Claire Ainsley might soon be quids in after all - however, the amount she is set to receive will be missing a few zeros off the end of what she expected.
In wake of her row with William Hill going viral, the single mum-of-two has received a very generous offer from another online gambling site - and she told LADbible she intends to accept it.
Claire has now shared some further insight into her £1million plight, explaining she has been left 'gutted' after the Brit bookies told her she didn't actually win the huge sum.
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She had a go on the Jackpot Drop game on the William Hill betting app and recalled how she put £14 on the line before then putting 'a £1 spin on'.
The former adult care worker told LADbible: "It was just a random day. I can't go out because I've got no one to look after the kids, so I thought, why not give it a try?
"The kids have got everything - food, clothes, school stuff - it was something to just make me feel normal," Claire said.
"The jackpot dropped down and it stopped at the amount which I had won. I couldn’t believe it at first. I’m still thinking 'wow' now."
She explained that as she simply could not believe her eyes when the £1,279,019.95 jackpot appeared on screen, she 'went off the game three times' to check it wasn't some kind of malfunction.
But the staggering number remained there when she returned - and Claire believed the windfall must have been something of a 'gift' from her late mother, who passed away three years ago.
"I was saying ‘Thank you mum, this is like a gift from you’," Claire continued. "I’ve got two little ones - I thought I could sort them out, get the money and put it into savings accounts for them."
According to Claire, she confirmed the win with William Hill via its online chat tool and she says she has 'screenshots' of this entire conversation.
So inevitably, she was left 'gutted' after she was unable to withdraw her hefty prize from her online betting account. Following this, William Hill then informed her that she would not be receiving the money.
William Hill previously told LADbible that the accounts of a number of users were 'erroneously credited' due to a technical glitch.
"During a routine review of platform activity, we identified an issue affecting the Jackpot Drop game which temporarily resulted in incorrect sums being credited to players’ balances and withdrawals being processed incorrectly," a spokesperson for Evoke, which owns William Hill, said in a statement.
"Whilst we quickly identified and resolved this issue, for a short period of time funds were erroneously credited to some customer accounts that were not correctly generated through valid or properly functioning gameplay.
"We have contacted relevant customers to clarify the issue, and are in the process of retrieving the funds in line with our standard terms and conditions.
"We have been grateful for our customers’ understanding on this matter and apologise for the inconvenience caused."
After appearing on Good Morning Britain to share her story, Claire says she is still 'stressing out about what to do next' - but explained she intends to 'take it further' with the online betting firm.
Revealing what the ideal outcome would be for her, the mum said: "I don’t even want it all – I just want some of it. Now, it’s not about the money anymore. It was, at first. But now it’s more to get [this story] out there.
"If people want to have a go on a game with William Hill, this might happen again. It might keep happening and they’re constantly getting money out of people. It’s so frustrating."
She's not the only one who isn't impressed with William Hill's handling of the situation either, as the CEO of MetaWin reckons the saga is 'absolutely shameful'.
After getting wind of Claire's story, the businessman behind the cryptocurrency-based online casino publicly offered to ease some of the single mother's financial stress.
In a post shared on X, Richard Skelhorn wrote: "Absolutely shameful from William Hill. Claire, DM me your details. I’ll send you £50,000 from @MetaWin today."
Claire has since confirmed that she has been in cahoots with Skelhorn in regards to the cash and told LADbible that he has promised to 'send it over' to her.
Although she is a 'bit wary' due to her recent issues with betting firms, she said she has decided to put her trust in the entrepreneur - while joking that she has nothing to lose anyway.
Claire confessed that her ordeal with William Hill has 'definitely' put her off having a flutter in the future, as she explained: "I think [gambling] is all a scam now. 100 percent.
"I’m not a gambling person and the one time I thought I’d won that much money and then, now this! The stress…I swear I’ve only had a couple hours of sleep."
The mum said she is now waiting for a response from William Hill and will then work out her next steps.
LADbible has contacted William Hill and MetaWin for further comment.
Olivia Burke