Bookies refuses to payout on £15,000 winning World Cup bet and offers £660 instead
One lucky punter thought he'd scored a win of almost £15,000 after putting £10 on a series of World Cup bets, but one of the biggest bookies in Britain hasn't paid out.
When gambling the aim is always to win big with the dream bet, though the risk of losing a fortune is ever-present too, but it must be so frustrating to actually win your bet and not get the money.
Liam Manifold, from Tutbury, Staffordshire, had already figured out how he'd want to spend the cash.
However, plans to buy his dad a new mobility scooter and putting some of it away for a rainy day were scuppered when major bookies Coral said he wouldn't be getting that much.
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The 30-year-old placed £10 on a series of bets on 11 November predicting that Argentina would win the World Cup, 2018 winners France would also make the final and Lionel Messi would be crowned player of the tournament.
Given odds of 1,495/1 on all of those things happening together, the football fan must have felt pretty chuffed when he rushed back to the bookies after the World Cup final to claim his winnings, only to be met with disappointment.
Expecting to walk away with almost £15,000 burning a hole in his pocket, Liam instead left without his thousands in winnings.
He said Coral instead offered him £660, which the bookies said in a statement was a 'very fair and generous offer for the settlement of the bet'.
However, Liam believes they should pay out since he was able to put the bet on in the first place, saying £15,000 is 'pennies' for one of the nation's biggest bookies but a 'life changing' sum for him.
He said: "I went to cash in the bet and they said it shouldn't have been placed and offered me £660 for it. I've gone through their complaints system, there's no leeway.
"I've gone to an independent complaints committee and I'm waiting to hear back from them. I've since had different companies contact me saying if that was their company, they'd pay out.
"When I placed the bet the guy behind the counter said it was absolutely fine. They're now saying it's a related bet.
"It's now two weeks after the final and I don't seem to be getting anywhere. If there's an error it's their fault for accepting the bet. It's very frustrating."
Coral said the prices on the betting slip had been 'written on by the customer not the member of staff' and claimed the £660 they are offering 'exceeds what would have been the odds of such an eventuality had a customer asked for rush specific treble on November 11'.
A spokesman for Coral said: "These three events are all closely related to each other so the prices that were offered on them individually can't be included in a multiple bet.
"If Argentina and France have made the final, then the odds of Argentina winning it are clearly much shorter than they were at the outset. If Argentina have then won the World Cup, the chances of Messi being player of the tournament will be long odds-on."
The bookies explained their reasoning and said they'd offered to settle Liam's bet in the 'fairest way possible', saying they were offering an 'over generous' price.
They said: "Paying out on the event with the biggest price, an Argentina v France final, at 22/1, and then on the basis that that had happened, we applied the price of Argentina winning the final which was 10/11 before the game, and then on the basis that Argentina had won the cup, we applied an over generous price on Messi to be player of the tournament at 1/2, as the odds on that happening should Argentina have won the World Cup would have been much shorter."
Joe Harker