Hi Jasper,
Any comments on the recent events during Cheltenham that have left BlueSquare looking completely untrustworthy, and a brand that I wouldn’t want to promote?
For anyone who hasn’t heard about this, here is a quick recap:
BlueSquare sportsbook ran a promotion for the Chetenham horseracing festival(UK). This offer was posted for everyone to see on the RacingUK website, and was ‘live’ on the BlueSquare website. These were the terms:
Open an account and place a win single bet of up to £100 (or currency equivalent). Blue Square will then credit your account with a matched betting token up to £100. On subsequent festival days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) we will match your first bet on Cheltenham races up to £50. Token values are not included in any bet returns – Tokens expires after each racing day- Offer limited to one per person, per household.
1. Offer applies to new customers only, existing Blue Square customers do not qualify.
2. Qualifying bets must each staked at odds of evens or greater
3. Non-runners do not qualify as bets
4. Free bet stake not included in any returns
5. Free Bet Tokens must be used in their entirety. They cannot be used to place a succession of smaller bets.
6. Free betting token bets must be used as singles only and expire after the end of each days racing. 1. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other newspaper’s free bet offer.
7.Free Bet Tokens cannot be used to place bets on numbers games, lotteries or pools (including Tote and US horse racing).
8. Offer Limited to one person, per household.
9. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other open account offer..
10. Blue Square offers are intended for recreational players and Blue Square may limit the eligibility of customers to participate in any promotion..
11. Free Bet Tokens must be used in accordance with Blue Square’s general terms and conditions
12. This offer is only valid for customers in the following countries:
Canada, Finland, France, New Zealand, Russia, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Sweden and Ireland.
During the festival week, BlueSquare realised that a fair few people were signing up for this offer. So, they pulled the offer. And voided everyones bets that had been placed (even those that had already settled as winners). I don’t just mean ‘free’ bets either – they voided bets placed with customers own money for signing up through the link.
They had originally intended that this was for RacingUK subscribers (a racing-dedicated TV channel) – but made no mention of this in the terms, meaning that anyone who stumbled upon the link (being promoted on the public area of the racinguk website) would see the offer and presume that they were eligible. In fact, some customers even contacted cs to confirm eligibility – and still had their bets voided for not being subscribers.
I could woffle on about this for ages, with plenty more details – but would like to give Jasper a chance to reply.