In reply to the question: this promotion (which occurred when I was on holiday) was mailed out to Racing UK subscribers as a direct mail, not promoted online at all anywhere.
The problem occured when one of the recipients of the offer posted about it on a popular money saving website in the UK which caused an influx of people intending to abuse the free bet offer.
Because of this the decision was taken to pull the offer and void bets placed and refund the stakes.
We explained the situation to the Alderney Gambling Commission (where we are licensed) and they were satisfied with our answer. This was in reponse to customer complaints to them.
Lastly: this is completely off topic so in future can you start a new thread for things like this?
Cheers,