An ambitious punter has gone to war with gambling giants Coral after claiming he was short changed out of more than £14,000.
Liam Manifold, 30, from Staffordshire placed a bet on a series of outcomes at the recent World Cup - which culminated in Argentina beating France on penalties. And while Lionel Messi was in dreamland over in Qatar, Mr Manifold was similarly in clover.
However, when he rushed to collect his winnings - which he was under the impression would be just shy of £15,000 - he was informed his bet wouldn’t stand at the odds. And the gutted Maintenance Engineer couldn’t have too much to moan about, after combining bets in a treble which were almost intrinsically linked.
Mr Manifold placed what he thought was a 1495/1 on treble on Argentina winning the World Cup (11/2), Messi being given Player of the Tournament (9/1) and La Albiceleste meeting France in the final at 22/1.
What Mr Manifold hadn’t accounted for was the fact the three selections were so closely related that had any of them happened, it would drastically increase the chances of the others coming in.
With that in mind, Coral opted to pay-out the bet at recalculated odds of around 65/1. A Coral spokesperson explained in helpful detail to both Mr Manifold and others crafting their ‘cheeky acca’ about what is meant by the term ‘interrelated selections’.
On this occasion had Argentina and France made the final, as the bet had predicted, then the chances of the former lifting the trophy would be significantly shorter than at the tournament’s outset.
And in the event that Argentina did lift their third title, it would be an almost inevitability that the iconic Messi would win the individual prize as well. Due to that, Coral decided to pay that at reduced odds which honoured the price of picking the correct finalists, combined with Argentina’s price for winning the final at that point.
They then added what is described as an “over-generous price on Messi to be player of the tournament at 1/2“ to create the new price. Coral also stated to the Daily Mail that “the prices on the slip had been written on by the customer, not the member of staff.
“We have settled the bet in line with our terms and conditions, and we have made a very fair and generous offer for the settlement of the bet that exceeds what would have been the odds of such an eventuality had a customer asked for rush specific treble on December 11.”
Mr Manifold isn’t taking what he perceives as an injustice lying down though and suggested that his original bet should be honoured considering it was a mistake on their end and not his.
He said in response to the offer: “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.
“Just under £15,000 for a big betting company is pennies for them, but for me it's a life-changing amount of money. My dad's disabled so I was going to buy him a new disability scooter and keep the rest in savings.”
Bookmakers do reserve the right to refuse payment of a winning bet in a number of situations, including - as this case shows - was accepted in error or at the incorrect price.
