A thought came to me the other day. In isolation, like they always do. The TV age is well and truly over. Now we have “The information age”, or as how I’d like to think of it - “The Internet age”.
Once the internet became dumbed down enough for people like me to use I welcomed it with open arms. An alladin’s cave of porn, music, and answers to annoying drunken questions like “what was the name of that bloke who hosted Trigger Happy TV?” was at my fingertips. One thing led to another and one of life’s addictions followed me into cyber-space - gambling. Unfortunately my embrace of the new medium turned into unwarranted sexual relations between an online bookmaker and my posteria.
“A punter’s worst nightmare” by Anothermugpunter.
In a forum, far, far from here at a time when people we’re backing Everton for relegation and Wycombe for Division 2, another mug punter was trying to make his way in the cyberworld of snakes and ladders. A young pretender by the name of “non-league”, swaggered into the cyber lounge full of brashness and contempt. He put his feet up on the coffee table and he didn’t take his shoes off.
His tips were very good and I subsequently chatted with him on MSN messenger. He shared with me how he got his information and the strengths and weaknesses of various leagues competing in the FA cup qualifying rounds. For this I was indebted. However, as I’m sure many people remember he didn’t play well with others and threw a tantrum when things didn’t go his way. He was promptly shown the door and for good reasons too.
Before he chose to sever contact with me he put me onto a website, then called “Fairoptions”. This site was new and a niche player. It was an exchange which priced up the earlier rounds of the FA cup and FA trophy. The more established bookmakers like
Bet365 and
Stan James waited until the Conf S / N teams entered the competition before offering prices. This meant that to my knowledge Fairoptions was the only book on the net. No guideline prices existed so with a bit of research you could get some good prices.
Looking at the other areas of the site I came across some good bets in the pro-leagues. Namely Wolves to finish above Coventry at 6.0. Now, I knew that FO was a deposit only site and I had some reservations. However, Nonleague said that he had received several cheques off of their director Clive Reams and that they were advertised on non-leaguedaiy.com. In subsequent weeks I saw a photo of a beaming punter on that site with a cheque from fair options. Also they had a special offer. They would double the odds of your first bet. So I was in and on Wolves.
The first time alarm bells started ringing was about three months later. The website moved without any warning to it’s members. All that was left was a link to a new site and a new company “TheSoccerExchange”. It took a couple of weeks for me to actually have access to my account and another two weeks before I saw my bets there. Que heart palpitations. Digging around the site I was looking for something to re-assure me. Straws to clutch. I found paragraphs such as:
“The Soccer Exchange website ensures that no bet can be placed that cannot be honoured as all bet stakes and liabilities are held in a separate clients account.”
Also they carried a link to the Independent Bookies Arbitration Service (IBAS). All of this calmed me for the time being.
As the season progressed I managed to take several commanding positions in a couple of leagues. I knew that I was due a big payout at the end of the season (over 2k). Due to laying a few bets off I had $100 in my account at the beginning of March. I decided to test the waters and make a withdrawl.
Two weeks later I hadn’t received the cheque so I called their office. I didn’t even get an answer machine, the phone just rang. So I decided to email Mr. Reams to find out what was going on. The official email address on the site had been returning mails all season so I was using his old Fair Options address. He replied that he’d been away and the emails had “disappeared into the ether”. He said he’d send the cheque that day. A month later and the cheque still hadn’t arrived. Fortunately I was in Thailand for an underserved break so the rare times that the situation came to mind I was able to numb the pain with cheap rum and other distractions.
So now it’s been some ten weeks since I iniaited the withdrawl and Mum’s the word. My bet’s also haven’t been settled in full yet.Using the medium which tempted me in the first place I posted looking for other customers / marks. A couple of very helpful guys have been in contact with me the last few days saying that there’s at least four of us in the same boat. One of them was told by Mr. Reams that a firewall stopped him from accessing the account and issuing the cheque! He also told me that the web host’s haven’t been paid also.
This story hasn’t reached a conclusion yet. My contact believes that we have a justifiable case for going to the police as the company has kept both sides of the bets. If anybody out there in cyberspace has any opinion on the validity of this assertion, please let me know.
So what have I learnt? Well certainly that oft overused maxim “if it’s too good to be true it probably is” springs to mind. At this point of time just getting my stake money back would improve my financial situation considerably. I think that punting’s a risky business as it is without worrying about the risk of actually being paid out. I’ll certainly be sticking with the “big boys” in the future. It’s less stressful.
AMP