Nigerian betting company, Bet9ja, is courting troubles with the House of Representatives over its refusal to pay over N42.153 million won by four people who played its games.
Thegazellenews.com had exclusively reported earlier how the betting company refused to pay the quartet of: Peter Ayomide, Sobanke Samuel, Akinwusi Funsho and Okunade Toluwalope their winnings totalling over N42 million.
This medium reported that the quartet played the following coupon/bet slips: B926APZAAQWAA – 1143424 with N100; B918APZATPTTC – 1143424 with N100; B90APZATRRST – 98000 with N100; and B92A4ATCTQS – 98000 with N200.
The games were played on Saturday, January 9th, 2016 at 17:19, 17:28, 17:44 and 17:45 hours respectibely.
Thegazellenews.com also reported each of the aforementioned coupon/slips won: N2,193,501.94k; N2,193,501.94k; N12,588,793.72k; and N25,177,587.44k respectively all totalling N42,153,385.04k.
Thegazellenews.com reported further that Bet9ja announced the winnings on its database between 12 midnight and 1am of Sunday, January 10th, 2016 only to fraudulently recalled the winnings hours later.
Efforts to get the betting company redeem the winnings by the winners were rebuffed by the company leading to the quarter’s lawyers, Emawodia & Attorneys, Legal Practitioners & Arbitrators to write to the company on Friday, January 22nd, 2016 on the need to pay the winnings. It took Bet9ja one whole month to respond stating why it could not and would not pay the winnings.
The betting company told the winners through their lawyers that:
“The game in which your clients placed a bet on the 9th of January, 2016 at about 17:19pm, 17:28pm, 17:44pm and 17:45pm had already been played earlier that same day at about 16:00pm. The kind of bet placed by your Clients is called “Anytime Scorer” which means first to score. Therefore, as at the time your Clients placed their bet, they already knew the scores and names of scorers”.
Bet9ja explained further that haven contravened one of its cardinal rules under Clause X111 termed “Palpable Errors” which means
“Whenever a bet has been ERRONEOUSLY accepted on a market which SHOULD HAVE BEEN REMOVED, such a bet is outrightly cancelled.
Thegazellenews.com reported that in its correpondence with the winners’ lawyers, Bet9ja admitted error as highlighted above and in the statement below:
“You would agree with us that the bets placed by your clients on the particular game whose results are already known and EVEN IF WRONGLY ALLOWED TO BE PLACED ON OUR NETWORK IS A MISTAKE.
Those were the reasons the betting company claimed why it could not pay the winnings but the company put itself in more dilemma with these explanations.
In the first instance, having admitted mistake in allowing the bets to be played, is the company now saying the winners should bear responsibilities of the mistake it committed and they had no hand in?
Did Bet9ja not aware of this Palpable Errors before going on to announce the winnings on its database?
And of course, Bet9ja needs to explain why its portal remains opened when the game on which bet is placed is still going on. All over the world, the rule is that when games on which bet are placed are being played, betting companies closed their portals and don’t allow fresh bets to be placed. So Bet9ja needs to explain why its portal remains opened during the duration of the game in which bets have been placed.
Thegazellenews.com can now revealed that the winners’ lawyers have taken the matter to the House of Representatives. A letter dated June 20th, 2017 detailing the facts of the case was forwarded to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara who in turn assigned the matter to the House Committee on Public Petitions headed by Honourable Uzoma Nlem-Abonta, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker representing Ukwa East/Ukwa West Federal Constituency of Abia State for necessary action.
Thegazellenews.com can also revealed that the committee invited both the winners represented by their lawyers and Bet9ja to appear before it on Wednesday, July 26th, 2017 at 2pm at the House of Representatives Room 429 for hearing and consideration.
The invitation letter sighted by thegazellenews.com warned that:
AND FURTHER TAKE NOTICE THAT IF YOU OR YOUR LEGAL PRACTITIONER OR AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE DO NOT ATTEND THE HEARING AS REQUIRED, THE CASE CASE BE HEARD OR DETERMINED IN YOUR ABSENCE.
On the day of the sitting, the case was number nine on the list of 21 cases listed for hearing that day and when it was called Kayode Oyemakinde of Emawodia & Attorneys appeared for the complainants while there was no official, representative or legal practitioner to appear on behalf of Bet9ja.
The committee members, thegazellenews.com learnt, were not happy with the betting company for not taking their invitation serious.
Thegazellenews.com further learnt that while adjourning the matter to September 27th, 2017 for further hearing, the committee warned the betting company that if it failed to appear and defend itself, then the matter may be decided in its absence and one of the likely penalties will be to close it down.
Copyright: thegazellenews.com
