An online sports betting platform in Nigeria, SportyBet, has been accused of deploying different tactics in order not to pay 114 customers, their winnings.
The company is faced with intense criticism over its refusal to pay these customer winnings totaling N960,550,000 (nine hundred and sixty million, five hundred and fifty thousand naira).
Investigations show that SportyBet had cited “foreign interference” and “fake odds,” as reasons to withholds some users’ winnings.
Meanwhile, the online betting company had said it is collaborating with ‘regulators and law enforcement agencies as well as increased its investment in technology to tackle cyberattacks’ in the gaming industry.
SportyBet said that it took those steps following claims of ‘unpaid winnings’.
“Relating to 42 accounts that were restricted from further activity after having been identified and verified as being simultaneously abusively operated using bot technology by an international cybercrime syndicate, it is important to note that all 42 accounts are associated with the exact same foreign IP addresses and that the accounts repeatedly attempted to submit similar or identical illegal automated bets with fake odds that were not published by SportyBet,” it explained.
However, IT, betting, and cybersecurity experts have dismissed this claim as unfounded, according to this ThisDay report.
The experts say SportyBet’s statement is to deflect blame following media reports of deliberate account restrictions and unexplainably withholding winnings from customers.
For instance, a cybersecurity expert at Amazon, Micheal, pointed out that SportyBet’s use of Cloudflare makes it impossible for third parties to create fake odds.
“From my observation, the betting operator uses Cloudflare. Cloudflare protects websites from man-in-the-middle attacks. It prevents third parties from putting unauthorized content into your website– which in this case would be creating fake odds as they have claimed. But since Sportybet uses Cloudflare, it is impossible.”
A 15-year iGaming and Sportsbook veteran Artem, stated that it’s impossible for any syndicate to feed fake odds into the system.
He said: “Honestly I can’t imagine how any syndicate could do that in general. The odds are being provided by huge international sportsbook providers, most of them have people monitoring the security and fixed games round the clock. But even then the people don’t have any influence on what’s coming from the provider, so it’s impossible for anyone to feed “fake odds” into the system and even attempting that wouldn’t help much in my opinion.”
“Reading the response, I think the possibility of an external entity creating fake odds in the sportybet platform is very very low. Very low.”
Also sharing his view, An IT professional with over 12 years of experience, Franklin Ugwu said the possibility of an external entity creating fake odds on the SportyBet platform is “very, very low.”
“It is impossible for anyone to create odds on their platform without having the password or access to the backend. Unless the operator is claiming collusion with members of its own team, it’s just a very unlikely event and in fact– it is impossible since the Sportybet employees themselves don’t even have access to the odds as they come from big international suppliers through API connections and any attempt to alter that would have logs that would show any infringement.”
Techeconomy can report that the 114 SportyBet customer have mandated a Lagos-based lawyer, Kunle Bamidele of Prolex Solicitors, to file petitions with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); Special Fraud Unit; Police Force Intelligence and Investigation Department; Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) and others.
Bamidele confirmed to Techeconomy that the 114 customers of the online sports betting platform, SportyBet, who were refused payment of their winnings totaling over N960,550,000 and access their accounts, have taken strong action in response to the company’s claims of fraudulent activity.
“Yes, I can tell you that, unhappy with SportyBet’s explanation for withholding winnings, the group of affected customers have mandated our law firm to file petitions with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU), the Force Intelligence and Investigation Department (FIID), the National Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC).
“Recall that SportyBet previously attempted to justify their actions by alleging the customers used ‘bot technology’ and ‘illegal automated bets.’ However, independent information technology experts have debunked these claims, raising questions about the legitimacy of SportyBet’s defense. Could it be that the operators of SportyBet are engaged in money laundering because from our investigations, they are not even Nigerians”, he said.
“The actions of SportyBet suggest the customers may have been unfairly denied their winnings.
“By seeking intervention from relevant authorities, the customers hope for a thorough investigation and a fair resolution”.
Bamidele reiterated that the involvement of the EFCC and the Police Special Fraud Unit highlights the seriousness of the situation.
“These organizations specialise in tackling financial crimes and fraud. Their involvement suggests a deeper look into SportyBet’s practices may be necessary.
“We are also alerting the INTERPOL to be on the watch out. Nigeria is a country that frowns at maltreatment of its citizens and financial crimes are very serious offense that must be stopped”, he said.
He said that the customers deserve clear explanations and transparency from SportyBet.
The lawyer said he believes the law enforcement and consumer protection agencies will see to it that SportyBet pays up the customers, otherwise they (customers) might resort to take court actions against the betting firm.
