Betway - refusing start up bonus / free bet

[8burnleymik8]

Hi guys,

deposited and wagered the £25 bet to get the free £25 SNR bet. I met all the T+C requirements, but they decided to just not give me the bonus. Luckily I bust-out of there so I don;t have the hassle of trying to withdraw, but I think people should know what they are like.

Also their T+C's are pretty laughable, as you will see from my conversation with support:

Camille @ 16:50
Hi, I'm Camille. How can I help you?
MICHAEL @ 16:51
Hi camilla, When I signed up to the sportsbetting it said that when I deposited and wagered £25 I would get a free £25 bet as soon as my first bet was settled
MICHAEL @ 16:51
but, it doesn;t seem to have happened yet. Please could you help me.
MICHAEL @ 16:54
hello Camille, are you still there?
Camille @ 16:55
Yes I am here one moment please.
MICHAEL @ 16:55
ok. thanks
Camille @ 16:55
I am sorry Michael the promotion has expired I thus cannot do anything.
MICHAEL @ 16:55
Sorry? It is on the home page??
MICHAEL @ 16:56
Play Online Casino Games, Bet on Live Sports and join Poker Tournaments - Betway - it's right there on your homepage
Camille @ 16:56
I am sorry but according to our terms and conditions: “Betway reserves the right to lower the bonus on offer or exclude any player from participating in any bonus, promotion or freebet at any time, for any reason whatsoever.”

MICHAEL @ 16:57
OMG wow.
MICHAEL @ 16:57
that is absolutely horrible
MICHAEL @ 16:57
what a terrible way to treat a customer
Camille @ 16:58
I am really sorry Michael but I cannot do anything.

Avoid.

[Landprofits]

Withdraws seem to be OK from Betway to be honest, but they are known to be a bit arsy with their bonus. If there is an issue, they will subtract the bonus and any winnings generated by it from your withdrawal.

If you're unsure, probably an idea to mug the freebie here rather than match it.

[8burnleymik8]

You likely won;t get the freebie (as they can decide not to give it to you for any reason whatsoever, like the sky is grey etc ), so is it not just best to avoid altogether?

[Landprofits]

You likely won;t get the freebie (as they can decide not to give it to you for any reason whatsoever, like the sky is grey etc ), so is it not just best to avoid altogether?

I guess it depends on your attitude to risk and how comfortable you are putting your money in a book regulated my the LGA. There are a lot worse than Betway out there.

There are countless ways to play these things, my suggestion above was based on the fact that you would only have a small loss/no loss/arb on the qualifying bet, if it wins you shouldn't have any problems withdrawing the winnings, if there are any issues with the free bet they have been known to void the winnings retrospectively which means you will have lost money wherever you're matching (if the free bet wins that is). If you mug the free bet you're risking nothing, but if you're matching it at high odds and it wins that's where the problems start.

It's all about doing a bit of research. I wouldn't avoid betway, but I would give some consideration to how I approached it.

[8burnleymik8]

absoutely. I am fairly new to all this.

[munk]

That is harsh if they say the free bet should be available. If it was a specific affiliate SUB offer then probably a good idea to complain to them about it (if for no other reason than to just let them know one of their books is messing customers around).

Otherwise all you can do is email them again to request the free bet and if they still refuse to issue it then contact their regulator (although as above really if it's LGA then it's probably not even worth the time since they're useless with this kind of thing unfortunately).

My experience with Betway is generally positive overall. Apart from the fact I'm limited to peanuts there now... but otherwise have never had any issue with them, withdrawals always issued in a reasonable amount of time, bets settled correctly, decent enough limits for a while.

Occasionally a while back they had some issues over changing after submitting the betslip but that seemed to get cleared up or was just down to the price actually changing between clicking on a price and it being added to the slip. There have been other issues as well, there are a few threads in this forum about betway if you look at the threads tagged with 'betway' (click the link below where it says 'tags').

If you didn't lose any money as a result to be honest the best thing is to just move on and not play there, it's not worth the time and effort chasing them about it for more than a few emails.

[wobbler]

Bottom line is that Betway are a law unto themselves.

[Andy]

Sorry thought I replied to this, basicly Wobbler has hit the nail on the head though.

Sometimes they are fine, but sometimes for no reason what so ever they do what they did to you and just act completely without reason. There is a warning in the review and that is why they dont score very highly:

The Gambling Times | BetWay, Reviewed By The Gambling Times | Claim Cashback

They have had quite high random reload freebet offers in the past, for a while very regularly. They are probably worth having under your belt with or without the initial sign up bonus in case they return, but yes they are a funny bunch at times!

[jakethepeg]

To cut a long story short, after an hour on live chat, I was refused my bonus because I did not fulfil the terms and conditions. I'm still trying to get it credited now.

T&Cs: "Your first bet must be placed within 30 days of opening your account and it must contain at least one selection with (i) odds of 1.70 or greater and (ii) 3 possible outcomes. Please note that void bets do not qualify you for a Free bet."

I bet on a 3 way multiple, of which the final bet was on odds of 1.95 on the First Half Result (1X2)

Hazel claimed that this did not count as having 3 selections or more - I gave her the benefit of the doubt, given that she is of the non-football-watching gender, and clearly explained that it did.

Her supervisor, Marius, agreed with her, and argued that because the Match hadn't settled, it didn't count.

It's pathetic - these guys don't deserve 6*s. If you go in, good luck - they'll screw you on anything they possibly can.


EDIT: Got an email saying they'd credited the free bet (clearly Marius realised that Win + Draw + Win = 3 outcomes after sleeping on it ), but spent another half an hour on live chat with them trying to find the bonus. My balance still shows £25. Sent them screenshots. The saga continues...

EDIT 2: Finally got the bonus added to my account after chatting with another 2 CS people and some more emailing. I chatted to a Faz, Naz and Taz via online chat and email which I thought was slightly odd

[lolly22]

They didn't credit my bonus straight away either... I contacted live support and they said I hasn't placed a bet higher than the minimum odds, but I copied and pasted my bet and it showed that actually, I had.
He manually creditted the bonus but said "We don't normally give these bonuses to UK players".
Strange...wouldn't recommend