Sudden Closure of BestOdds Leaves Punters in Limbo - The Situation

After several days of the betting site being unavailable, the company behind BestOdds (Shearwater Cleek Limited) has finally provided an update. Due to insolvency, operations have ceased with immediate effect, which has left several punters in limbo.

Looking at the Trustpilot page of the site, there are quite a few customers who have money in their betting accounts on the site. Money that, since the site became unavailable, they have no longer been able to access and thus withdraw.

There is a lot of uncertainty at the moment and no real answers, as an 'Insolvency Practitioner' has been appointed to take stock of the situation. In other words, the process could take a while and at the end, there might not be that much money to give back.

As confirmed previously by the UKGC, there is "no guarantee that customers get any of their money back if the business runs into financial difficulties". To really hammer that home, the UKGC have also said that "those using gambling businesses do so at their own risk".

While the above is clear-cut, you have to feel for the punters in this case. Better practices are definitely needed to warn punters in advance if insolvency is on the cards, especially since this is not the first case.

Just a few months ago, the likes of BresBet and Bet St George had to shut down due to various failures and just like now, there was no real heads-up. Anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures may have been at the heart of it, but insolvency also played a part.

It's clear that the new tax regulations are causing issues for smaller and independent bookies that may not necessarily have the same financial foundation as the big bookies. The problem is that the punters are the ones who ultimately have to pay the price.