Same-game faulty – Bet365 claws back $31,000 in disputed NRL betting payouts

Three Bet365 customers who briefly believed they had landed more than $35,000 in winnings from a successful NRL same-game multi have lost their fight to recover more than $31,000 that was clawed back by the bookmaker, after the Northern Territory Wagering Commission ruled the payouts were based on an “obvious pricing error”.

The Commission dismissed complaints against the operator of Bet365 in Australia, finding the bookmaker acted within its published terms and conditions when it reversed winnings credited to customer accounts and resettled the wagers at significantly lower odds.

The dispute centred on three identical same-game multi wagers placed on the Manly Sea Eagles’ NRL clash against the St George Illawarra Dragons on April 17, 2025. The bets required the scores to be tied at the 10-minute mark and for no try to be scored in the first seven minutes and 30 seconds of the match.

Two of the wagers were accepted at odds of 34.00 and another at 26.00. When the betting conditions were met, Bet365 initially settled all three bets as winners, crediting the customers with returns of $1,088, $34,000 and $520 respectively.

The bookmaker later removed the funds, cancelled pending withdrawal requests and resettled the bets at revised odds of 3.00, cutting the returns to $96, $3,000 and $60. In total, the customers lost more than $31,400 in expected winnings.

The punters argued the odds had been validly published and accepted, and that Bet365 only claimed an error after the outcome of the match was known.

One complainant submitted evidence showing they had placed similar wagers at comparable odds in the weeks leading up to the match and had no reason to suspect anything was wrong.

Bet365 told the regulator an internal technical fault affected the pricing of “Time of First Try” markets when combined in same-game multis, generating inflated and illogical odds. The bookmaker said the issue was identified during a manual review of large returns in mid-April 2025, with a technical fix deployed later that month.

After examining betting records, system logs and submissions from both sides, the Commission found the bookmaker’s explanation was supported by the evidence.

“The odds offered of 26.00 and 34.00 materially overstated the true likelihood of the combined outcome and constituted a pricing error,” the Commission said. It found that “a price in the vicinity of 3.00” was more reflective of the actual probability of the wager succeeding.

The decision also addressed a key argument raised by one complainant, who maintained that a reasonable bettor would not have recognised the prices as erroneous because similar wagers had been available previously.

The Commission accepted the wagers had been placed in good faith but said the relevant test was objective rather than subjective.

“The question is not whether a particular individual gambler subjectively identified an error, but whether the odds would have been apparent as erroneous to a reasonable person exercising ordinary wagering judgement at the time of wagering,” it said.

The regulator further found that previous wagers accepted at similar odds did not prove the pricing was correct, noting Bet365 had allowed earlier bets struck during the error period to stand “as a gesture of goodwill”.

In its final ruling, the Commission concluded there were “no grounds or evidence” to justify regulatory action against Bet365 and found the bookmaker’s conduct was consistent with its published rules.

“The Licensee’s actions were a reasonable and proportionate response to an obvious pricing error and there is no evidence of any breach of the Act or of the conditions of the licence,” the Commission said.

While two of the complaints are now effectively at an end, the customer behind the $1,000 wager retains a right to seek a review of the decision through the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal because the stake exceeded the statutory review threshold.