Salford Red Devils Rugby fans, Gary Smeaton and best friend Kris Shenton, have been left fuming and vow to take William Hill to court after a winning bet of £23,400 has not been paid after it was revealed a case of human error had occurred by a William Hill staff member.
£100 Double Bet
The two Rugby fans placed a £100 double bet on the Red Devils Jackson Hasting winning the Steve Prescott MBE Man Of Steel Title and Salford finishing in the top five at the end of the season. Both men initially thought it was highly unlikely it would ever happen, but remained optimistic and stumped up £50 each to place the bet.As it turned out, both bets come good, as the men had placed a £100 double bet they were set to scoop £23,400. To their dismay, William Hill are refusing to pay out and have said they are separate bets which should never have been allowed, although they have admitted human error on their part.
Human Error To Blame
Mr Smeaton insisted he will take William Hill to court if need be as they have only offered to pay a fraction of the winnings, a mere £1,700.A spokesman for William Hill said,“ As stated in our rules, a related contingency occurs when one or more parts of a bet placed affect the outcome of the bet.“ In this case, the prices of Jackson Hastings winning Man Of Steel and Salford finishing in the top five are related. Were one outcome to happen, the other would be directly affected and as such a double price would be significantly smaller.“ This bet has been struck as a result of human error and has since been corrected.”Mr Smeaton commented on the statement,“ They have contradicted themselves by saying it’s not a double bet then it is a double bet but with smaller odds.‘ Also, the point of one bet going on to another is rubbish as the Man Of Steel goes in to secret voting run by a poll of adjudicators in the last eight weeks.“ So how can that influence the other part of the bet ?”Regardless, Gary Smeaton is set to pursue his claim ‘ all the way’, he asked the employee in the bookies to write out the slip for him, as he didn’t know what to do. When Mr Smeaton revisited the betting shop and spoke to the same employee who he placed the bet with, he said, ‘ I must’ve been half asleep that morning!’. The case rumbles on.