What Happens if a Bookie Goes Bust?

Recently we have seen the relatively new bookmaker in the UK Sun Bets announce that they were going to cease trading. The news came from out of the blue, taking us all by surprise. At the time of the announcement, many punters were betting with Sun Bets, holding money in their accounts with them and having future bets already placed. This of course caused a little bit of panic amongst online punters, but there are steps you can follow to ensure everything runs smoothly.

If a new online bookie that you are betting with goes bust then here are the steps that you should follow.

Withdraw Your Funds Immediately

When a bookie goes bust and announces that they are going to stop trading, the first thing you will be thinking about is your money. When making the announcement, the bookmaker will also announce a date which is the final date for withdrawals from customer accounts. Make sure you withdraw your funds before this date, this keeps you in control and ensures that you can get your money back as quickly as possible.

As we have seen with the recent Sun Bets closure, even after the deadline the company will aim to get the money back to you. Sun Bets tried to send all money back to the payment method used after the date, they wrote to customers and only if those two fail will they get rid of your money. In the example with Sun Bets, their last resort was to donate any remaining funds to GamCare.

What Happens to Current Bets?

One grey area with bookmakers that go bust is what happens to the bets that are already on. Many people like to place ante post bets, and some of these could have been on for a number of months or even years. It is impossible to predict what each bookmaker will do if they go bust, but Sun Bets took the step to void most of their current bets, and pay out a select few as winners that looked as though they were very likely to win.

The best approach you can take if your bookie goes bust is to not expect anything other than your money back from them on any ante post bets you have. If you do get more than this then consider it a bonus, but be prepared to receive nothing other than your stake money back.

Customer Service Teams Will Remain Open

One final thing to note when you see news about a bookmaker going bust is when their customer service team are open until. These will usually remain open after the bookmaker has ceased trading to help with any queries that customers have. This is a vitally important line of contact so make sure you have the contact details and you use this if you need it.

An example of what happened with Sun Bets is that their customer service team opened for three months after the announcement was made that they have ceased trading. This gives punters plenty of time to speak to someone about the situation. 

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