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There are all sorts of reasons why a bet might be made void, such as an event not taking place as it was supposed to or a player that you\u2019ve bet on as the First Goalscorer not actually playing. It can be frustrating when you\u2019ve placed a bet that you\u2019re sure is going to be a winner, only to find out that it has been made void and you\u2019ve had your stake returned to you. It\u2019s better than it ending up as a losing bet, of course.<\/p>\n
Knowing the reasons why a bet might be made void is helpful, given that it will stop you from puzzling over why your stake was put back into your account and the bet didn\u2019t play out as you\u2019d expect. There are some obvious reasons why it happens as well as some less obvious ones. There are also some bets you can place where might expect them to be made void but they\u2019re not, which you need to know about too.<\/p>\n
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Before we look into why a bookmaker might make a bet void, let\u2019s briefly look into what making a bet void actually means. A voided bet is one that has basically been cancelled by your bookmaker. They have made your wager null and void, essentially returning it to a point that means it is as if it had never been placed. Your stake will be returned to your account, so you neither win nor lose the wager that you\u2019ve placed.<\/p>\n
In many instances, this is the fairest way that a bookmaker can find to handle a certain event. It might feel a bit rubbish to the bettor, but from the bookie\u2019s point of view it wouldn\u2019t be fair to pay it out as if it\u2019s a winner and also wouldn\u2019t be right to just take your stake, so giving it back to you without penalty is the right thing to do. It doesn\u2019t happen often, but can take place for a whole host of reasons.<\/p>\n
In essence, there are two main reasons why a bet might be made void: ones where you\u2019ve done nothing wrong and ones where the bookmaker suspects you might have done something wrong.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start by taking a look at the former category, which is obviously much more pleasant to think about than the latter. Here\u2019s a look at some of the \u2018good\u2019 reasons a bet might be made void:<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s common to think of non-runners in horse racing, largely because that\u2019s a sport that lends itself to horses not taking part in an event for one reason or another. The same reasoning can be used to explain the likes of a football bet being made void, however. In essence, it means that the person or animal that you\u2019ve bet on doesn\u2019t take part in the event that they were supposed to be part of.<\/p>\n
A bet placed on the First Goalscorer market, for example, will be made void if the player that you\u2019ve bet on starts on the substitutes bench and doesn\u2019t come onto the pitch until after the match\u2019s first goal has been scored. A bet on a greyhound to win a race in which the dog doesn\u2019t take any part will also be made void. A wager on a golfer to win a tournament that he doesn\u2019t start for some reason, such as injury, will also become voided, etc.<\/p>\n
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You can bet on football teams to win a match, horses to win a race or tennis players to win a tournament, but if the event is either postponed or cancelled altogether then there\u2019s a chance that your bet will be made void. Bad weather is one of the chief causes of a sporting even being postponed, with most bookmakers having a rule that if it isn\u2019t rearranged to take place within a certain time period then all bets on it will be voided.<\/p>\n
The same is true of an event that gets underway but doesn\u2019t reach its conclusion. There are all sorts of reasons why a match might start but not finish, such as crowd trouble or floodlights not working. What can make things slightly more complex is if you\u2019ve placed a bet on something like the First Goalscorer and this market has been settled before the match in question is abandoned, meaning that bet will be settled but others won\u2019t be.<\/p>\n
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There are loads of reasons why a bookie might decided to void a bet that seem a bit unfair to punters. An example of this is a rule change that the bookmaker in question feels significantly alters the terms of the original bet. A cricket match might end up being played over fewer overs than originally planned, for example, or a tennis match might be moved from a clay court to a grass one for some reason.<\/p>\n
All bookmakers offer explanations for what changes can take place to an event that will lead them to make a bet void, so make sure you read their terms and conditions<\/a> if this is something that concerns you. It\u2019s normally an entirely fair and rational reason, even if you don\u2019t think that is the case. Believe it or not, bookies try to be fair when possible when considering whether to make a bet void for whatever reason.<\/p>\n This is known as a palpable error<\/a>, which is when a bookmaker has offered odds on something that can clearly be interpreted as a mistake. If you are looking at the market on a football match and the home team is 3\/2 to win with every single bookmaker apart from one that has them at 32\/1, that is a palpable error and you\u2019ll have your bet made void if you manage to place one before the bookie in question notices their mistake.<\/p>\n The bets that you\u2019ve placed might flag up as suspicious for entirely innocent reasons, so you don\u2019t need to worry if you\u2019ve done nothing wrong but had your bet or bets made void for this reason. The truth is that bookmakers have all sorts of things in their small print that allow them to make bets void for whatever reason they want. They don\u2019t tend to use such power spuriously, but if they want to make a bet void they\u2019ll find a reason to.<\/p>\n The same thing is true of bets that have already been settled in an event that ends up being abandoned or postponed. The example of a First Goalscorer bet having been settled in a football match is the obvious one mentioned elsewhere, but something such as the winner of the first point in a tennis match that later gets abandoned or a horse that wins the first race in a meeting that is then called off also count. None of these bets will be made void if they\u2019ve already been settled.<\/p>\n Another example that is really important to draw attention to is ante-post bets<\/a> placed well in advance of a race. It\u2019s not uncommon for bettors to look at events such as the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Grand National or the Coronation Cup months in advance of them actually taking place. The benefit of this is that they will be offered better odds than if they tried to place the bet a couple of hours before the race, but there are downsides.<\/p>\n One such downside is that bookmakers will not void the bet if the horse doesn\u2019t end up taking part in the race. Owners and trainers will often enter horses into several races during a meeting and only decide late on which one they\u2019ll actually run in. If the race you\u2019ve bet ends up not being the one that they choose for the horse then your stake money is lost and your ante-post bet will go down as a loser.<\/p>\n This is why it\u2019s really important to keep an eye out as the bigger events approach and bookmakers begin making offers. It\u2019s not uncommon for a bookie to decide that bets on the Grand National placed, say, a week in advance can be made void if the horse doesn\u2019t run. You won\u2019t get offers like that months in advance of the event, but it\u2019s not unheard of for them to be available a couple of days before the race gets underway.<\/p>\n Horse racing is an easy example to use, but the same sort of rules apply to ante-post bets placed on the Top Goalscorer at the World Cup when the player you\u2019ve bet on doesn\u2019t take part because of an injury, for example. Equally, an ante-post bet on a golfer to win the Masters or a tennis player to win Wimbledon will not be made void if they end up not taking part in the event in question for whatever reason.<\/p>\n Accumulator bets are popular because they give punters the opportunity to win a decent amount for a relatively small initial stake. Things can become slightly complicated when one of the legs of your accumulator ends up being made void, however. In essence, there\u2019s nothing that you need to worry about on this front because online bookmakers do it all for you automatically, but it\u2019s still good to know how it works.<\/p>\n In their simplest form, accumulators that feature a voided market just become slightly smaller Accas. In other words, a ten-fold accumulator with a voided leg becomes a nine-fold, a four-fold becomes a Treble, a Double becomes a straight Single and so on. The same is true if you opt for a Lucky bet, with a Lucky 31 turning into a Lucky 15 and the portion of your stake that was placed on the new voided Singles, Doubles etc within the Lucky wager just returned to your account.<\/p>\n Things are more complicated if you\u2019ve taken an offer like Acca Insurance on your bet, which sees your stake refunded in the event that just one leg of the accumulator is a loser. These normally require you to make a minimum number of selections, say four, so if one leg of your Acca is made void then it becomes a Treble and is no longer valid for the insurance offer. Sadly, that is just something that you have to suck up and take. All you can do is have a look why that leg was made void and bear it in mind in the future.<\/p>\n If the bookmaker does what you\u2019d expect them to do and essentially fob you off by saying that it\u2019s in their terms and conditions that they can void any bet they\u2019d like, or some such thing, the next thing to do is to look to a body like IBAS<\/a>. The Independent Betting Adjudication Service will look at your case and decide if it\u2019s got any merit, aiming to resolve the dispute in question if they think that it is.<\/p>\nErrors Have Been Made<\/h3>\n
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It\u2019s not uncommon for bookmakers to make mistakes. There are plenty of words in their small print about what happens in the event that an error has been made, but the main takeaway is that they\u2019ll void your bet and return your stake money to you. This can be something such as a market not switching to In-Play betting after it has already got underway, for example, or obviously wrong odds being offered on a certain outcome.<\/p>\nSuspicious Betting Patterns<\/h3>\n
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The best example of a nefarious reason that a bookmaker might make a bet void comes in the form of suspicious betting patterns. Bookies run all sorts of algorithms that look at every single bet that is placed on their markets. If a punter has placed a number of bets that appear to be suspicious for whatever reason, then they will be flagged up. Oftentimes the bookmaker can\u2019t prove that there\u2019s anything dodgy going on so they\u2019ll just void the bet.<\/p>\nBets That Won\u2019t Be Made Void<\/h2>\n
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There are a number of bets that, no matter how much you might like them to be, won\u2019t be made void by bookmakers. One of the obvious examples is a Last Goalscorer bet that you\u2019ve placed on a player who started on the substitutes bench but makes it on for the final few seconds of a match. Though they didn\u2019t get a fair crack at the goalscoring whip, they technically still could have scored the final goal and so the bet stands.<\/p>\nVoid Bets In Accumulators<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nComplaining If You Think It\u2019s Unfair<\/h2>\n
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If you think your bet has been made void unfairly then the first thing that you should do is contact the bookmaker in question. Yes, this seems like a waste of time when you consider the fact that it was the bookie that voided it in the first place, but if you later want to take it further with one of the bodies responsible for investigating complaints against bookmakers then the first thing they\u2019ll want to know is if you tried to resolve it with the company in question.<\/p>\n