Bettors threaten to burn down offices of Supabets over unpaid wins in Kumasi

Police in Kumasi have arrested an official of Supabets Sports Betting for failing to pay patrons over 50,000 Ghana cedis in winnings.

About 30 angry winners are threatening to burn down the offices of the company if management fails to pay up in 48 hours.

The patrons had taken advantage of and recorded wins from High Odds advertised by the betting company in two separate matches Hapoel Raanana versus Beitar Jerusalem and SC Austria Lustenu vrs. FC Wacker Innsbruck in the Israeli and Austrian Premier Leagues respectively on Monday.

Winning claims by individuals range between 400 Ghana cedis and 30,000 Ghana cedis.

They were however angered by the company’s decision to modify the advertised odds a day after results were announced has angered the winners.

The bettors reported the matter to Asokwa police on Tuesday who arrested and detained one official.

The police action notwithstanding, the irate winners have been besieging Supabet office at Asafo and threatened to set it ablaze.

Management insists it cannot pay the claims because it had published wrong odds.

A notice posted at the company’s Asafo branch reads “ please note that yesterday afternoon there were incorrect odds published on certain leagues, we will be resettling all the tickets with correct odds and then the tickets can be paid out”.

This is contrary to the betting rules also published on a giant screen in the company’s premises which says errors cannot be corrected once an event has started.

The bettors however will not have any of that.
Atta Kwabena had won GH27, 000 from betting at 99.21 odds, winning with 9, 841.63 in total odds.

“The manager is telling us that because of some errors, they cannot pay but as long as we are concerned, we don’t know any errors. It’s the odds that we saw and bet. We didn’t want to take the laws into our own hands so first we went to the police station and make a case so they invited the manager. The next step would be that Supabets would not able to work in Kumasi”.

When quizzed of what their next line of action could be, the bettors responded saying “we are going to take action upon action” with some threatening to burn the offices down.

Meanwhile, managers have declined official comments as the branch manager suggests he will only react after settling the matter with police.

Police sources say they are consulting with the Gaming Commission as part of investigations.