WHY WAS MY BET CANCELLED?
There are times when you desperately try to place a bet on a sporting event that you like, and after a while you find out that your bet was cancelled. In this article, our goal is to find out why the bets are cancelled and what we can do to reduce the risk of having our bets cancelled by online bookmakers.
When it comes to placing bets, regardless of the platform you use (desktop, mobile etc.) or types of betting markets, you need to know that your goal is not the same as the goal of online bookmakers, Unlike betting exchange sites where they just earn a commission from your bets (and basically don't care if you win or lose), online bookmakers want you to lose and their rules are made in such a way to prevent you from winning too much. Some of their rules (which may be only internal rules that are not displayed to the end-users) are related to cancelled bets.
Bookies can cancel bets for many reasons. For example, one of most common reason is if the odds were wrong. This kind of issue can happen due to technical errors or human errors (traders can make mistakes) that display higher/lower odds than they should actually be. As a consequence, when such errors happen, most online bookmakers cancel the bets and return the stake. Unfortunately, there are some online bookmakers who try to take advantage of these issues and cancel only winning bets, only bets which were placed on higher odds. This is something that should make you carefully check the behavior of the online bookmaker you want to choose before registering.
Bets can also be cancelled when something happens (eg. delays caused by bad weather) and the event can't take place anymore. Usually, a bookie cancels a bet if it's not played in 24h from the initial starting time, but some can wait days or even weeks until the event is played. This is something that can happen at any time and the betting sites can decide to do whatever they want with the pending bets.
There can be other type of errors that can affect your next bets. For example, if a bet is wrongly validated (it's marked as WON, instead of LOST) and your betting account is credited with an amount that you shouldn't have won - your next bets placed from those winnings will be marked as void/cancelled once the bookmaker discovers the error. If you managed to withdraw your winnings, then they'll make your account balance negative and wait for you to deposit in order to get their money back.
Overall, there can be many reasons for cancelled bets, so you need to be prepared at any time and know how to act when something like this happens. If it's a decision that is not correct for you, make sure to make print-screens and gather as many proofs as possible in order to demonstrate that you are right! If you had experience with bookies regarding cancelled bets, please go to the bettors comments, choose the bookie and tell other bettors your story.
You may also want to read the following:
Avoid getting your betting account blocked
Void bets
Common mistakes in betting
