The long-running case of Megan McCann, a student from Northern Ireland who is suing the online bookmaker Bet365 for £1,009,793 in unpaid winnings, will finally reach a court room on 13 November after a date was set on Wednesday for a full-day hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast.
McCann, who was 19 when her bets were placed, staked almost £24,960 on 12 horses running in four races, at Bath, Kempton and Naas, on the evening of 22 June 2016. The bets – a combined total of 960 £13 each-way “Lucky 15”– were accepted by Bet365 and proved highly successful, producing a return of £984,833.
However, Bet365 has subsequently refused to pay McCann’s winnings, claiming that her stake for the bet was provided by a “third party” in contravention of the firm’s terms and conditions (T&Cs). It has also refused to return her initial stake.
In July 2017, more than a year after the bets were placed, McCann instructed Andrew Montague, a solicitor well-known for his expertise in gambling-related cases, to sue Bet365 for her total payout of £1,009,793. Montague’s most famous victory in the past was won on behalf of the legendary Irish gambler Barney Curley, who successfully challenged a ruling by Gibraltar’s gambling regulator that BetFred.com could withhold a payout of €852,000 [£765,000] following a betting coup in January 2010.
The McCann case has been slowly working its way towards a court room ever since, and the proceedings scheduled for 13 November are still not a full hearing. The outcome could prove important, however, as Bet365 will attempt to strike out several sections of McCann’s statement of claim.
If or when the case reaches a full hearing, it is potentially of considerable significance to online punters across the UK, all of whom sign up to the T&Cs of individual bookmakers, often with nothing more than the tick of a box, whenever they open an online account.
Salisbury
1.50 Fortune And Glory 2.20 Beat Le Bon 2.50 Rowland Ward 3.20 Gunforhire 3.50 Hello Bangkok 4.20 Firelight 4.50 Odyssa 5.20 Dorella
Sedgefield
2.00 Lincoln County 2.30 Make My Heart Fly 3.00 Peppay Le Pugh 3.30 Apterix 4.00 Da Baba Elephant 4.30 Lord Ballim 5.00 Dinons
Haydock Park
2.10 Magical Sight 2.40 Hello Youmzain 3.10 Waldstern 3.40 Mon Beau Visage 4.10 Salateen 4.40 Magellan 5.10 Dwight D
Carlisle
4.25 Slipstream 4.55 Four Wheel Drive 5.30 Liquid Lunch 6.00 Sfumato 6.30 Collide 7.00 Harbour Approach 7.30 Snookered
Chelmsford City
5.40 With Envy 6.10 Duke Of Yorkie 6.45 Comporta 7.15 Fresh Terms (nb) 7.45 Saint Diana 8.15 Chocolate Box (nap) 8.45 Sonnet Rose
In recent years, campaigners attempting to secure and defend punters’ consumer rights have seen an increasing number of complaints that gambling firms use opaque, over-complicated or misleading T&Cs to deny winnings to punters, or remove money from their accounts without consent, for instance via charges on allegedly “dormant” accounts.
McCann’s case, which is understood to claim that, in legal terms, Bet365 “engages in unconscionable, exploitative and unlawful” practices in regard to its customers, promises to be an important legal test of a major online gambling firm’s T&Cs. Bet365, which was founded in Stoke-on-Trent in 2000 by Denise Coates, has grown rapidly to become a huge presence in the online gambling market. Coates, who is the company’s joint chief executive with her brother, John, is the majority shareholder in the business. In 2016-17, she became Britain’s highest-paid chief executive, with a salary of £199m and £18m in dividend payments, after Bet365 posted an annual profit of £525m.
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