Technical glitch sparks in-race chaos on Betfair

There were bizarre scenes in the in-running betting world during racing at Leopardstown yesterday with a freakish amount traded on Betfair in the woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle.

A total of £1,642,094 was matched at 28-1 on Voler La Vedette, who went off the 13-8 favourite on-course and won very easily. Even more strangely, the Betfair graph showed over £21 million was offered to back Colm Murphy’s mare at those odds, even though she was always in contention and looked the obvious winner even before the final flight.

This meant one layer could potentially have lost £600 million in only a few minutes if all of the money had been matched. Betfair suspended the market in order to investigate, with many of the exchange’s members in a state of shock on the website’s forum. After lengthy discussions, it was revealed this was due to a technical error, and that all bets on the event would be cancelled.

A statement from Betfair customer services read: “Customers betting in-play on this race will have seen that Voler La Vedette was available to back at 29 when the in-running market was suspended, and that a considerable sum was matched on the clear winner at that price.

“An investigation has revealed that this was due to an obvious technical failure which allowed a customer to exceed their exposure limit. In accordance with our terms and conditions, all in running bets on this race, both win and place, will be made void.

“We fully appreciate the dissatisfaction this will cause many customers, and apologise for a very poor customer and betting experience.”