IBAS - Independent Betting Adjudication Service Arvostelua 

Dear IBAS Team,

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to your organisation for the assistance and professional support you provided in resolving my dispute with BoyleSports.

Thanks to your involvement and objective review of the case, the bookmaker has paid the full amount of my winnings in full. I highly appreciate your work, attention to detail, and effective approach in protecting customer rights.

Thank you for your support and contribution. Your work plays an important role in ensuring fairness and trust within the betting industry.

Disgustingly biased in the casinos favour. Got it completely wrong and I now have to waste my time taking a company to court.

I've suffered pretty much the exact same issues as all the other 1 star reviewers.

I do wonder if it is simply incompetence or something more sinister?

The top man Richard Hayler has close industry ties however. He's on or was on the board of the SP Committee, an organisation which has allowed margins to increase which is detrimental to punters. And he judges at the Betting Shop Manager of the year awards to boot...

You then have the so called expert panel. They seem to remain anonymous, but like to send condescending messages when they have no right due to their quite outstanding lack of knowledge.

My most recent case was the best. It was regarding the Breeders Cup and they, along with the Bookmaker I appealed against, seemed to be blissfully unaware of the reserve system and max fields.

Then we have the gopher, the head of adjudication Brian Wright, the go between. He seems to try his best, but when you don't know the difference between a French bred horse and a French trained one, it's hard to take him seriously. Could also be a politician as seems to dodge any relevant point which exposes previous inconsistent decision making.

One can only dream in the future of an actual impartial and fair betting ombudsman.

The only advice for anyone is to explore the small claims court option if you have a solid case. Yes, you shouldn't have to resort to this and yes it is hassle, but at least a judge never takes into account the Ibas decision. Odd that don't you think?

* Just an update, I have now been banned by Ibas because of this review. It appears they can't handle the truth. They can dish it out, but not take it.

* I'd like to reply to Jim as there are a few points I believe need clearing up.

Yes, Ibas is a free service to customers like myself, but gambling operators have to pay a fee, well it says so on your website anyway. I believe that is how you are funded.

In any case, I'd rather pay for a service that was better, one which was actually fair, impartial and unbiased, but I'm left with no choice and now I'm deprived of even this due to having the temerity to question the integrity and competence of supposed expert panel members.

You claim I'm being abusive and insulting, yet it's seemingly fine for your staff to use antagonistic and condescending language. I wouldn't mind if this was coming from genuine experts, but instead it's from anonymous people who would believe anything a betting operator would tell them and don't understand basics such as the reserve system at the Breeders Cup.

Clearly double standards are at play here. And it appears you have been showing bias against myself purely because I question clearly incorrect decisions, some of which I've had retrospectively overturned.

It's also concerning that this is your best work and your staff take great pride in being wrong, but I guess that aptly sums up Ibas an organisation. And it's a lazy cop out saying there is a legal alternative. Punters shouldn't be forced into this unnecessarily because you can't do your job properly.

Any review naming an advisor at IBAS is fake (majority of the 5* ones I suspect) as all correspondence is done virtually, you can’t speak to an employee within the company (I tried multiple times) and decisions are allegedly made by a panel.
I supplied loads of evidence, proved that I won a jackpot while the casino provided no supporting evidence at all
IBAS are not independent and also not worthy. Let’s hope we soon get an independent body or ombudsman as these are simply not fit for purpose

I contacted IBAS after the Postcode Lottery (PCL) demonstrated clear discrimination by making titles mandatory and refusing to offer inclusive options like 'Mx.' The PCL failed to offer any reasonable solution for this exclusionary policy.

My subsequent experience with IBAS was equally appalling.

Failure of Governance: Instead of intervening to remove discrimination—which is the expected standard of a governing body—IBAS simply redirected me back to the Postcode Lottery. This action is totally futile and a complete waste of my time, as the PCL had already refused to resolve the issue.

It is clear that IBAS is complicit in this matter. A governing body should ensure discrimination is removed from the organisations it oversees. It appears IBAS has no better standards for inclusivity than the organisation they are meant to regulate. Discrimination is NEVER acceptable.

Not independant, clearly on the bookies payroll and as fraudulant as the bookies themselves. Staff are slow, arrogant and rude. Pointless contacting them and trying to resolve anything. Just tell bookies are allowed the lie, cheat and steal.

I filed a complaint with IBAS in 2021. They responded with a ruling on a completely different matter, nothing to do with me. I pointed this out to them, and they ignored me.

The bet was a long term one, and finally became a winner in 2025. So I went back to IBAS. They apologised and said they would get back to me by the end of the week, then asked for more time. In spite of repeated reminders they have not got back to me with a ruling, nine months later. Don't waste your time with them - go straight to court if you can.

Really happy with IBAS. Super easy to deal with, kept me updated, and genuinely helpful.

James at IBAS took onboard all the evidence I provided and managed to overturn my bet settlement with a betting firm.

IBAS also ensured that all future bets in the same situation would not be settled wrongly again by changing the process Opta deals with multiple in play subs.

I would highly recommend IBAS to anyone.

From the start of my case, IBAS handled the matter with professionalism, patience, and diligence.

My dispute with Paddy Power had been going nowhere despite multiple attempts to resolve it directly. The IBAS team took my case seriously, communicated clearly at every stage, and ultimately secured the exact outcome I had initially hoped for — something Paddy Power staff were unable or unwilling to provide.

I’m extremely grateful for their persistence and fairness in dealing with my case. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend IBAS to anyone facing a betting-related dispute.

Helped me every step of the way, clear instructions and steps to resolve my issue. Despite many complications from the betting site I was having a dispute with.

IBAS did everything possible in a very professional approach in looking into all details as to determine the verdict of my case. Whether it is a verdict in favour of any party, operator or player, I sincerely trust the job done by IBAS is totally unbias and whatever the outcome has to be accepted. To all those who had reviewed IBAS badly have the courtesy to write a review to apologise. Please note IBAS is a free service working so hard to be fair and trusted by both operator and player, so please accept and respect the outcome whether win or lose. I personally is most grateful to IBAS, not just because they were in favour of my case but every step they took to handle the reasoning of the case. Finally, a big THANK YOU IBAS

Like another person said how can they…
Like another person said how can they deliver fairness if they paid from cassino sites. Not interested and defefanitly not fit for purpose same as gam

Absolutely pointless. I won £750 with Coral on their free horse racing game. All of sudden I withdraw it and they suspended the account saying they needed bank documents and other information. Ok fine, so I send it in and all is verified and account will be back in action in 24 hours time. 24 hours pass and another email comes through saying that I’ve got an open account that’s currently in self exclusion bare in mind I’ve already withdrawn from this account 2 months previous with no complications. So I have a telephone conversation with the safer gambling team who confirm that apperently there was a ladbrokes account self excluded from 5 years ago that just need opening back up after the period had passed so again I was compliant even though I was confused and explained I never had a ladbrokes account they insisted and said that after this my funds will be available and the account finally back up and running. So again the same process follows I wait 24 hours for them again for third time to come back and say that there was another Ladbrokes account still in self exclusion and wasn’t up until April 2025. I had no option and just had to sit and wait. Well here we are a year later with still no money and also no account anymore as a ‘business decision’ closed the account and the funds weren’t available because I played with a self exclusion active. This is where IBAS come in pretty much did absolutely nothing. I sent emails, telephone conversations, screenshots of conversations with corals customer service team and they come back to me saying that coral are in the right and that if a player plays with a self exclusion the funds can’t be given. As stated to them first time around I had never had a self excluded ladbrokes account and never had an issue withdrawing funds before.

If you’re thinking about going through IBAS honestly don’t waste your time. Not a single piece of my evidence was even looked at just corals statement was enough for them to wash away my case. They always say the bookies always win and that’s solid proof right there. IBAS are in the back pockets of them bookies for sure.

Stole my winnings and then accused me of submitting fake documents

There is no point using this service to dispute a bet outcome. They will always come back to the customer being subject to the bookmaker’s rules which are of course enormously stacked in favour of the bookmaker.

Basically - you agreed to the bookmaker’s terms and conditions when you signed up to their website. These terms and conditions will let the bookmaker do pretty much anything they want including cancelling your bet, changing the odds you placed the bet at, and changing payouts because they claim to have made an error. IBAS appear to, ‘have their back’ in this respect so don’t bother disputing bets.

What a shame that this so-called adjudication service really just seems to exist to reinforce the unfairly weighted terms & conditions of unscrupulous bookmakers. What they should be doing is compelling bookmakers to conduct themselves in the SPIRIT of the services they offer, rather than allowing them to always default to the LETTER of their terms & conditions.

Waste of time using these,put a complaint in beginning of June after William hill ripped me off only to receive an email this morning saying sorry for the delay as I've been on holiday(person who was dealing with the case)and was very rude saying as you haven't sent in any evidence (I have 4 times)they will rely solely on the evidence William hill provides and to top it off it was a no reply email so I couldn't even say anything in return,this company is paid by the big betting firms and no one wins against them so don't waste your time.
UPDATE ON MY APPEAL
After quite a few weeks I got an email saying included in the email is the result of my appeal but it said in the email I had already lost so why bother adding an attachment, basically they totally ignored my evidence and completely took the word of William hill who told a pack of lies but because William hill pay IBAS wages they sided with them as usual,the whole system is corrupt so don't waste your time using IBAS because you won't win.

Huge thanks to IBAS for their support! After weeks of back and forth, that cheeky betting website finally released my withheld funds —definitely wouldn’t have happened without Jim’s help. He handled everything professionally. Much appreciated!

Joke & shelle IBAS despite the very strong documentation that I presented they still agreed with business gaming justifying that they are not authorized to verify the player's documents and their authenticity… waste of my time and faith in their actions Avoid !

How fair is adjudication service paid by one of the parties?
IBAS is financed by bookmakers to independently resolve disputes between bookmakers and gamblers. 🫣😂 only in UK 🤦🏻