Just a day after it was revealed that 888 Holdings had acquired renowned online casino operator BetBright for £15 million, the latter’s customers were treated to the shocking revelation that the company would be ceasing operations permanently. The announcement which was made by the company’s officials through its official website said that the online gaming operator “has ceased offering gambling services to its customers on a permanent basis.”
Fortunately, the customers of the now dead gaming site will not lose their funds – they will all have 30 days to access their accounts and withdraw any and all funds that may be in those accounts. In addition to that, BetBright further included a link to an FAQ section that detailed how it would be handling all of the bets that had been placed prior to the shutdown. According to the FAQ, “all single bets due to settle after the 5th of March at 23:59 pm will be voided” while all of the unsettled multiple bets “that are due to be settled past 5th March 2019 that have winning legs associated to the bet will be settled as a winning bet, with the remaining unsettled legs voided.” In other words, all of the bets that were due by March 5, 2019, at 11.59 pm were handled as normal.
Players who had free bets of bonuses in their accounts before the closure of the business were also not left behind – the company added these free bets or bonuses to their accounts as withdrawable cash.
Missing Out on Cheltenham
While customers of most other bookmakers are currently rubbing their hands at the prospects of cashing in at the Cheltenham Festival which comes about a week after BetBright’s closure, the online casino operator’s customers have been left out of pocket. This is especially true for the punters who placed ante-post bets with BetBright – as mentioned earlier, these ones have now been declared null and void. The same applies to all the advance bets that were made on the UEFA Champion League as well as the Premier League among other sporting events.
Why the Sudden Closure?
Well, it goes without saying that the United Kingdom’s gaming market has gotten quite competitive over the past couple of years and, as it turns out, BetBright was having trouble keeping their business profitable. As Regulus, a Strategic Gambling Consultancy put it, “the brand’s demise could be due in part to tax rises in the UK and Ireland, as well as an underlying market slowdown affecting its early-stage growth projections.”
888 Holdings has not intervened since the £15 acquisition only involved select assets of BetBright’s business and these did not include its customers and liabilities.
