Betfair Faces Calls to Return Profits After Fraudster’s £1 Million in Gambling Losses

According to court documents, a gambling addict who stole £340K ($432K) from his company repeatedly requested to be barred from Betfair but was instead given VIP treatment. He was given free hospitality at athletic events during that time, and he was permitted to lose almost £1 million ($1.27 million) over a number of years.

According to The Guardian, former finance manager Andrew Morford was given a two-year suspended prison term on Wednesday after he admitted to stealing the funds from the nonprofit housing company Co-operative Development Services (CDS).

According to court records, Morford embezzled money from CDS between May 2019 and February 2024.

Morford's gambling addiction, according to Judge Silas Reid, was a "very significant mitigating factor" in his decision to give a light sentence.

Recurring Exclusions

Three years after he started using Betfair, in 2008, Morford made his first request to be permanently barred from the site. The operator consented, but later on, he was able to start another account by only enrolling using the name "Andy" instead of "Andrew."

In 2010, he self-excluded once more, but he changed his mind two years later. Over the next five years, he lost £659K ($837K).

Morford lost hundreds of thousands of pounds more when he opened a new account in his father's name after Betfair terminated his account in 2017 due to "concerns about his betting."

According to court-disclosed records, Betfair considered the account to be at the "low end of medium risk" despite these warning signs. Additionally, the operator failed to identify Morford on other occasions, such as in August 2022 when he signed an email to his VIP account manager using his true name.

In March 2023, he repeated the action. This time, a staff member found out the player had a history of evading self-exclusion by comparing the name to the company's database.

Even after this revelation, Morford lost tens of thousands of pounds more and deposited over £550K ($699K) before Betfair suspended the account.

Betfair Is Thinking About Selling

CDS is now urging Betfair to reimburse the money it received from Morford's gaming losses, together with GamLearn, an organization that helps gambling addicts who have committed crimes.

Now that the criminal procedures have ended, Betfair, which is owned by Flutter Entertainment, informed The Guardian that it will evaluate the case.

"We have an established divestment process, to which this case will be subject once criminal proceedings have completed,” a spokesperson said, adding that the company takes player safety seriously.

Morford "impersonated his father on multiple calls with our teams, including safer gambling interactions where he reassured us that he was in control of his spending, and provided documentation in his father's name," according to the spokesman.

Morford's £100K ($127K) pension and his £110K ($140K) 50% ownership in the family house were used to partially finance CDS's £575K ($730K) civil claim.