Betting app error sparks dispute over Hollywoodbets payout

A Gauteng man who placed a bet on the Hollywoodbets app has claimed that due to an issue with the app he was not paid his winnings. 

Lyall Rensburg said that on December 27 and 28, he placed two betting tickets with Hollywoodbets under the "First 10 Minutes" betting type, predicting that no goals would be scored within the first 10 minutes of the games.

His tickets numbers are 2083006905943009 and 2083006906462952.

"Both bets were successful, and I received bet confirmation emails validating my selections."

"However, when I checked my betting history via the Hollywoodbets website and app, it incorrectly displayed that I had selected Full-Time instead of First 10 Minutes, leading them to mark my tickets as losses.

The Gauteng man said that his winnings should have been R198 for Ticket 1 and R69,800 for Ticket 2.

Rensburg said that he did send his bet confirmation emails to Hollywoodbets using the hwhelpline@hollywoodbets.net and he did make numerous calls to the betting organisation. 

The 35-year-old man has alleged that during a call with a call centre agent he was told to stop uploading his query. 

He said that the reason Hollywoodbets gave for not paying him out is they are currently investigating the tickets.

"Their IT department/ developers are looking into the matter and there are many clients with the same issue, and they have a backlog with the same problem, they are aware of the discrepancy and will pay me my winnings," Rensburg said. 

Rensburg said that on February 12, 2025, Hollywoodbets had only paid his deposit of R36.65 back.

Hollywoodbets responds

In response to IOL questions sent, Hollywoodbets said: 

"Thank you for reaching out. Hollywoodbets will be engaging directly with the customer on the matter and, as such, will not be providing a comment on this matter."

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Rensburg said that on Wednesday, Hollywoodbets contacted him to apologise for the inconvenience and the prolonged process to sort out the issue.

"Yesterday in a second call Sihle Somana from the Hollywoodbets said that he would call me after a meeting with the head of IT and the CEO of Hollywoodbets," Rensburg said. 

At 9.10pm that night, Rensburg received an email from Somana that said: "Apologies for the delay in response. This is a placeholder email to inform you that your query is still open and being dealt with, the technical investigation is provisionally complete, we are just closing the loop on the multiple interactions with our team."

"I will be in touch with you tomorrow morning at around 10.30 to provide an update."

On Thursday morning, Rensburg received an email from Somana that said: "We sincerely apologize for the confusion and frustration you've experienced regarding your recent bet placement and the subsequent communications with our contact centre." 

The email further stated that it was a technical issue that affected bet confirmation emails and displayed incorrect odds. 

"Upon thorough investigation, we identified a technical issue that occurred between December 28 and December 29, 2024, affecting the bet confirmation emails sent to our customers and displaying the incorrect odds. Specifically, the emails displayed incorrect bet types, which led to discrepancies between the bet details in the confirmation emails and those recorded in our system," the email said. 

"The bet slip showed the market to be the 10-minute market with full-time market odds, instead of the 10-minute odds that you had selected. The bet slip 10-minute market reflected the prices for the full-time market (which were significantly greater than the correct prices for the 10-minute market). The wagering system showed the bets as full time odds and not 10-minute odds. We understand that this inconsistency has caused significant inconvenience, and for that, we are truly sorry.

"Our technical team has confirmed that, the bet details recorded in our system were accurate, but did not correlate to the description on the bet slip. Consequently, the outcome of your bet was determined based on the correct information in our system, which unfortunately resulted in a loss."

"However, the team has applied the correct odds for the 10-minute markets as displayed on the bet slip and has paid out the bets based on those correct odds."

In the email to Rensburg, the betting company recognised that the communication was not to the standard that Rensburg expected. 

"We acknowledge that our communication regarding this matter has not met the standards you rightfully expect. To make amends for the inconvenience and the lack of timely feedback, we have credited your account with a bonus of R200 as a gesture of goodwill.

"Please rest assured that we have addressed the technical issue to prevent similar occurrences in the future. We are also reviewing our customer service processes to ensure more efficient and effective communication," it said.

Hollywoodbets said in the email that their terms & conditions outline that the betting company reserves the right to change any incorrect odds published in error and they attached the terms & conditions to the email.

Also attached to the email was the calculation with the "correct odds" which showed that Rensburg would be paid R14.35 for his first ticket and R19.9 for his second ticket. 

Rensburg has expressed his disappointment in the result of the investigation and the response from Hollywoodbets and he plans to communicate his disappointment to Hollywoodbets.

He said that R200 does not even begin to make up for the frustration, time, and financial loss that he has suffered.

"After putting in an immense amount of effort including countless calls, emails, and live chats—over the past eight weeks, I find it absolutely heartbreaking that I had to endure so much just to claim what is rightfully mine," Rensburg said. 

IOL