A UNIVERSITY student who won almost $150,000 on a Dustin Martin and Billy Slater multibet is heading to the gaming regulator to claim his money from Tabcorp.
As reported in the Herald Sun, Jonathan Simon placed a three-leg $36 bet on a series of combinations involving Martin to win the 2017 Norm Smith Medal and Slater to win the 2017 Clive Churchill Medal.
Both outcomes eventuated, with Simon winning a whopping $147,456.
But Tabcorp rejected Simon’s ticket, arguing the bet contained the same bet in different legs, increasing the odds exponentially.
Tabcorp offered to pay Simon almost $5000, but the 20-year-old isn’t backing down.
“It’s a matter of principle, I don’t like to be wronged,” Simon said.
“Tabcorp’s arguments for not paying the bet just don’t make sense. I’m legally entitled to $150,000.
“If they paid I would give 10 per cent to charity, maybe take some friends on a holiday give some to my family to use and save for a house.”
Jonathan Simon's bet on Dustin Martin and Billy Slater that was due to pay out almost $150,000. Source: Supplied
The complaint is before the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation.
Simon is a regular punter and a maths whiz, who is studying statistical mathematics at Monash University.
m_is_for_michael on November 3rd, 2018 at 08:58 UTC »
So, if I read the story right, basically this guy has bet on two things happening, but he's been offered odds as if there were 5 separate things happening. Basically if either of the last two bets comes good, the other two must. So the probability is basically the cube of what Tab's computers calculated; hence the offer to pay roughly the cube root of the prize money.
I mean, they should definitely have to pay out as they accepted the odds when he paid; but it is, at least, cheeky of the guy to set the bet up this way.
I'm guessing they'll be very swiftly changing their software to avoid this in the future.
Kytro on November 3rd, 2018 at 08:50 UTC »
They took the bet though. This just seems like they want to escape payment because they screwed up on odds.
The feel entitled to profit at calculated margins
ozbugsy on November 3rd, 2018 at 08:42 UTC »
I'm sorry, if there is a problem with the bet, reject it outright at time of sale....once you've taken his money it's too late to back out. As was pointed out above if he'd lost they wouldn't be refunding his money.