Disputes often arise between bookmakers and customers regarding non-payment of winnings, misplaced bets and any case where a player feels cheated. In 2016, the first legal online bookmakers opened their doors in Russia, after which players on the Internet had more opportunities to defend their rights.
An excursion into the regulation of bookmakers in Russia
In 2007, Federal Law No. 244 “On state regulation of activities related to the organization and conduct of gambling and on amendments to certain legislative acts” came into force, which spells out the operating rules and responsibilities of bookmakers, including to their players.
The activities of bookmakers are controlled by the Federal Tax Service. Since 2014, companies with a bookmaker license must join a self-regulatory organization and pay a contribution of 30 million rubles to the SRO compensation fund. It is assumed that this money will cover the obligations of the gambling organizer to clients in case of problems.
In 2014, the concept of interactive betting appeared. The client of the Russian bookmaker places these bets on his website. Each SRO has created a Center for Accounting for Transfers of Interactive Rates (TSUPIS) on the platform of a bank or non-profit organization. TsUPIS is an intermediary between the online bookmaker and the player. It is TsUPIS that accepts money from the player and transfers it to the bookmaker. He takes into account all transactions and controls the payment of income tax, reporting to the Federal Tax Service.
“Unless a criminal case is opened in connection with illegal gambling in the Russian segment of the Internet, the owners of the site will be identified and brought to justice, and damages will be recovered from them for the injured players who filed a civil claim in the criminal case. There is such a legal instrument,” says Legal Line lawyer Maria Lepshchikova.
How to resolve a dispute with a bookmaker yourself
If a dispute arises and the player does not agree with the decision of a legal bookmaker in Russia, he must record all the evidence. At a minimum, take screenshots from your account on the bookmaker’s website, or better yet, have the evidence certified electronically by a notary. The service costs from 20 thousand rubles, and this money can be presented later for reimbursement, says Maria Lepshchikova.
“Then the player must contact the bank, which issued the bookmaker a bank guarantee worth 500 million rubles. And then the bank must pay the bookmaker’s debts,” the lawyer continues.
According to Lepshchikova, if the bank does not pay, you need to write a statement to the Federal Tax Service and indicate that the bookmaker probably has problems with the bank guarantee. Then the tax service must conduct an unscheduled audit to confirm licensing requirements regarding the bank guarantee. Maria Lepshchikova draws attention to the fact that threatening a complaint and persuading the bookmaker to pay the disputed money without any problems is a kind of “bargaining element.”
“I am a trial lawyer, but this does not mean that I recommend everyone to go to court. It is often easier for a consumer in the Russian Federation to put pressure on a service provider with threats of complaints, and it is easier for a company to pay a disputed amount to the consumer than to be subject to inspections,” she emphasizes.
How disputes are resolved in bookmaker SROs
If a player has not been paid his winnings or the result of a bet has been calculated incorrectly, he must first contact the administration of the bookmaker that holds this winnings. This is explained by the President of the Association of Bookmakers Darina Denisova. If the bookmaker and the client are unable to solve the indicated problem, then the player should contact the SRO, which includes this bookmaker.
Complaints in which the player indicates a violation of the law are sent by the SRO to the Federal Tax Service, since this is within the competence of the licensing authority, says Yuri Krasovsky, president of the First Self-Regulatory Organization and bookmaker company “Liga Stavok”.
“In order for a complaint to be accepted for consideration, it must meet a number of criteria: the player’s data (full name, telephone, email), specific circumstances that the player considers controversial must be indicated. It is also necessary to indicate the bookmaker to whom the complaint was sent, including its license number. It is advisable to attach documentary evidence to the complaint (screenshots, receipts),” he says.
According to Krasovsky, if the complaint form meets all the listed requirements, then the organization considers it within no more than 10 days from the date of receipt. Based on the results of consideration of the complaint, if the facts are confirmed, an unscheduled inspection of the bookmaker may be ordered. If the results are unsatisfactory, the company should be subject to disciplinary action.
At the same time, there are fundamental differences between the existing SROs and the first industry organization in Russia - the National Association of Bookmakers. NAB was a voluntary association of some bookmaker companies, which means it did not have the ability and tools to effectively resolve disputes, explains the president of the First SRO. In addition, the NAB did not have a compensation fund to settle claims of players in the event of financial insolvency of bookmaking companies. With the advent of SRO, this changed.
Alternative Paths
The Bookmaker Rating website has been accepting complaints from players for more than six years. As a result, more than 200 million rubles were returned to the players, as of August 2018. Of this, 173.19 million rubles were returned to players based on complaints lodged mainly with Russian legal companies.
Most often, as a reason for a complaint, players indicate an incorrectly calculated bet, a delay in the payment of winnings, an uncredited bonus, account blocking and confiscation of the account balance.
“The rating of a bookmaker on our website depends directly on its reliability. Here we have two components: the presence of a license in Russia (only such companies can receive ratings of 4 and 5) and effective consideration of player complaints. Only the bookmaker who really solves the problems of clients who contact us can claim the highest rating on our five-point scale,” said Alexey Tkachuk, director of strategic development at Bookmaker Rating.
There is no specific system in terms of prompt resolution of controversial issues. The bookmaker can give an answer quickly, but some complaints may be ignored. There are situations when bookmakers warn that the check will take a long time, but sometimes they can immediately resolve the issue, for example, recalculate the bet.
How disputes are resolved in the West
There are no organizations similar to Russian SROs in other countries. But there are independent associations involved in resolving disputes between a bookmaker and a player. As elsewhere, in the UK, problems that arise can be discussed with the bookmaker directly, but if the parties reach an impasse, the player can contact IBAS, a partner of bookmakers and the UK Gambling Commission.
IBAS staff will handle betting-related complaints, particularly if there is a delay or refusal to pay out winnings. The organization's website states that it is not involved in disputes about customer service standards, social responsibility policies of bookmakers, and does not examine matches that may be fixed.
If IBAS experts resolve the dispute in favor of the player and the amount of funds that must be returned to the client is less than 10 thousand pounds sterling, then the bookmaker is obliged to recalculate. If the amount is higher, the bookmaker may go to court. The IBAS website claims that the organization received 7,358 complaints in 2017. The total amount of funds returned last year amounted to 656.8 thousand pounds sterling.
April 22, 2015The Players Association should appear as a result of the reformatting of the National Association of Bookmakers of Russia (NAB). NAB President Yuri Fedorov informed Betting Business Russia about this.
“Our organization united bookmakers, but besides this, we defended the interests of players when their rights were violated.” – says Yuri Fedorov. “At a time when it was necessary to create self-regulatory organizations and unite bookmakers in SROs, we set ourselves the tasks of protecting players, training and consulting them. Changing the profile would be appropriate."
The NAB President said that the name and charter of the organization will be changed in April of this year.
For the first time, Fedorov spoke about the NAB’s intention to focus on protecting the interests of players in February. The Russian Association of Bookmakers (RosAB) has also expressed its readiness to protect the interests of bookmaker clients together with NAB. Konstantin Makarov, president of the self-regulatory organization “Non-profit partnership of organizers of gambling in bookmakers,” said that effective protection of clients is possible with the admission of individuals to the association.
NAB began its activities in 2005. The task of the organization before the change was to create a favorable economic soil for the development of the bookmaking business in Russia, help increase revenues for the state and the sports industry, provide protection to players, combat sports fraud and popularize fair play. The organization announced in February its intention to create an independent rating of bookmakers.
The self-regulatory organization “Association of Bookmakers” was created in 2014 with the goal of uniting and representing the interests of bookmakers operating on the basis of licenses from the Federal Tax Service. Having received a license to accept interactive bets, the bookmaker must decide on the organization through which it will record and accept bets, one of which is the SRO “Association of Bookmakers”. The self-regulatory organization “Association of Bookmakers” is abbreviated as SRO Bookmakers.
Official logo of SRO Bookmakers
Who manages the SRO of Bookmakers
The organization was founded by Konstantin Makarov, who previously and is currently the president of Bingo-Boom Management LLC and the Russian Association of Bookmakers. Konstantin Makarov was the president of the SRO “Association of Bookmakers” from June 2014 to November 2015, after which he became the chairman of the organization’s board. And he was replaced as president of the self-regulatory organization by Darina Denisova.
Darina Denisova has extensive experience in the bookmaker business and previously worked as an independent consultant to Russian and foreign bookmaker and lottery companies, and also acted as vice-president of the National Association of Bookmakers and a member of the board of SRO Bookmakers.
Darina Denisova – President of the Association of Bookmakers Activity
SRO Bookmakers makes a huge contribution to the development of sports betting in Russia. In addition to representing the interests of bookmakers and players, the organization fights against match-fixing and works to improve the conditions of bookmaking. One of the most important issues today is taxation, which is not yet very welcomed by either bookmakers or players. Also, the activities of the SRO “Association of Bookmakers” coordinate the contributions of bookmakers to support Russian sports.
Who is included in the SRO of Bookmakers (list)
At the time of writing, the SRO Bookmakers includes the following bookmakers and organizations:
We have personally verified that the SRO of Bookmakers is responsive and open to communication, discussing issues and resolving controversial situations that have arisen among players.
Thanks to SRO Bookmakers and similar organizations, the bookmaker market in Russia is reviving and gaining momentum, which, albeit indirectly, entails the development of sports in our country!
Bookmakers operating online are divided into legal (official) and offshore. Legal are bookmakers authorized in Russia, which have received a license to accept bets on the Internet and are part of SRO Self-regulatory organization bookmakers.
Legal bookmakers in Russia with a license
Discussions about creating a legal field for the work of bookmakers in Russia have been going on for a long time, but only in 2014 the state developed a scheme to which bookmakers began to adapt. Every country that wants to regulate the flow of online bets faces a lot of difficulties.
The most important thing is to ensure effective blocking of offshore bookmakers, which always have advantages over state and legal betting operators, since they do not pay taxes, providing themselves only with permitting documents from offshore zones: Malta, Gibraltar, Curacao, Costa Rica.
For bookmakers, 2016 was a turning point. Summer 2016 Roskomnadzor Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications began to actively block not only the sites of offshore bookmakers, but also the resources that advertised them. At the end of the year, by decision of Roskomnadzor, more than 20,000 bookmaker sites and betting operators operating on the basis of offshore licenses were blocked on the Internet.
At the same time, bookmakers began to enter the market, operating according to a scheme established by the state, and the user had a choice - to stay with an offshore bookmaker, unreliable and constantly subject to sanctions by Roskomnadzor, or to move to one of the official bookmakers of Russia, accepting bets through TsUPIS Internet betting registration center.
The legislation of the Russian Federation obliges an office operating on the Internet:
- Have a license from the Federal Tax Service;
- Authorized capital 30 million rubles;
- Be a member of SRO and TsUPIS.
Innovations quickly took root in the domestic betting market. Bettors do not have to worry about paying out winnings, and the state does not have to worry about paying 13% tax.
Interactive bet transfer accounting center
The center becomes not only a guarantee of the security of all transactions for the bettor, but also a state supervisory authority for all transactions carried out in the bookmaker for the purpose of their further taxation.
Under the new scheme, both the bookmaker and the player pay the tax. 13 percent of every bet won is the current tax scheme. But there is constantly a constructive dialogue between the bookmakers and the regulator with the aim of choosing a tax collection method that is more loyal to bettors, since with the current version, legal bookmakers are still inferior in attractiveness to offshore ones.
What is the difference between legal and offshore bookmakers
What is the fundamental difference between an offshore bookmaker and an official one? Often, illegal betting operators have a license in an offshore zone, which is why they are called offshore. This could be Malta, Gibraltar or Curacao - countries where the offices of bookmakers around the world are most often located, not tied to any one territory and focusing on the global market.
Such bookmakers are blocked in countries where online bookmaking activities are regulated, but if they wish, they can “come out of the shadows” and work according to the rules established in a particular market. In the current conditions, almost every bookmaker has an offshore version, and Russian betting operators are no exception - after all, in addition to the Russian one, they are also interested in the betting markets of the post-Soviet space and Eastern Europe. And the bookmaker is not against accepting those users who have found a way to bypass Roskomnadzor’s blocking in our country.
Legal bookmakers on the Internet work stably, and their users no need to look for mirrors and methods of bypassing blocking– this is the first distinguishing feature of official bookmakers.
In addition, if the official bookmaker violates the rules for accepting bets, delays in payment or other problems arise, the bettor has a much greater chance of holding the operator accountable.
In the case of “illegals,” you often have to rely only on their conscience and desire to preserve their reputation, since it is very difficult to prove the case in a dispute with an offshore bookmaker registered in the Caribbean Islands.
Offshore bookmakers deal not only with sports betting, but also with other gambling games: casinos, betting, bingo, poker, etc. This makes their sites banned in the Russian Federation, while local Russian offices are focused only on betting and are legalized by law.
The operator offers a chic list of events, odds with a minimum margin of 2-3.5%. Upon registration, the bettor receives a bonus of 2000 rubles. with the “Play Zone” function will become a real discovery for the bettor.
Feedback from players is varied. Some praise the bookmaker for fast transactions and high limits, others complain about the unclear calculation of the tax on winnings.
The company is an official sponsor of the Russian Premier League and offers maximum limits for betting on matches of the Russian Football Championship. Upon registration, players have access to a free bet of 500 rubles.
Odds with margins around 4-6% look like a decent offer. The presence of broadcasts, informative match trackers and statistics sections will simplify the work of the bettor.
Mobile applications of the bookmaker's office deserve special attention. Top-level functionality:
- High-quality and pleasant interface
- Match tracker and broadcasts
- Instant withdrawal of funds
- Traffic savings
A reliable and recognizable brand that offers its own line for sporting events. The company's scouts simultaneously monitor more than 100 tournaments.
The functional and easy-to-navigate site has earned recognition from thousands of bettors. You can deposit money on the site through TsUPIS based on Qiwi Bank; financial transactions are processed instantly.
Additional markets open up for live betting. Most events are accompanied by high-quality video broadcasts with an informative match tracker. Apps available for iOS and Android.
Upon registration, the bookmaker offers a great bonus of 3,999 rubles for the first deposit, simple personal identification, and a loyal attitude towards successful players.
The company's line cannot be called rich, but high bet maximums and acceptable margins from 4% to 7.5% compensate for the inconvenience. In addition, the company offers better odds for outsiders of sports matches, which is what speculative players take advantage of. Instant withdrawal of funds and a variety of payment systems are the merit of TsUPIS based on Qiwi Bank.
The bookmaker offers a welcome bonus upon registration of 16,000 rubles, a simplified identification procedure and a reliable website. The mid-level operator’s margin policy is from 4.5% to 8%, there are no mobile applications yet, there is a loyalty program.
Live events are accompanied by high-quality video broadcasts. For the convenience of the bettor, a statistics section is presented where you can evaluate the current form of teams or players.
Most bettors complain about the difficulty of wagering the welcome bonus - during the wagering period they reduce the size of the maximum bet, which makes the wager conditions difficult to meet.
The well-known brand was legalized on the Russian interactive betting market in May 2017. Registration on the site is simple and convenient - to confirm your identity, it is not necessary to visit the teaching staff or the Euroset communication salon.
The operator will automatically register an account in TsUPIS and link the gaming account. The operator will impose financial restrictions on the bettor's account - deposits no more than 60,000 rubles, amount on the balance no more than 200,000 rubles.
On the bettor’s website there is a welcome bonus of 2,500 rubles, the ability to choose the best odds, a betting school, broadcast and statistics sections. A specific and in-depth description of sporting events from the company’s own analytical department will satisfy the most fastidious bettor.
A sports betting operator offering a wide and deep range of football matches. Simplified personal identification procedure via Skype and free bet of 1000 rubles for registration.
A high-quality mobile application for iOS and Android with an informative match tracker, video broadcasts and fast withdrawals.
The site has a “Multimonitor” function, where a bettor can add several sporting events and monitor what is happening in selected matches.
In addition, the bookmaker is loyal to big winnings, and controversial issues are promptly resolved by the First SRO of bookmakers, which includes 888.ru.
An office with an incomprehensible policy - at the beginning of 2017, the operator joined TsUPIS based on Qiwi-Bank and created a new website in the “ru” domain zone. Today “Olympus” is available at olimp.bet.
On the part of Russian providers, access to the platform is not limited, which is confirmed by permits for online activities in the Russian Federation, issued by the Federal Tax Service.
The bookmaker has become an official partner of the CSKA football club, offering acceptable odds for betting, but low maximums with a possible reduction in the account for successful players.
List of legal bookmakers
Bookmakers in the Russian Federation are members of two self-regulatory organizations: the First SRO and the SRO “Association of Bookmakers”. Each organization has its own TsUPIS and its own rules, but the essence is the same - bookmakers make a contribution to the compensation fund, undergo an inspection within the SRO and, as a result, receive the right to work in the legal field of betting.
The first SRO operating through the First TSUPIS:
- Betting League
- 1xBet
- 888.ru
- Vinline
- Betcity
- Parimatch
- Mostbet
- Tennis
List of bookmakers SRO "Association of Bookmakers":
- Fonbet
- Baltbet
- Bingo Boom
- Marathon
- Olympus
- GGBet
- Zenith
- Vulcanbet
- Melbet