Betfred loses High Court battle as Blackjack player wins £1.7m

High Court Judge Mrs. Justice Foster ruled Betfred Punter Andy Green’s favour and said Betfred had no grounds for withholding payment.

The judgment means Mr. Green from Washingborough, Lincolnshire will finally receive his £1.7m jackpot, while playing a blackjack game on his phone, payout plus interest, after a three-year battle.

The bookmaker refused to pay out, claiming the error meant the game was not operating properly.

Betfred finally apologised for the delay in Mr. Green receiving his money and said it would not appeal against the ruling.

Speaking in 2018, he said he had gone “absolutely crazy” after scooping the jackpot on the Frankie Dettori Magic Seven Blackjack game.

In her ruling, Mrs. Justice Foster said when he later contacted Betfred they “did not seek at this point to suggest other than that he was a big winner.”

But a few days later, a Betfred director called him to say there had been a “ software error and it was rejecting the claim and subsequently, the company at one stage offered him £60, 000 as a token of goodwill on the grounds he agreed not to talk about it ever again, but he refused.

In April 2019, he took his case to the High Court aiming to sue Betfred and its parent company, Gibraltar-based Petfre, for £2m, to include the interest he would have earned from the win.

Betfred then argued that the software glitch, which stopped the game from resetting properly while Mr. Green was playing, was covered under the terms and conditions of the game.

However, Mrs. Justice Foster ruled that the wording of the clauses relied upon was “ inadequate”, and “ not transparent or fair and Betfred were not entitled to rely upon them”.

A Betfred spokesperson said: “ Mr. Green won the jackpot three times whilst playing a game provided by one of our third-party suppliers. “ The supplier reported a software problem to us and advised that we should withhold payment,