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Betting Law in relation to website.

Hey,

I'm not sure if anyone can help but not to worry if you can't!

My boyfriend runs a football fansite, the members of which meet up regularly to attend games and have their own football tournaments.

One of the members wants to open up a book on who will win the tournament, but obviously to do this, it would have to be via the site.

In order to do this would a betting license be required? If so is there anyway (legally of course!) that I can get round it?

Thanks in advance.

Reply 1

Ethereal

You would need to contact either Citizens Advice Bureau, your local council, or a qualified Solicitor for this advice. With such a serious thing you'd be foolhardy to rely on advice given on a student forum.

Reply 2

Lewisy-boy

Yeah exactly ... all I know is that gambling contracts aren't enforceable at law. And its not really relevant here!

Reply 3

Ethereal

Lewis-HuStuJCR

Yeah exactly ... all I know is that gambling contracts aren't enforceable at law. And its not really relevant here!

I think she's aiming more towards gaming licences etc. Minefield!!

Reply 4

Lewisy-boy

Exactly, way too complex for anyone whos not a specialist licensing practitioner... I just like to get hte one piece of relevant info I knw out :biggrin:

Reply 5

chalks

The relevant legislation is the Gambling Act 2005.

It is difficult to be able to advise with any certainty without knowing exactly how the betting scheme is intended to operate and the number of potential punters. On the whole, however, there are a wide range of exemptions from the requirements in the Act if it can be shown that the betting is a non-commercial activity. For example, no licence is required when a company's employees all enter a Grand National sweepstake etc. Likewise, there is nothing to stop me having a bet with a couple of mates in the pub that my footie team will beat another.

My gut feel is that, provided the proposed betting scheme is relatively small scale (less than a 100 punters for example) then it shouldn't fall foul of the Act. If its run on a sweepstake style basis then that should be fine. Its trickier if the individual is offering odds and taking bets (for example, how is he going to finance his losses?).

I strongly recommend that the individual who wants to set up the scheme sets out his proposals as clearly as possible and gets them approved by a solicitor who knows his stuff - I'm just not in a position to give you cast-iron advice on this.

Chalks.

Reply 6

Fireman John

To be perfectly honest i can't really understand why you/he wants to be so formal about it... you state that they're all a group of friends who meet up regularly - that being the case why do you need to be so formal in "opening a book". It's not as if you're inviting Joe Punter from the high street to have a little wager... Maybe I'm missing something here?

If I were you/him I'd just do it informally as something between mates.

Reply 7

chalks

My understanding is that the scheme is a little larger than just a couple of mates who meet down the pub. The betting seems to be intended to operate through the website which itself suggests that the scheme is quite large and may well be open to other individuals (you and I) to join and bet if we wish.

Reply 8

Fireman John

Hmmm... but that begs the question as to why you or I would want to bet on a bunch of mates playing football agaisnt each other when we don't know anything about them??? Clearly the man in the street might wanna put a couple of quid on Chelsea vs Man Utd - or even Boston vs Forest Green (or some other non-league outfit) - at least here we can "follow the form/results". But why would someone outside the loop want to place a bet on this "mates' tournament"?

I just cant see the logic in opening it up to "anybody" when "just anybody" is unlikely to be interested - particulalrly when the whole scheme is clearly so complicated to establish - a lot of aggravation for nothing.

Reply 9

chalks

Hence this question!!

It is difficult to be able to advise with any certainty without knowing exactly how the betting scheme is intended to operate and the number of potential punters.

I agree there isn't likely to be a problem if we're talking about 50 lads playing in a 5 a side league every Saturday and the league is organised and updated via a website and some bright spark has suggested people bet on which team will win (all proceeds going to an end of season p*ss up).

Reply 10

Vics

Thanks for your reply Chalks.

Basically, it's a pretty big site and meet ups happen regularly, but it's generally different people. Several tournements have happened already and everyone on the site is always interested in how it went etc.

People travel from all round the country so it's not just a group of mates (well I guess it is kind of)

Thanks for the advice anyway and I'll pass it on.