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Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

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sportoboy
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Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Fri May 02, 2014 11:17 pm

Just wanted to warn everyone about a very sneaky behaviour from Matchbook. They advertise that they charge only 1% commission and have an offer of 0% at handicaps, but apparently they have another way to increase the commission: HIDDEN CHARGES. They apply them on e-wallet withdrawals, with unknown criteria. In my case they smashed a 2% charge on a total of 37k I withdrew. Yes, this is about 740 euros that they charged me on my withdrawal. As a result, this 2% is not applied only to profits (like e.g. betfair does), but also to your stake.

To be more specific: I deposited (in total) around 48k, made a turnover (in total) of around 72k and withdrew (in total) around 62k. I was able to withdraw at first around 25k without charges. These figures are very low for an exchange and I have made much bigger transactions from and to my betfair account without any problem.

Anyway, I had a 37k balance left in my account and asked for a withdrawal. Without any warning AT ALL they just smashed the 2% charge at my two 18k withdrawals, stating that "Having monitored your funding activity over the past number of weeks, we have noticed that it continues to cost Matchbook more than your betting activity would generate. Effective immediately, all e-wallet withdrawals from your Matchbook account will incur a processing fee equal to 2% of the withdrawal amount.".
The charge wouldn't be applied only in case of a bank withdrawal which unfortunately wasn't possible for me. Matchbook doesn't hold a license in my country and a bank withdrawal would be extremely risky. I informed them about that and they just ignored me.

So, to all out there: beware! Matchbook might seem attractive due to low commission and nice offers, but if they deem that your account is not profitable for them, they will smash a hefty charge at your withdrawals. Unfortunately I had to pay 740 euros from my own pocket to find that out. I don't remember such treatment even from the shittiest soft bookie on earth...
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 1:18 am

From their FAQ (or FUCK):

Are withdrawals free?
Yes, for the most part, withdrawals from your Matchbook account are free. However, we reserve the right to charge, if the frequency of deposits and withdrawals is deemed to be too high.

It's incredible they can put this on their terms and conditions.... And that they apply this rule without informing before.
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arbusers
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 5:56 am

Guys lets face it.
There is a growing number of people, looking for side profits. Nowadays, side profits represent the biggest part of profits coming from gambling activities. I dont expect bookmakers to watch us getting their money like this. Pinnacle is the smartest of them all, and was the first to react. I expect others to follow. 
alexko
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 8:41 am

Risk is calculated as the lesser of the stake or the potential win amount.

yes. be carefull. It's impossible to make rollover with them.
Last edited by alexko on Sat May 03, 2014 9:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
dr
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 9:57 am

how exactly does pinnie solve this? i mean, sharp bookies exists because soft bookies exists ... it's like in life, if everybody was rich, nobody would be rich...

so if everybody have shit odds and close markets for betting, what exactly does this solve?
sportoboy
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 10:47 am

There is a big difference between Pinnacle and Matchbook.

Pinnacle decided to implement this 5 X rollover measure for future deposits, not retrospectively. I never heard a case where they charged anyone for deposits/withdrawals, besides the standard 12 eur fee. Every customer now knows that his must make that turnover, nothing is hidden.

Matchbook didn't ask me to make any additional turnover (though I did turnover almost 1,5 times my deposits) and didn't warned me about anything. If they wanted from me to turnover a couple times more my deposits, I could do it. Instead they just applied the charge, which is 100% hidden. 
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 10:53 am

this is pretty shady from MB. create a thread somewhere Matchbook's actually reads, sbr comes to mind (if you haven't already). this will give you some leverage.

regardless, depositing and withdrawing very regularly many k's and "only" rolling over 1,5 times?  you should know better. try to figure out which books are your friends and don't try to screw them over with behaviour like this.
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 11:22 am

They offer to some customers 1 free (or 0) withdrawal per month and they changed the meaning of the rollover with ''immediate effect''. When pinnacle implemented the 5x rollover they made some exceptions with some customers in the beginning, matchbook don't even want to discuss it, this is not professional behavior.
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arbusers
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 11:26 am

drhoo wrote: how exactly does pinnie solve this? i mean, sharp bookies exists because soft bookies exists ... it's like in life, if everybody was rich, nobody would be rich...

so if everybody have shit odds and close markets for betting, what exactly does this solve?
Dr, You need to read more carefully what we are talking about here.
sportoboy wrote: which is 100% hidden. 
No, it isn't. Read what ppintaluba mentioned before. I m completely with you here as always, but a player of your caliber should notice these small letters.
Matchbook ain't pinnacle in any case and you shouldnt expect a ''pinnacle'' treatment from matchbook.
I also wrote about poor management from matchbook several times.

vinciguerra wrote: regardless, depositing and withdrawing very regularly many k's and "only" rolling over 1,5 times?  you should know better. try to figure out which books are your friends and don't try to screw them over with behaviour like this.
Class, as always.
Last edited by arbusers on Sat May 03, 2014 11:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
dr
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 11:41 am

ah the fees.

yes, filthy. we need to make our own e-wallet free of fees. whos in?
sportoboy
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 11:45 am

No, it isn't. Read what ppintaluba mentioned before. I m completely with you here as always, but a player of your caliber should notice these small letters.
Matchbook ain't pinnacle in any case and you shouldnt expect a ''pinnacle'' treatment from matchbook.
I also wrote about poor management from matchbook several times.
I've read that term but it was too vague to pay any attention to it. "Charge". How much? To which amount? The amount you deposited? The amount you withdrew? There is absolutely no legal force to such a term.

Generally speaking, some bookmakers state completely unreasonable terms in their T&C's.  That doesn't mean that they can actually apply them from a legal point of view.

@ vinciguerra: Unfortunately I was the one screwed here. In the ass. From a "friend".  Thanks for the advice. I don't have an account at sbr and I don't know how they will react if the first post of a person is a complaint.

But I did forward at matchbook this thread, so I believe that they will read this thread. For anyone that has an account at sbr and isn't bored, feel free to copy there the content of my first post.
Last edited by sportoboy on Sat May 03, 2014 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
scotty1
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 12:39 pm

vinciguerra wrote: regardless, depositing and withdrawing very regularly many k's and "only" rolling over 1,5 times?  you should know better. try to figure out which books are your friends and don't try to screw them over with behaviour like this.
I think we are all aware of which books are our friends but come on - what type of book steals 740 Euros from their friends without warning? How many times should he roll it over before he can withdraw? Why don't they work with the guy - ask him to roll it over again instead of stealing money from his account?

I experienced a similar issue at Matchbook. I deposited £15,000, played with it for weeks until I had a balance of approximately £45,000. I made one withdrawal back to my e-wallet and then received an email stating I could only make one withdrawal a month. Each additional withdrawal would be charged at 2%. That's annoying in itself but the worst part of it is the maximum you can withdraw per withdrawal is £15,000. I stupidly continued to play there and now have a balance of £74,000. This will take me until October to withdraw unless I want to pay them almost £1500. I wish I stuck to Betfair..

One issue here is why are they so keen for players to keep their funds here? They've effectively ransomed my funds until October with no advance warning. You want your money? Then pay us £1500.  ???
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sat May 03, 2014 12:53 pm

Welcome to the forum scotty1, even though i believe you ve been with us for years.
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sun May 04, 2014 2:07 am

That's a dodgy behaviour from Matchbook. However, sportoboy, kindly check your spam folder on your email account because MB has applied this rule to most of the arbers and personally i have received emails from them in any case before rule is applied. It is reasonable to protect themselves from wallet abusing as well as pinnacle did. Simply, with the rebates that all of us are getting, the system is not ''viable'' and therefore bookies react. Pinnacle applied the x5 rule, Betfair offers one free withdrawal per week (at least in my case), Smarkets gives only 2500 per day to NT and Skrill while MB applies this 1-2 free withdrawals per month. Absolutely fair imho however they should have noticed you well before the charge was applied. The most annoying thing for MB is that they claim they are an exchange however they charge commissions both to winning and losing bets! Therefore it is the only exchange on earth you cannot trade a price since you are charged both on back and lay bets. Initially i put much hope on them as a substitute of Betfair but apparently Betfair is and is going to be unique.
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Re: Matchbook hidden charges - Beware

Sun May 04, 2014 2:42 am

Didn't receive any emails from them at my spam folder...

I've heard about cases where matchbook changed the customer status to 1 free withdrawal per week or 1 free withdrawal per month instead of 1 free withdrawal per day as a "warning". But in my case they went directly from 1 free withdrawal per day to 2% charges without any warning. Hard to believe but true and that's the reason I opened this thread, cause I believe they will do it to others too.

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