Stake kidnapping is a term used in RebelBetting to identify bookmakers which practice, what we consider, near fraudulent behavior with customers bets.
A proper and respectable bookmaker will honor the bets taken and pay out potential winnings, with exception of the palpable error rule. A confirmed bet can’t be cancelled by you as a customer and neither by them.
However, some bookmakers feel that they have the right to accept your bet and at a later time decide whether to accept parts or all of your stake. These bookmakers ‘kidnap’ your stake while they decide what to do with it. You as a customer have no option to cancel the bet while it is up for review. A more respectable way of handling this, would be like the bookmaker Betsson which gives the user an option whether to send all or parts of the stake for review or to edit the bet.
Bookmakers identified with this behavior are:
Betsafe
Betsafe have sometimes chosen to reject parts or all of the stake long after a bet was initially confirmed. This might be done without any notification which would indicate that the bet is up for review. The stake might simply be kidnapped and users may find themselves in an unwanted situation. We have however also gotten reports from our customers that hasn’t seen this behavior with Betsafe.
Expekt
Expekt used to provide the user with a Betsson-like option where the choice was given to cancel the bet, edit the bet or send parts or all of the stake for review. This would let the user back out of an unwanted situation. Now, you will be notified only AFTER you press confirm, whether your stake is kidnapped or not.