Martyn Hannah, Co-Founder of online casino comparison site, Comparasino, has applauded Superbet for honouring erroneous player payouts to the tune of €30m.
€30m. That’s a remarkable sum for Superbet to have paid out following a technical error, which led to a significant windfall for more than 7,500 of its players in Romania.
The move really is unprecedented in the industry, as evidenced by Gala Bingo’s approach to a similar situation when 2,000 of its players in the UK won up to £10,000 each from a £1.6m prize pot offered under its Summer Nights bingo promotion.
Parent company Entain blocked the payout, claiming the prizes had been awarded due to a technical glitch and instead refunded what players had paid for their bingo tickets.
But while Superbet has forked out €30m and Entain has saved £1.6m, it may ultimately have cost Gala Bingo a lot more than the money paid out by Superbet.
Why? Because Superbet has done what very few other operators are willing to do, and that’s to put their players and their brand reputation above immediate financial benefit.
Its generosity in the matter will do more to drive brand value and player loyalty than €30m spent on bonuses, marketing and advertising.
And in this game, trust and loyalty are vital to the long-term success of any brand.
Remember, consumers still lack trust in even the most established operators, and that includes the likes of Gala Bingo that have been entertaining players in the UK for more than 30 years.
Not to payout players, even if the win is a result of a technical glitch, is a fatal mistake, even if such incidents are covered in the operator’s (often lengthy) terms and conditions.
What makes this side-by-side comparison so interesting is the amounts involved.
It would be more understandable if Superbet had paid out the £1.6m and Gala Bingo had refused to pay out the €30m.
But that’s what makes Superbet’s decision even more remarkable.
I hope it sets a new standard for how operators approach these situations, which seem to be occurring far more regularly these days.
It was only a few months ago that Paddy Power was making headlines after it lost a high-profile court case over refusing to pay out a player’s jackpot win.
Of course, I’m not advocating for operators to payout every erroneous win without a full investigation into what’s happened.
But what I would say is that if it’s the result of a technical glitch and of no fault of the player, they should seriously consider honouring the win.
The reasons for this go beyond brand values and player loyalty, and play into one of the main advantages that licensed brands hold over their unlicensed counterparts.
Trust.
If the latest reports are to be believed, the black market is indeed thriving and with more growth expected over the coming months and years.
In the UK, for example, caps on wagering requirements and the likelihood of an increase in remote gaming duty have the potential to make it even harder for licensed brands to compete with offshore casinos.
This is why trust is so important and why operators must do everything they can to build, grow and keep a tight hold of it.
Sure, an unlicensed online casino might offer a bigger bonus and a higher RTP, but players know their capital is at risk, which is not the case when playing at a licensed brand.
For a lot of players, trust is one of, if not the, most important factors they consider when looking for new online casinos to play at – we see this at Comparasino with a large number of searches for “established” brands.
The value and power of trust is clearly something that Superbet understands, and the operator will absolutely benefit from its decision to payout players in the long term.
For Gala Bingo, its decision will look good on the balance sheet, but for those 2,000 players affected, it will leave a bad taste in their mouths.
Will those players ultimately switch to another brand? That we will never know.
But in such a highly competitive market, with big changes coming and a black market that’s building relentless momentum, it seems like an unnecessary risk for Gala to take, and one that could prove to be costly.
As for Superbet – chapeau for doing the right thing.
