hard luck on my tenner at 29s yesterday

from  the racing post today

BETFAIR on Wednesday came in for fierce criticism from customers after they made the decision to void all in-running bets placed on a Leopardstown race after an incredible lay bet left a punter facing a theoretical £23 million payout.

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An internal three-hour long investigation into the fiasco concluded that usersof the site had suffered "a very poor customer and betting experience", after the decision was made to cancel all in-running bets placed on the race, in which winner Voler La Vedette was available to back at a price of 29 (28-1) as she crossed the line four and a half lengths clear.

A total of £1,642,094 was matched at that price after a lay bet of £21.3m was offered on the 13-8chance at 29 - which would have resulted in a whopping payout of almost £600m if it was all matched.

Betfair issued a threadbare statement which said the decision to void all bets was taken after it became apparent the appearance of the bizarre lay bet "was due to an obvious technical failure which allowed a customer to exceed their exposure limit."

Betfair spokesman Tony Calvin said: "It is an obvious error in the fact that the horse was 28 passing the line.

"To offer that kind of amount you would have to have £600 million in your account and anybody backing it at that price knew that something was wrong."

He continued: "It is clearly a technical failure that somebody somewhere was able to place a bet with that liability. Clearly nobody in their right mind would want to strike a bet like that."
The investigation into how the bet was able to be placed was continuing on Wednesday night and Calvin added: "In response to a number of customer questions on this matter, we would like to clarify that the account in question has no commercial relationship with Betfair other than being a customer."

Betfair's share price closed down 3.16 per cent on Wednesday at 781.50p.