Ladbrokes finally settled the 'Who will kill Derek Branning?' Eastenders special bet yesterday when they paid out to those who had bet on Derek.
I had contacted the company's customer service on Boxing Day when they - unlike Bet365 - hadn't made the bet void following the character's apparent heart attack.
Their reasoning behind not cancelling the bet was as follows:
Trading have informed us that they will be waiting until after tonight's episode of Eastenders to confirm settlement of Derek Branning's death. As there is no selection for natural death they would like to wait for any potential future story lines such as poisoning, etc
With no clear indication that he had been murdered in the Boxing Day episode, the company - as noted above - settled on Derek Branning having killed himself.
I emailed the company asking why they hadn't voided all bets on the market and the response was:
I can confirm that your bets have been correctly settled as a losing bets as Derek Branning died of a heart attack therefore he was the cause of his own death.
This is the most absurd result I have ever experienced in betting and is nothing more than a cop out by Ladbrokes.
The thing that winds me up the most about it is the fact they were hiding behind a 'it may be natural causes but we'll see what happens tonight' wall on the 26th yet - on the 27th - they were claiming that a heart attack is not a natural cause and is the fault of the victim.
I've only lost three pounds in this thing so it's no big loss to me. It's just the principle of it that irks me.
People who suffer heart attacks, like Derek Branning, do not kill themselves. The bet clearly asked 'Who will kill Derek Branning?' - it's utter nonsense that they didn't cancel all bets on it.
I urge anyone who has Googled this and have similar complaints about the company to contact IBAS who - with a bit of luck - will understand the point that seems to be lost on Ladbrokes' trading team.
I also urge you to consider using another bookmaker when it comes to placing novelty bets like this. It is obvious from this experience that they will clutch at any straw to crook you.
It's a good job they're bookmakers and not coroners. We'd have a lot more suicides than natural deaths to deal with in this country.
Late update - As of Friday afternoon, Ladbrokes have settled the bets as void. They refunded the three £1 stakes and I've withdrawn them.
I appreciate that they finally came around to logical thinking. However, it should not have taken this long to reach it.
I'm certainly not going to place novelty bets with them again. Like I said, it's not the money that's the problem - it's the way they went about not wanting to void a bet when it was the right course of action to make.
In my opinion as a customer, they showed a lack of integrity and I'll stick with placing bets on novelty markets at places like Paddy Power, Bet365, Coral and William Hill (to name a few).
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