Msuthu vs Santos at sports.com

[Fightwriter]

Guys here are sharing their thoughts on tough beats this weekend. I thought I would share this with you.

I played Lubablo Msuthu vs Cecilio Santos going over 9.5 rounds at three books.

BoxRec erroneously reported that Msuthu KO'd Santos in seven rounds. In fact, Msuthu fought a replacement named Jose Cabrera, whom he KO'd in seven rounds.

BoxRec has since put up the correct result, Msuthu KO7 Cabrera. Two books to my knowledge have graded Msuthu vs Santos wagers as "Cancelled". However, sports.com (Canadian offshoot of the sportsbook.com group) is insisting that my wager has correctly been graded as a loss.

I have sent them the link to the correct result on BoxRec. Depending on their "last and final" (as Richard Steele would say) answer, I may or may not have something to say about this matter on my website.

Big boys don't cry, and we all know the risks, but I rather resent taking a loss on a fight that did not happen.

 

[weepaul]

I don't blame you mate!!

That is complete horseshit. It will be someone who knows jackshit about boxing that will be telling you the result is legit.

Hope it works out.

 

[gardenweasel]

this isn`t graham,is it?...

 

[Fightwriter]

As my pals in London would say: "Got it in one".

 

[gardenweasel]

As my pals in London would say: "Got it in one".

just like to say that i peruse your site on a regular basis(as i believe most in this forum do) and i wish you continued success....

your write-ups are a very useful tool for the handicappers,not to mention boxing brain candy for hard core boxing junkies....

it`s a pleasure to have you visit us here at madjacks....

 

[Fightwriter]

Thanks GW. I am glad you like the Fightwriter site.

The site is essentially a labour of love that I will expand one day if my commercial writing activities ever go south. I have site-expansion plans on hold simply because sometimes I am just inundated with writing, interviewing, research for articles etc. (This is also why I sometimes post previews much later in the week than was once the case; I just cannot get around to them as quickly as I would like.)

I have looked at a number of boxing forums and the only ones I visit on a regular basis are madjacks and one other. There are some knowledgeable people here, and I love the camaraderie that you share. It is a lot of fun to read the exchanges between the regulars and uplifting to see the way you support each other: I take great pleasure in visiting this forum.

 

[Ghost Kid]

I echo weasel

I take pleasure in reading your stuff Graham and greatly respective your picking prowess

your work is consistently solid and I would welcome any expansion of your site in the future

its a true pleasure to have you around these parts

as for your bet...that's criminal and they need to pay up!

that's not just a bad break....a totally different guy fought for christ sake!

Ridiculous!

 

[Zerwas]

Welcome aboard!!

I always liked your site, great knowledge of the sport accompanied by good writing skills...its always nice to have a valuable addition to the board.

 

[crow]

There's reasons why sportsbook.com group is graded very poorly at ************;there's a few horror stories online that completely dissuades me of opening an account there.

So let's hope you didn't wager much, and that it will resolve itself. If not, posting here would be a good means to pressure them.

Congrats on your site, it's an institution for any player wagering on boxing.

 

[Fightwriter]

Thanks for the support, gents.

At the moment, the issue is now "under review" at sports.com -- and this after three frustrating hours that I could ill-afford to lose on Sunday lobbing emails back and forth with "customer service" reps, like Federer and Roddick in a long rally, even doing a "live chat" online, and getting nowhere.

This has been an incredibly irritating and frustrating experience. I would send lengthy emails explaining the situation sentence by sentence, as if speaking v-e-r-y slowly to someone who does not have a good grasp of English, and then I would get an email back saying something like: "Under our rules the wager has been graded correctly as you wagered the fight would go over 9.5 rounds and the fight ended in the seventh round. Therefore the wager was a loss."

Then I would start all over again, explaining that, yes, the fight ended in the 7th round, yes I bet the fight would go over 9.5, but one of the participants in the bet did NOT fight. And back would come an email "Under our rules ..." And on and on.

It was only $100. I feel like telling them to keep the lousy 100 bucks but this is so patently wrong I just can't let go of it.

I think Paul hit the nail on the head, I am dealing with people who know and care absolutely zero about boxing. They just don't get it. This has been almost Kafkaesque, a weird and unsettling experience and way too time-consuming. Thank heaven it was just a small play.

 

[nj]

Have you posted at *****forums? There is a moderator who acts as a great intermediary, I believe it is Bill Dozer.

 

[Fightwriter]

No, NJ, I am not yet registered at ***. I will see what happens in the next 24 hours.

As said, the latest email from sports.com informed me that the situation is now under review. Previously I was getting "Your wager has been graded correctly" responses, so I feel that I may, finally, be getting somewhere. What a time-wasting experience this has been, all because BoxRec put up a human-error wrong result.

As someone in the industry said to me on Sunday when discussing this matter: "BoxRec has no idea how important it is that they get these things right first time."

 

[nj]

I hear ya. Sometimes it's not even about the money, it's about time and dignity. I won't give a name, but there is a manager at a popular sportsbook who acts like a police interrogator anytime you talk to him, no matter how rational and reasonable you are. It's hard enough to win money legitimately, when you have to walk through knee-high crap to get it, it's discouraging.

Good luck. If it doesn't work out, I'm sure s b r would be of help, at the very least they would post the incident on the review page to bring them negative publicity.

And as the other have said, welcome aboard!

 

[crow]

No, NJ, I am not yet registered at ***. I will see what happens in the next 24 hours.

I don't think you need to be registered to send a complaint.
I've writen a complaint myself once before and they always reply.
The only thing is sometimes if the wagers involved are too small they might not eagerly follow up on the situation.

I propose every madjack member here sends a mail to give these people their piece of mind about how they are doing business.

 

[Romi]

Welcome to the site Graham. It's R H from San Jose Calif. It's good to see you aboard. Congrats on the Hatton fight! I had an up and down weekend but Hatton made made it profitable @ the end. Hope to see you around more. Good luck on getting your wager graded correctly.

 

[Fightwriter]

Hi R H

Well, FINALLY the wager has been re-graded as "No action". Not a word from customer service saying sorry for the inconvenience, but at least the matter has been put right

 

[Ghost Kid]

justice is served..sort of

they owe you an apology, but we all know that won't happen

at least you got your cash mate

I wish the local south african papers would be bit more careful with their reports...

between the time difference and the trails of mis-information, it can take days to find out if you made the right call or not !

 

[weepaul]

As Joey has stated. Eventually the books will give up on these African fights. They won't be worth the bother to them.

Welcome Graham, as the others have said, it's nice to see you here. Theres alway's room for knowledgeable boxing people.

Glad you got your money back :toast:

 

[gardenweasel]

btw,graham...given that you`re a bit of a celebrity to boxing afficionados here on the site,you can lurk anonymously by going into "user cp",then "edit options" and checking "use invisible mode" if you so choose..........

just an fyi....

o.t........i used to enjoy exchanging thoughts with joey odessa at another site years back....now he`s here with an occasional thought and some helpful info regarding sportsbooks,rules and some of the technical aspects of wagering on boxing...


hope you decide to continue posting here occasionally....bit of a kick having you here...any opinions or insight you would provide as an addendum to your site would,i`m sure, be very appreciated...

again...welcome....

 

[Andrey]

Dear Fightwriter, about grading problem. First of all I am glad that they did this actually faster then usual. Usually it can take sometime for those guys to resolve it, eventually they will ( at least that was my experience many times before) the longest I have to wait for grading is 7 days on the fight where result was very clear from the beginning. I know it is long but for some reason they can take this long.
So don't even worry about it, they just probably busy with something else. Often they also forget to grade bets that lost so it is not on purpose. At least this is my opinion after at least 5 maybe even 10 cases like this.