The guide also suggests traits that supposedly indicate someone is likely to be bad business, including “eastern European customers”, apparently based on concerns about locations in which past suspicious betting patterns have been identified.įor the bookies, stake factoring is seen as a legitimate way of levelling the pitch against punters who they argue are resorting to unfair methods. Those customers with a stake factor above 1 can wager more than 100% of the normal maximum figure. It advises staff to restrict customers who “look like bad business” and to increase stake factors for “all customers that are regularly hitting their max ”. “It’s particularly true of any account with a female name,” he said, explaining this was often someone who had had their stake factor reduced on their own account and was posing as a spouse, sister or friend.Ī manual, handed out to employees of Paddy Power within the past six years and seen by the Guardian, offers further insight.
“We’d make judgments based on what job you do, who you’re friends with on Facebook,” said Steve, who works as an odds trader at a well-known betting website. Sometimes, such decisions are determined by other factors.
