The publication of the 2017-18 IBAS Annual Report marks the 20th Anniversary of the creation of the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (formerly Independent Betting Arbitration Service) in 1998.
Founded by journalists from the Sporting Life newspaper, IBAS was created to provide protection for bettors at a time when betting transactions were treated in law not as legally enforceable contracts but gentlemen’s agreements which – when subject to dispute – were often already informally resolved by racing and betting journalists.
When the 2005 Gambling Act came into force in 2007 consumers were given the opportunity to pursue betting disputes through the courts, but despite that demand for IBAS has continued to grow year on year.
At the time of publication, IBAS has during received almost 67,000 requests for adjudication on various betting and gaming disputes during the time of its existence, awarding just under £6 million pounds to consumers in the process.
The 2017-18 records a busy year for IBAS, during which the service was admitted into membership of the Ombudsman Association, the Competition and Markets Authority published the findings of an investigation into unfair terms in the online gambling market and the Gambling Commission toughened up its licence conditions concerning the handling of complaints and disputes by gambling operators.
The full report can be downloaded from the publications section of the website (ABOUT US > PUBLICATIONS) or by clicking here.