Bet9ja is adjudged Nigeria’s number one sports betting company, but the company’s integrity is currently in doubt and its credibility is under scrutiny as it refuses to pay a customer’s winning of N3.350 million.
A civil servant (names withheld), played Bet9ja virtual soccer game between 7 and 8 pm on Tuesday, 6 July 2021, and won the sum of N10.850million on the jackpot. He played the game from one of the company’s agents in the Akute area of Ogun State.
Immediately the winning appeared on the bet shop’s screen, shouts of joy rented the air as other customers celebrated with him. But their moment of joy would soon be cut short by Bet9ja’s reluctance to pay the winning.
Surprised with the bet company’s attitude, the civil servant took permission from work and went to Bet9ja’s head office in Ojuelegba, Lagos, where he was attended to by the trio of one Yetunde, Raji, and Joseph, a super agent.
After going forth and back for about seven days, Bet9ja eventually paid N5million from the winning on Monday, 12 July 2021, and the following day, paid another installment of N2.5million, “while the trio of Yetunde, Raji, and Joseph have insisted that the balance of N3.350million will not be paid. They said it is a worldly money, so I can’t spend it alone,” the winner told us.
“To my greatest surprise, they have been threatening me in different ways. They first threatened to send some OPC members after me. Later, I started receiving calls from people who claimed to be mobile policemen, threatening me to stop requesting the money or have myself to blame. I’m saying this out so that Nigerians can know in case anything happens to me.
“For many years, I have been losing money on Bet9ja’s soccer bets. There was a time I took N20,000 from my house rent to stake a game and ended up losing. My whole world almost crumbled that time. It is really painful that when the compensation eventually came, some representatives of Bet9ja want to rob me of the joy,” he further told us.
So far, several efforts by the civil servant to get the balance of his winning have proved abortive. “When I called Bet9ja customer care line, the representative that picked the call said I should send a letter if I’m not satisfied with the amount paid from my winning. The whole thing has really been frustrating.”
When we called Raji, one of the accused Bet9ja representatives on his Airtel mobile number, he boasted “I can’t talk to you on phone. As a journalist, you don’t have the right to call me on the phone because I don’t know you… You must also tell me who gave you my number.”
Kunle Soname is a Nigerian politician, entrepreneur, sports enthusiast, and the chairman of Bet9ja, a betting website he founded in 2013. He is also the first Nigerian to acquire a European club C.D. Feirense which he bought in 2015.
Source: Society Reporters
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