How does a then 19-year-old gather together almost £25,000 (R430 000), bet it all on 12 horses in four “relatively obscure” races, and clean up with around £1 million (R17,2 million) in return?

That’s the gist of the court case going on between young punter Megan McCann and sports betting giants bet365, run by the UK’s wealthiest businesswoman.

Yeah, of course it’s been billed as David versus Goliath.

The Telegraph reports:

Miss McCann, who lives near Belfast, claims that she is owed £1,009,960 by bet365, which was co-founded and run by Denise Coates [below], who is said to be worth £3.2 billion…the betting company, whose chief executive is Ms Coates, has declined to honour the wager.

It has insisted that Miss McCann is in “flagrant breach” of its own terms and conditions because the firm is convinced the original betting stake was supplied by a ‘third party’. In legal letters from bet365’s lawyers, Miss McCann found herself accused of fraud and cheating.

Miss McCann is understood to vehemently deny any wrongdoing. The successful wager involved a total of 960 £13 each way ‘Lucky 15’ bets placed on 12 horses running in the 6.10 at Bath, the 7.20 at Kempton, and the 7.00 and 8.30 at Naas in Ireland on June 22 last year.

‘Lucky 15’ bets allow a combination of accumulated winnings. But rather than pay up, bet365 has withheld the sum as well as Miss McCann’s initial stake of £24,960.

A day after McCann had struck betting gold, she tried to claim her winning. She was initially congratulated by a bet365 representative, who confirmed the payout request, but things went south the following day.

Following a number of strange questions, including asking what her star sign was, her account was suspended and then closed.

You think they would have done the same if she had lost the money? Nah, me neither.

Even the £24,960 stake has not been returned. At the heart of bet365’s refusal to pay is the betting firm’s insistence that Miss McCann breached a ‘no third party’ rule, which insists the whole stake must be put up by the customer alone…

The case brought by Miss McCann could have profound implications for all customers betting online. Miss McCann’s lawyers, in their correspondence to bet365, allege that its terms and conditions amount to “nothing more than a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ wish list”.

Betting companies stacking the odds in their favour? Who would have thought…

Given that Coates is sitting pretty on a net worth of £3,2 billion (R55 billion), maybe she could take it easy on Miss McCann.

[source:telegraph]