Betfair Faces Calls to Return Profits After Fraudster’s £1 Million in Gambling Losses

• Court papers say Andrew Morford repeatedly sought Betfair self-exclusion, unsuccessfully
• VIP treatment and hospitality allegedly continued as he lost £1m+
• Charity and GamLearn want Betfair to return gambling losses via divestment

A gambling addict who stole £340K ($432K) from his employer repeatedly asked to be excluded from Betfair but was instead treated as a VIP customer, according to court documents. During that period, he was offered complimentary hospitality at sporting events and allowed to lose more than £1 million ($1.27 million) over several years.

Last Wednesday, Andrew Morford, a former finance manager, received a two-year suspended prison sentence after admitting to taking the money from Co-operative Development Services (CDS), a charitable housing organization, The Guardian reports.

Court documents show Morford siphoned off the funds from CDS between May 2019 and February 2024.

Judge Silas Reid said Morford’s gambling addiction was a “very significant mitigating factor” in deciding to impose a lenient sentence.

Repeated Exclusions

Morford first asked to be permanently self-excluded from Betfair in 2008, three years after he began using the platform. Although the operator complied, he was later able to open another account simply by registering under the name “Andy” rather than “Andrew.”

He self-excluded again in 2010 but reversed that decision two years later and went on to lose £659K ($837K) over the following five years.

Despite these red flags, the account was described internally by Betfair as being at the “low end of medium risk,” according to documents disclosed in court. The operator also missed multiple opportunities to identify Morford, including in August 2022, when he signed off an email to his VIP account manager using his real name.

He did so again in March 2023. This time, a staff member checked the name against the company’s database and discovered the player had a history of circumventing self-exclusion.

Even after this discovery, Morford went on to deposit more than £550K ($699K) and lose tens of thousands of pounds more before Betfair finally suspended the account.

Betfair Considering Divestment

Now, CDS, alongside GamLearn, a nonprofit that supports gambling addicts who have committed crimes, is calling on Betfair to return the money it earned from Morford’s gambling losses.

Flutter Entertainment-owned Betfair told The Guardian it would review the matter now that the criminal proceedings have concluded.

We have an established divestment process, to which this case will be subject once criminal proceedings have completed,” a spokesperson said, adding that the company takes player safety seriously.

The spokesperson said Morford had “impersonated his father on multiple calls with our teams, including safer gambling interactions where he reassured us that he was in control of his spending, and provided documentation in his father’s name.”

CDS pursued a civil claim against Morford and recovered £575K ($730K), with part of the repayment coming from his £100K ($127K) pension and his 50% stake in the family home, valued at £110K ($140K).