In the latest episode of the BETonSPORTS saga, an update from Vantis shows that things are moving forward. The liquidators confirmed to us that they have contacted all players who had email addresses listed with any of the betting brands under the BETonSPORTS betting umbrella!
This has been a daunting task with Vantis sending out over 55,000 individual email messages prior to Christmas! One problem the company has found - over 20,000 emails were returned as undelivered. Vantis will be resending the note to players who bounced or have not responded within the next two weeks.
The email sent verifies players’ claims and their address details which will “be the basis of calculating a dividend payment to players at a future date.” No date has yet been given.
We have been critical of Vantis, echoing the frustrations of players whose funds have been in limbo for over 18 months. In all fairness, this has proven to be a monumental undertaking for Vantis and they have made significant progress since being brought in to clean up a year-old mess back in October. A representative told us that they are trying their “very best to salvage the best outcome for all the players in what is a difficult situation.”
Still, we were hoping to get regular updates from Vantis. However, “due to the size and complexity of this case nothing is likely to change on a month by month basis”. The best that we can expect is an update on a quarterly basis. The last update posted by Vantis was back on November 6. We should expect a more formal announcement by the end of February.
Vantis did ask that general inquiries – ‘when will we get our money’, ‘how much is the settlement going to be’, etc be kept to a minimum. ‘Dealing with this type of enquiry just generates further unnecessary costs at the detriment to creditors”, we were told.
Nevertheless, we did ask several pointed questions that we hear over and over again from disheartened gamblers and aggravated players. Vantis was very forthcoming with information.
Multiple Accounts
One question that we have gotten continually comes to us from players who had accounts at multiple betting brands under the BOS label. Many BETonSPORTS players also had accounts at sportsbooks that were purchased in recent years by the former gaming giant. We have heard from hundreds of players have not received correspondence regarding ALL of their accounts. Vantis does have a remedy for this situation.
“If players with second accounts have not received a second email they should log into their first account and forward details of their second account by using the 'contact' tab. We will then contact them advising how they can verify their second account,” a representative informed us.
No Email?
The second big inquiry comes from players via our phone lines on a daily basis. These are typically players who do not have an email address or did not have one at the time of BETonSPORTS demise. Vantis will be “writing to creditors by regular US mail for those that do not have email addresses on file”. However as many of the email addresses supplied by players to BETonSPORTS appear to be incorrect or out-of-date, the liquidators fear that, “this may well be the case with mailing addresses”.
We urge these players to wait for contact via the US mail. If a player without Internet access does not hear from Vantis by the end of February, please call us toll-free at (877) 674-2238 for updates.
Contact Form…
Finally, Vantis has told us that it will be posting a questionnaire on its website for players that have not been contacted. This contact form should be available by the end of this month. Any players who have not received notification after February 1 are urged seek out the form on the website that Vantis has setup - https://betonsports.vantisplc.com. We will also post a link to the questionnaire on osga.com.
