Off Shore Gaming Association

Today, beleaguered BETonSPORTS players were sent an update from the corporate liquidator of the now defunct sportsbook.

The process to pay back players who had a balance when the U.S. Department of Justice decided to arrest the CEO of the company has been going on for over three years. Initially players were given good news, that they would be paid. But then, the employees of the company were let go and the assets were turned over to Vantis, a huge accounting firm in England that handles corporate insolvency and creditor services. Vantis became involved late in the game and they are clearly making sure that I’s get dotted and t’s get crossed. Every six months or so, they produce an ‘update’ for players who are still waiting to be paid.

The latest update letter from today can be found here.

today’s release addresses the fact that Vantis is still pursuing more funds owed to the defunct organization. An update back in July from the company contained similar rhetoric. This most recent letter shows an alarming fact – vendors (trade creditors) are owed more than respondent players! And, not surprisingly, it also shows, as with any of this type of legal entanglement, the only ones really getting paid are the lawyers and the courts. Legal fees and other disbursements have managed to devour over 30% of the funds available or approximately $75 per player.

The note also addresses the recent plea and forfeiture of mega-millions by founder Gary Kaplan to the U.S. DOJ. Vantis states, “We immediately sought legal advice in the U.S. with a view to laying claim to a portion of these funds on behalf of the Betonsports creditors and after careful consideration of the options open to us we have now lodged a petition with the U.S. Attorney General under U.S. Remission Proceedings. We await the outcome of the Attorney General’s deliberations.”

OSGA contacted the Assistant United States Attorney Charles S. Birmingham almost immediately after the announcement of Kaplan forfeiting $43.6 million and was told that this was not BETonSPORTS money. Hopefully, Vantis has an experienced legal team and solid case logic working on getting a portion of the forfieted cash. Just a portion of these funds would be all that is needed to pay back every player AND creditor every dime owed. And that would be legal money well spent.

So, it does appear that Vantis is doing what is necessary to get the most money back for players. This most recent announcement is loaded with actual facts and appears to be very forthcoming to people who are out money from this entire debacle.

But, what it doesn’t give, and what we hear about daily on our phones lines, chat and email inbox is . . . “When?” As in, when will the money, whatever portion of it, be sent to customers? We certainly cannot even begin to speculate on payout dates after all this time has passed. If nothing revolutionary occurs, expect Vantis to bring us all up to speed in June 2010. In the meantime, check back here or our offshore report regularly for updates.

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The third anniversary of the arrest of BETonSPORTS’ CEO David Carruthers was last Friday. Players are still waiting for their dough. Or someone to tell them when they will get their dough. Or at least, verify the payout percentage that has been talked about so far.

So, three years and one week after this whole mess began, Vantis, the publicly traded, London-based account firm contacted players using email (it’s free). However, players did not get the response they were looking for. They were told to hang in there….Vantis is working on it.

The email states that they are still looking for corporate records, some of which are in Costa Rica. They may find Bin Laden before they find these records. The company ceased its operations there in late 2007 and unless there is a tin-covered storage shack somewhere in the hills of San Jose, any records there must be long gone by now.

Like the money. Long Gone. For a company that was worth 250 million or more on the London Stock exchange prior to July 2006, what happened to all of the money?

The Insider found out from a very reliable source several weeks ago that court proceedings were taking place in Germany for $2 million that was in a BETonSPORTS account at the time of their demise. Repeated emails to Vantis to verify our findings went unanswered. The email sent to players this week confirms this tip. This is good news for everyone waiting for money and it does show that Vantis is actively seeking more money for players.

OSGA has been told as recently as November 2008 that the figure that currently being held in escrow to pay players is two million USD (we had originally been told three million by BOS). Vantis states that player claims are $8,078,073. And, in a new twist, trade creditors, never mentioned before, agreed to some $5,808,012 more. That’s nearly 14 million.

And really, should trade creditors even be involved in any type of monetary settlement? They never deposited with this company. They were never lied to that their funds were secure. Many of these companies have fed off of the gambling industry for year and should ‘take it on the chin’, as so many players have had to do over the years.

I was never very good at math. But if there is 2 million available right now, that would mean that players should be getting nearly 15% (13,866,085 x 15% = 2,082,912). However, they are being told 5%. And, if Vantis recovers 2 million more, that’s an extra 15% for players. We have asked Vantis to clarify the percentage and if vendor-creditors will be getting the same percentage as player-creditors.

Players who have contacted us in recent weeks are growing very weary of the situation, as are we. Several calls and emails start by mentioning just how long this has gone on and ask, “Shall I just forget about this?” For players who have waited this long, there does appears to be some movement in this case. We have asked Vantis again if there is a time-frame for payouts but urge players to hang in there.

We are awaiting answers from the corporate liquidators.

We hope that Vantis is able to get the $2 million that they are in court seeking. However, we urge them, once there is two million more in the coffers, disperse what is there. After more than three years, end this ordeal for everyone. A final figure of $4 million would yield players at least 25% (13,866,085 x 25% = 3,466,521) of what they were owed. That’s more than shareholders received, more than ex-BOS employees got and certainly more than David Carruthers got.

The e-mail sent to BETonSPORTS players from Vantis can be found here.

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We have reports that players from beleaguered and bankrupt sportsbook giant BETonSPORTS are begin contacted again. This time the email comes from Vantis, a forensic accounting firm in England that has been appointed receiver and liquidator of the now defunct sportsbook. We were given an advance copy of this email yesterday and have been working with Vantis since that time to clear up some of the inevitable questions..

The highlights of the letter provide insights into several of the questions that we have been getting from players every day for the last 22 months; “How much are we going to get?” and “When can we expect to get a payout?”

The answers two these two questions are more bad news and not what any of us want to hear. The email states, “we do not anticipate that any distribution to creditors will be any more than a few cents in the dollar.” Vantis also states that, “we do not anticipate reporting to you further until December 2008.”

This is most distressing news and we have already heard from several angry players who have written in to let us know that this is a “Ripoff” and asking, “Where did all of the money go?” We could not agree more! Why are there not enough funds to pay back the company’s previous depositors?

We did contact Vantis, and were informed that BETonSPORTS owes out double what we had been told from the exiting regime when the book was shut down. In addition, it would stand to reason that since less than 20% of the players who were owed money by BETonSPORTS replied and filed claims, that there would be plenty of money to satisfy their outstanding balances. However, it turns out that the company has only several million to settle outstanding claims; they fall over $25 million short of their obligations.

Vantis also mentions in their email that they are still actively seeking funds owed to the sportsbook from ‘substantial debtors based in various jurisdictions around the world’. They continue by letting players know that they ‘may now have to commence legal proceedings in those jurisdictions’. This could force this entire saga to continue for many more months; In fact, until the end of 2008 . . . at best. The last sentence of Vanits’ email reads, “As and when we have anything significant to report to you, we will write further, if not, we do not anticipate reporting to you further until December 2008.” OMG!

We asked the liquidators if they would consider making partial initial payments to players, while they continue to hunt for more player funds around the globe. We received no answer to this request. We also asked if there would be a ‘drop dead date’, where Vantis would stop looking for more money and stop looking for more BETonSPORTs players and untimately, make payouts. Again, no response. Vantis does appear to be working diligently to finalize these proceedings, but the end result will most certianly fall short of everyone’s expectations.

For those without email, Vantis may finally be ready to make contact. They have asked the High Court of Antigua for permission to contact those players by ‘mail & public advertisement’. However, we are not sure that these players will want the information that their online counterparts have received…..

So, this whole mess will be more than two years old in July and still nothing has been resolved. For a company that at one time was worth nearly a quarter of a billion dollars and had over 15 million in player deposits, one has to wonder where all of the money went. David Carruthers is still under house arrest, Gary Kaplan is still sitting in jail and players still have no money. No one has been brought to trial and this situation certainly has no justice. There are still plenty of sportsbooks operating around the world taking bets from US players. All the US government did in this situation was aid BOS in ripping off tens of thousands of people.

I think that both the BOS players and stock holders would agree.

Read the full email from Vantis here.

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Today the Off Shore Gaming Association sent over the first of what will be several files of players who have not been contacted by Vantis regarding their balances at BETonSPORTs or any of its affiliated properties.

This initial list consisted of dozens of players who have no email address and no consistent Internet availability. All of these players had contacted us via our toll free numbers. In an effort to send the most complete and correct information possible on these players, an OSGA representative had contacted each of the players to again verify their information.

Vantis has gone out with a second round of emails to any players that did not respond to their first blast. However, players without Internet access will probably still be waiting awhile. As we reported last week, Vantis plans to ‘exhaust’ email prior to sending out letters to players, though we have urged them to give additional consideration to non-Internet players.

If you have not heard yet from Vantis, please go to https://betonsports.vantisplc.com/newclaim.aspx and fill out the New Claim Form they have created. Again, if you have a new email address or no email address at all the email field on this form is marked (required) but your submission will be accepted without this information.

If you know of a player who is unable to access the Internet, have them give an OSGA representative a call toll-free at (877) 674-2238.

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Not Just Yet. 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. However, 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.

We continue to hear from players who have not yet heard from Vantis at all and from gamblers who had accounts at multiple betting brands under the BOS label. In addition, many BETonSPORTS players 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.

Regarding players with multiple accounts…

“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.

For those players who have not yet been contacted keep your eye out for an email or a piece of US mail, outlining the next steps to take. At worst, Vantis plans to put up a questionairre on the website that they have setup - https://betonsports.vantisplc.com. Check back for this contact form after the Super Bowl.

For more please read the article on our free website at osga.com.

Support your right to gamble and protect your online gaming experience with a membership to OSGA. Sign up today at OSGA.com.

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BETonSPORTS players continue to contact us regarding emails received from Vantis. Their sportsbetting, casino and poker operations shut down over a year ago, BETonSPORTS employed a ‘liquidator’ to close their business affairs nearly two months ago. This week Vantis finally began to contact players via email.

The email comes from Vantisplc.com and directs players to a website - http://betonsports.vantisplc.com. At this point you are given the option to login with the shiny, new creditor reference number from your email and your email address. Once signed in you can expect to see your name, address, BOS (or affiliate) account number and amount. You then must verify your balance. Once this is all completed you will still get the message:

“Please bear in mind that due to the volume of claims we have received we will not be in a position to report further to you until at least May 2008.”

We have had reports of players who had multiple accounts only getting emails for the lowest balance. We have have reports of players who had bonus money taken out of their balance. And, we have had many reports where player still have received no contact as of yet.

Unfortunately, we attempted to contact Vantis several times since we first heard of this on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, our emails have gone unanswered and our phone calls rejected. Today, we found out that the three leads on this project are all off on holiday until Jan 2, 2008.

There are many questions that we are seeking the answers to including, What about players who have multiple accounts? Should these players verify the balance on the one that comes without seeing the other balances? What about players with no email address? When will they be contacted?

So, as of this writing, some of you are feeling a bit better about getting your funds inn 2008, while most of us sit and wonder what is going to happen next. Still, some contact shows that Vantis is indeed looking to finalize all of this prior to the next BETonSPORTS court date in June……

We will contact Vantis again after the 2nd and report in this space. Please let us know of any questions you would like answered by responding to this BLOG entry below.

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