Want to extract £1600 bonus balance from Royal Panda, but account restricted

I’ve been matched betting for just over a month now, and have made almost £700, with no issues whatsoever. However, this changed when I signed up for Royal Panda’s £100 welcome bonus. When trying to bet away the money on there and win it back by laying it on Smarkets, I accidentally won a couple of high odds bets on Royal Panda and ended up with a £1600 promotional balance.

As a result, they decided to limit my account to bets of no more than a pound or so on sports events and told me that I should just use my promotional balance for casino games instead. I thus now have £1600 trapped on Royal Panda that I can’t practically get back without having to place thousands of bets and lay them all on Smarkets.

I have tried initiating a complaint but have just been bounced around several departments who send me their standard copy-and-pasted response. I’m currently waiting on a review by management, but I doubt that they’ll do anything. Is there any way I can easily get the limits lifted and/or get my money back? I was thinking my best bet would be to make a complaint with the relevant regulator, but are there any valid grounds on which I can base this?

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JonnyBoy
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October 31, 2017 at 9:32 pm

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beesty2016 3 October 31, 2017 at 10:33 pm

Sorry to hear this Jonnyboy. My advice would be to try some of the following.

1) Threaten to lodge a complaint to IBAS, the gambling commission, the FCA (financial conduct authority) and even a small claims court if they can’t solve it to your satisfaction by a certain date. Currently there is a review into gambling with FOBT’s but I know there has been some stuff about sign up bonuses with casinos and sportsbooks written in the media. You will have copies of emails so if needed it is worth doing even CC them into any further complaints you make.

2) This would take hours but go round every footy match, tennis match and just back what you can on outcomes without laying them off. All depends on how much you have to wager but it can be possible they will let you have a bigger stake on bigger football leagues.

3) Find a slot game and look for the highest RTP (return to player) on there. If you find one with 96% then the expected value is that you would lose £4 per 100 wagered so if it is £1600 you need to wager then losing £64 may not be the worst scenario. You could leave it on autoplay and decide whether you want to do 10p, 20p, 50p or £1 spins. If it were me my personal preference would be to do 50p spins and leave it on autoplay at the bottom of the screen.

Good luck with it and in the past I have sometimes found that putting a bit of pressure back on them can work as long as it is worded in a firm but fair way.

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MbPunter 24 October 31, 2017 at 10:38 pm

How much do you still have to rollover? Time frame? Any minimum odds?

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MbPunter 24 October 31, 2017 at 10:41 pm

Great advice from Beesty.

Could also try looking up @boycottbetfred and/or @gondorffhenry on twitter. They may be able help.

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westmatch 29 October 31, 2017 at 11:48 pm

I’ve warned people on this forum before about Royal Panda.
They are a nightmare and I can’t believe they are regulated by the UK Gambling Commision.

They changed bonus terms halfway through, then cancelled a bonus and to withdraw? well that’s when it got to scam territory. ID had to be sent, resent, lost, not clear, sent again and lots of people then have to send ID signed by a notary.

Don’t waste your time with live chat, they pass you around and then you get an email after 2 day’s asking for the same stuff again.

Try a regulator and also there is a Martyn Lewis helpsite that is mentioned on the UKGC site that will deal direct with Royal Scamda on your behalf.

Good luck.

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JonnyBoy 0 October 31, 2017 at 11:57 pm

Thanks beesty and MbPunter for the replies. I’m gonna keep up the pressure with customer service and make sure I threaten them with IBAS and FCA complaints in my next emails. If that doesn’t work, I guess I’ll look at potential media interest and get in touch with those two guys on Twitter you mentioned.

I have to bet, in real cash, £1000 on sports events (minimum odds 1.8) or £3500 on casino games, within 90 days (about 10 through now) I’m so far 41.3% through the wagering requirements so I’ll probably deposit more and do the slot games as a last resort.

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westmatch 29 October 31, 2017 at 11:59 pm

Resolver is the Martyn Lewis website that could help.

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JonnyBoy 0 November 1, 2017 at 12:23 am

Ah, that sounds really shitty, westmatch. I think Resolver and IBAS complaints will be my next moves then.

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MbPunter 24 November 1, 2017 at 12:28 am

Ok don’t bother with casino side of things in that case. If you don’t get it sorted through complaints then i would take Beesty’s advice of betting what you can on sports close to minimum odds and don’t bother laying. Even small stakes will add up and 80 days is a long time. You shouldn’t suffer much with variance at tiny stakes. Probably end up a little down after doing £1k worth of bets but much better than having £1600 stuck in there.

Good luck.

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JonnyBoy 0 November 1, 2017 at 2:04 am

Okay, I’ve submitted my complaint via Resolver also. If they do refuse to do anything I’ll escalate to the European Commission’s ODR and Royal Panda’s nominated ADR (forgotten its name now). And if that doesn’t help, I’ll just have to absorb any losses from the £600 of tiny bets I’ll need to make with cash to withdraw the £1600. Over a couple of months, it should be doable, as you say.

Thanks so much for your advice, all three of you!

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betyourtummy 0 November 1, 2017 at 2:25 am

if they buy in the live casino from netent or evolution gaming you might be able to “dutch” live roulette, where u bet red on panda, and black on another site that buys in live casino like mr green trouble is they normally stick live stuff at 20% wager

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bbobb 24 November 1, 2017 at 9:22 am

The problem with Royal Panda is that you cannot use the bonus money to roll over the bonus.

If you want the money back you will need to deposit and rollover with your own funds.

Hw much do you actually have to rollover?

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MbPunter 24 November 1, 2017 at 10:03 am

No idea about Royal Panda but presumably some of the funds are his own? Even if only a couple of hundred, he’s unlikely to run out of that betting £1-2 stakes around the minimum odds.

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bbobb 24 November 1, 2017 at 10:23 am

Sorry, I didnt read you had posted turnover requirements.

Stay away from slots… you will lose it all.

Best idea is to deposit a couple of hundred and put a couple of quid on every draw on the football this weekend without laying. Repeat next weekend and you will probably have completed the turnover.

With variance you will probably lose about £30 or £40 for every £200 staked (maybe less).

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Johnbo 15 November 1, 2017 at 5:58 pm

Shocking that they can do this…

Absolutely sucks but just bet max stakes on every selection close to EVS to complete wagering (should be doable over 80 days), certainly don’t attempt it on casino as RTP% are very misleading.

I was going to do their sign up offer a week or so back but heard too many negative comments- sound like total scumbags!

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JonnyBoy 0 November 1, 2017 at 6:19 pm

Thanks bbobb and Johnbo. The entire £1600 is actually bonus money, so I’m gonna deposit a couple of hundred quid. Royal Panda have said they’ll have completed a review of my complaint within 7 days – if they do nothing, I’ll do what you have suggested and make loads of tiny bets on low odds to unlock the bonus money, and if they lift the limits, I’ll probably just place a couple of large bets to meet the requirements.

Whichever way things go, I’ll still have lost around £100 unfortunately. From now on I’m gonna make sure to back and lay on much higher odds than I have been doing to extract any bonus offers I do.

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