bet-at-home, a Malta-based sportsbook part of the BetClic Everest Group, has confiscated a €460 balance (€300 deposit + winnings) from an admitted bonus abuser. This person confessed to operating multiple accounts to scam bet-at-home out of giving him several first deposit bonuses. The player said he created an additional 5 or 6 accounts to take advantage of a 100% signup bonus that paid up to €33 on each deposit. All his extra accounts were eventually emptied – no withdrawals were made on them. The player claims that he has been a losing bet-at-home customer overall.

Sportsbooks that offer signup bonuses must protect themselves against customer fraud. Bonus abuse and multi-accounting has forced sportsbooks to spend a great deal of resources on fraud management. In some cases some sportsbooks have chosen to not offer bonuses to certain regions or specific deposit methods.

In this case the player was in clear violation of bet-at-home’s rules but he did not profit from his attempts to scam the sportsbook, which means that the sportsbook had no right to confiscate his deposit.