My deposit of £50 needn't have been. They should have given me my free bet for a £25 deposit. That was the first piece of misleading information from IASBet.
My £50 deposit actually cost me £51.85 - I'm presuming that the difference is in the currency conversion. I was also charged £1.50 by my bank. This is a loss of £3.35 before I even began to bet. Add to this the £2.72 loss from the qualifying bet, and I'm £6.07 down.
From the website (the exchange rate must be lousy):
All foreign currency credit/debit card deposits are billed at the CBA universal foreign exchange rate of the day.
My IASBet account is showing £111 and their online chat help informed me that I could withdraw without losing my free bet.
There are rules that Australian betting sites have to adhere to regarding fraud prevention, apparently. This means that the VISA debit card I used to deposit has to be verified, and my identity has to be verified before they will honour any withdrawal requests. This involves sending them an image of both sides of the debit card and enough photographic, address and signatory evidence to satisfy their scoring system. This effectively meant me sending images of my driver's license and my passport. I used encrypted WinZip to send the images by email.
The withdrawal request still didn't go through. Apparently, they don't process withdrawals back onto the debit card used for deposit if it is not Australian. This is contrary to the website which states:
We are unable to process withdrawals to MasterCard holders outside Australia. In the event that you have deposited via MasterCard and wish to make a withdrawal, you will be required to register your card prior to withdrawing to an alternative mechanism (i.e. bank transfer, NETeller, or Moneybookers). To register your card, please submit a legible copy of the front and back of your MasterCard and suitable government-issued identification.
In all other instances, all winnings must be withdrawn to the same card from which the initial deposit was made. Withdrawals to debit/credit cards typically take 5 business days.
I would interpret that as meaning that I CAN use by VISA debit card as the withdrawal mechanism, but I'm being told that I will have to send my bank details for an international bank transfer. I will probably lose money on the exchange rate again.
As far as the free bet is concerned, similar to CanBet, their free bet options are extremely limited. The one with the soonest result is the winner of the US Open Women's tennis. I bet my £50 free bet on Serena Williams to win at 3.25 with a corresponding lay of £31.69 at 3.6 (liability £82.39). This will give a £30.11 profit, but I can't withdraw the winnings without betting it through twice. We'll cross that bridge ...
Update: Just spoke to a nice man from Australia who phoned me while I was using the online chat. He has clarified the situation. I will need to supply my international account details, including IBAN and Swift codes if I am ever to see my money.
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