Be careful if you are a fan of online sports betting! Fraud Enforcement has caught several tipsters giving false “good tips” to players, luring them with promises that are too good to be true.
Like other enthusiasts, you may have succumbed to the lure of online services and gambling apps, and more particularly sports betting sites, which have seen their audience explode since the health crisis in 2020. Building on this interest, smart people – who call themselves “predictors” – promise wonders to players by claiming to be able to help them win the jackpot. The proliferation of these prediction and advice services ended up attracting the attention of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Repression (the famous DGCCRF) which, in collaboration with the National Gaming Authority (ANJ), carried out the survey between 2021 and 2022, with the aim of examining their practices. And the least we can say is that the result is not glorious! According to the conclusions of the DGCCRF, four of the eleven companies inspected were found guilty of deception, either because they falsely claimed that a product or service improved the chances of winning at games of chance, or because of failures in the provision of pre-contractual information to consumers. The DGCCRF announced that the files of these four companies, whose names are not communicated, had been sent to the courts.
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On their sites, tipsters regularly provide, free or not, advice – “tips” – in order to correctly analyze the results of sporting events, and more particularly football or basketball championships, and thus to deduce future results – and therefore bet on them and pocket the jackpot. To convince you of the validity of their information, they do not hesitate to display a sumptuous lifestyle that they claim to have achieved thanks to their winning bets, when in reality, they finance it with the subscriptions of their users. . However, by making you believe in an increase in earnings thanks to their advice, they are guilty of deception.
Another breach noted by the DGCCRF: certain sites do not hesitate to broadcast messages indicating that a player who has decided to use the services offered by the tipster has a greater chance of winning money than another player does. not having recourse to it. Scammers use language such as “we help you move into the 10% of bettors who generate a profit in the long term” or “be disciplined and rigorous, this is the basis for finally being part of the 3% of winning bettors in the long term”. However, as the repression of fraud reminds us, “any claim which suggests that a product or service increases the chances of winning at games of chance is misleading in itself”. Finally, it turns out that some of these sites have affiliation contracts with approved online sports betting operators, which allowed them to inflate their income.
The ANJ demanded that approved operators put an end to these practices. Some sites have come into compliance since the investigation, while others have simply ceased operations. However, we must be particularly vigilant with the approach of the Paris Olympic Games in 2024, because scams will undoubtedly multiply. If you spot one or encounter a problem with a product or company, please notify SignalConso.