If you are one of the many people currently waiting for information from BetButler, Momaco or Insolve Plus then you should've received an email from the latter today. The insolvency practitioner has confirmed a meeting will be held at the end of the month to place BetButler into voluntary liquidation. Voluntary, not forced, not pushed, they've decided it's a good time to do it, probably now all the money has gone! |
The basics of the email are that if you are a creditor, then you should contact Insolve Plus with details of your claim prior to the meeting 30 October 2014. If you don't lodge a claim before then I'm not sure if you can or not later. No point standing on ceremony though, just get it in.
There are definitely still questions outstanding about this process, and a massive question mark over whether any of the customers will see their funds returned to them.
For starters this meeting is to discuss the liquidation of Bet Butler Limited, company number 06363389. It does not include Bet Clearer Limited who were the sole owners of Bet Butler Limited.
Back in June customers were sent the following update to their terms and conditions. It clearly states that client funds are held under an account held by Bet Clearer Limited, not Bet Butler. As Bet Clearer isn't part of this insolvency process (or at least it appears not to be) then do clients actually have a claim to with Bet Butler or not?
Dear X,
We are writing to advise you of an update to our current Terms & Conditions.
The update relates to a change in the way in which customer/player funds will be managed and administered, and is cited in full below for your ease of reference. We are upgrading the terms and conditions so that customer funds are ring fenced and protected at all times.
C. YOUR FINANCES
3. Other
3.5 Customer funds are retained in a separate client bank account, in the name of BetClearer Ltd, which is the parent company of BetButler Ltd, the licensee. Funds held in this account remain independent of any other corporate funds, and may not be used to discharge any other debts, liabilities or obligations.
You can also find this information under the Payments and Banking section of our FAQs: Are my funds protected?’
You do not need to do anything, as by continuing to access our website and use your account, you will be deemed to have accepted the amendment.
If you do not agree however, and do not wish to continue to operate your account as a result of the amendment, please contact our Customer Support team.
Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for continuing to choose Bet Butler, and should you have any further questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Best wishes,
Bet Butler
Love to hear from any legal experts out there whether a company can sub divide itself in such a manner that one has the cash, the other the liabilities, and then one can be folded with no assets leaving the customers high and dry and a £1 sale of the client database to another operator.
This whole thing really stinks, and when you really want your regulator to step up, provide information and guidance, well instead of that you get this sort of thing to reasonable requests for information.
We can’t comment on individual operators’ applications or cases and you may wish to direct some of your queries directly to Momaco or Insolve Plus.