Curly Seal (pictured at top) is a controversial and well known rather infamous character in the Australian bookmaking diaspora.
A man renowned in racing circles for taking bets and then betting them back to shave a free slice, Seal came to national prominence when pro punter Steve Fletcher and his then backer Eddie Hayson played him at his own game and took $700k from him in a sting at a midweek greyhound meeting in the early 2000’s.
Curly, a master of enforcing debts owed to him by desperate punters, refused to pay what was lawfully owing, and the matter ended up in court, with Seal losing.
It must have burned at him ever since, because his latest venture – the online bookmaker BetBarn – is the worst outfit in the business, and probably the most bent too.
BetBarn will take your exotic bets for whatever amount you want to put on them, but will only pay you a pittance on a big dividend in return.
Curly’s maximum payouts are as follows:
That’s just great isn’t it?
Imagine if you’d got the First 4 in the last at Perth on Saturday, which paid $10 127.70.
Under BetBarn’s rules Curly would have given you less than half that, just $5000.
The same with the Perth quaddie.
That paid $18 194.50, but under the Seal rules you would have got just ten grand.
It’s criminal, morally if not legally.
But that’s Curly for you, the tightest twister in Christendom.
The good news is that he has met his comeuppance.
Our mate Melbourne Mick is a lawyer, punter and bookmaker’s son. Like me he’s been around racetracks since he could crawl (we met in the creche at the track), clerked for his Dad for years, and for a short time until it went bad 30 something years ago subsisted in comfort and grace as a professional punter.
In other words, when it comes to the punt and reading rules, Melbourne Mick is no fool.
Last night Mick outlaid $550 on a quaddy with Betbarn on the Victorian trots.
He got the first leg, and had the fave one-out in the second.
It was scratched at the start.
Now if Mick had placed the bet on the TAB – which he didn’t – his whole investment would have gone on the sub, the new favourite in the race, and he would have lost because it did.
But under Curly Seal’s rules which Mick had studied intently prior to placing his bet – specifically part 4K(v) of BetBarn’s wagering rules – when a runner forming part of a Customer’s exotics selections is either scratched or declared a ‘non-runner’ after the wager is confirmed, the Customer receives a refund in respect of every combination that includes the scratched runner.
Because he’d stood the declared non runner one-out, every combination of Melbourne Mick’s quaddy included the scratched runner.
It’s a no brainer then that he should be refunded his whole $550.
After all, the rules are black and white, and they say so.
As he proved in the Hayson/Fletcher case however, and as he continues to show through his reduced exotic dividends, Curly Seal doesn’t care a lot for the rules, even when sets them himself, and he cares even less for paying.
BetBarn refused to refund Mick his lawfully entitled 550 bucks.
This was their reply to his request for a refund when they didn’t pay it automatically like they should have.
There are a few problems with it.
One is that BetBarn hasn’t been around for 30 years – it’s only been a registered bookie for a year or two – so the company couldn’t possibly have rules dating back that far.
Two is that Seal’s dodge ball outfit is quoting the TAB rules, when they are not the TAB or related to it.
And three is that his own rules state that BetBarn must refund quaddy bets on one of the runners in a leg where it is scratched.
Put simply, Curly Seal’s folk are full of shit, and are trying to avoid their obligation to repay Melbourne Mick’s bet.
Horses for course, form being true, and leopards not changing their spots.
Curly is as slippery as a seal alright, and anyone silly enough to bet with the character bearing the name of a smelly slime ball of mammal does so at their own risk.
The risk of not being paid.
Sadly for Mr Seal however, he’s met his match here.
Melbourne Mick might be as mad as a snake, but he’s crazy in a Vincent Van Gogh or Albert Einstein sort of way, meaning that despite his appearance and demeanour he’s off the scale intelligent, and a fighter too.
Mick won’t take a backward step here, and he will get his five hundred and fifty, as sure as night follows day, or BetBarn rips off punters, don’t you worry about that.
He’s got right, might and God on his side.
Bless you my children.