IBAS - Independent Betting Adjudication Service Reviews 

I have had the pleasure of using IBAS on two occasions, and both times they resolved my issues to the highest standard of satisfaction. On my first case, Ron Hearn proved to be an absolute star—his professionalism, expertise, and dedication were truly second to none. For my second issue, the ever-lovely James Ironside stepped in and once again delivered a brilliant result, ensuring the problem was fixed with care and efficiency.

IBAS consistently demonstrates why they are such a trusted authority in the industry. While they understandably cannot support every case, in matters where common sense and fairness prevail, they always work toward a suitable and balanced solution. Their diligence and expertise shine through at every step.

A key piece of advice: never accept a bookmaker’s initial offer if you feel it is unfair or wholly inadequate. Instead, turn to IBAS for guidance—they provide an invaluable service for punters and give you the confidence that your case will be reviewed with impartiality and care.

Thank you once again to the IBAS team, especially Ron and James, for your fantastic support. I would not hesitate to recommend IBAS to anyone seeking fairness and resolution in disputes with bookmakers.

No surprises with the total number of bad reviews left by this company, it is plain and obvious that they are in bed with these betting companies.

Had a situation where a card total bet was paid out - following a second yellow card resulting in a red card (over 5.5 paid out)

Had the exact same issue where a red card was awarded and they refused to pay out - they cited "the bet was resettled as a gesture of goodwill" NO IT WASN'T. It was simply resettled with no word of any gesture.

They are slow, inefficient and quite frankly rude - i shall take the case within the UK court system and request that their practices are also looked into.

I was owed 11,775 from magricred casino , I was paid in under a week and during the Christmas holidays thanks to IBAS , the man who helped me was ron, THANK YOU RON .

Give Ron a pay rise ;)

First class service they do exactly what they where set up to do, I leave you to work out what that is, as you soon will be aware of as soon as you make contact with them……….

Reading their responses to negative and critical reviews. There's definitely an aura of arrogance with IBAS and lack of respect for those who come to them for assistance. Plus always believing they are right and knowing there's no body to prove them otherwise. Quite alarming for a service like this to handle complaints at the next level when going through the betting company itself doesn't work

My experience with IBAS and, specifically, Mr Ironside, has been second to none.

In July 2024, I lost a significant amount of money as a result of an unexpected error on the Betfair platform, which they refused to take responsibility for when I contacted them directly. It took me a while to lodge a case with IBAS as I was shaken by the experience, and was reluctant to revisit it. From the very beginning, Mr Ironside put me at ease and his communications were clear and respectful. Having never experienced the process before, I sought his advice and he was always impartial and professional, guiding me through the correspondence with Betfair and trying to find a solution. Together, we went through a series of negotiations with Betfair who, last week, finally repaid the entire amount I lost. I am absolutely delighted and thank Mr Ironside and his team very much for their diligence and dedication to my case.

Having read some of the reviews on this site, I was hesitant to even proceed with a case because it appeared that it would be a waste of time. Now, I can only assume those reviewers are angry that their cases were unsuccessful and this is reflected in their reviews. My experience has been quite different and I would encourage anyone who believes they have been unfairly treated by a bookie to file a case with IBAS. I can unequivocally say I felt supported by IBAS and not once did I feel they were in favour of the bookie. It has been a reassuring and positive experience for me from the start.

Absolutely useless,definitely corrupted...they sent me exactly same statement as the betting company i was complaining about,literally copied&paste....OPTA said this,OPTA said that...you should be independent,not OPTA's slaves...because that's exactly what you are!!!When i have bet about the player commites the foul,and he did,and was given yellow card for that( !!!) and you are covering up bookies decision,using their words...disgusting!!!

Independent they are not. They should be called CBAS

Complicit Betting Assisted Service.

Failed to even call me despite repeated requests for a quick call to clarify what was a complex bet in writing. Instead CBAS employees prefer to hide behind a keyboard and investigated a complaint completely wrongly. Then sided with those charlatans at Skybet.

CBAS not fit for purpose.Ignore the 5 star.reviews these guys are in bed with the betting industry. Not Independent nor professional.

The response from.Richard below elucidates the precise problem with CBAS. They don't want phone calls but happily waste time to and fro with messages. They won't make calls even when requested deciding they are already judge and jury and in the words of Richard we deal.with compex cases well.why ade you so afraid of talking to customers to clarify your understanding. Sometimes Richard a call helps to clarify and make matters simpler to understand while allowing an organisation to use its time wisely But of course CBAS is not interested in establishing the truth/ nor facts. Even when they are told they are poor they think otherwise- CBAS are always right it seems
They are interested in box ticking and hiding behind a poor case management system and bad policies. Skybet know this and happily shaft customers knowing CBAS are pointless

Had to give then a 1 rating as no option to pick lower Pointless quango organisation!

NO MATTER WHAT THEY WILL ALWAYS SIDE WITH THE COMPANY AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY. THE ONLY TIME IT GOES IN YOUR FAVOUR IS IF YOU HAVE SO MUCH THAT GOING AGAINST YOU COULD PUT THEM IN JEPOADY. ANOTHER SCAM SERVICE THE LOVELY U.K OFFERS.

IBAS have supported me in relation to a claim against Betfred in which they suspended my account and would not pay out my winnings.

The whole team have been fantastic, responded promptly and kept me up to date when Betfred did not.

A special mention to James Ironside who has shows brilliant support, response times so quick and managed to get me the result I wanted.

IBAS are a must for any disputes with betting companies.

Thank you again IBAS.

Chris T

I WANT TO MAKE CLEAR TO PEOPLE WHO GAMBLE , AND TRYING TO GET THIS FIRM TO BACK YOU UP IS A WASTE OF OF TIME, EVERY 1 OF THESE WORKERS WHO WORK AT IBAS ON LINE EITHER IN BED WITH THESE BETTING FIRMS OR HAVE A MASSIVE CHIP ON THERE SHOULDER OR ON DRUGS, THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO BE ON YOUR SIDE, TO SORT THESE BENT BOOKMAKERS OUT , ON YOUR BEHALF, A WORKER WHO WORKS FOR IBAS HAS BEEN HANDLING MY CASE AGAINST BET MGM THE NAME OF WORKER CHEVELLE BISCETTE, NOT ONLY CANT ENGLISH , BUT HER VIEWS IS NIL, POOR AND THE SILLY LITTLE GIRL DOESNT KNOW WHAT TO DO, I AM GOING THROUGH PROCESS IN MY CONTACTING MY MP FOR CORBY, THIS IBAS FIRM SUPPOSE TO BE THE OMBUDSMAN , I HAVE ALSO ASKED LEE THE MP CONTACT HOME SEC ,THESE WORKING FOR IBAS NEED A GOOD KICK UP THE BACKSIDES,

made lots of deposits on a card not in my name. they accepted all deposits over a period of time. I made more deposits and then tried to cashout. My account was immediately suspended. IBAS say that because the funds came from a 3rd party I have no rights to withdraw any funds. So, Betfred can take your money but when you cashout they dont allow. much more to follow

quoted a company's wrong terms and conditions to side with them.

My case with ibas was truly extraordinary and is as clear and concise an example of how they side with operator's based on an imbalance of power, only when they are called out but those who know what they are about do they then apologies and make up excuses.
This organisation when siding with an operator against me quoted WRONG terms and conditions and provided WRONG information, these ofcourse were used as clearly stated by them to adjudicate against me however when it was put to them the the t&C's that they quoted where emphatically wrong as was the information that the operator provided that ibas quoted ( it suddenly was a mute point)- basically it only becomes a mute point when IBAS are called out for their incompetence, lack of diligence and habitual process of quoting operator's terms and conditions.
For everyone out their don't use this service they are emphatically not fit for purpose, are legally misguided and only use retrospective examples of previous adjudications when its used to side with the operator. We all know that the gambling Industry has gone to pot, this lot are part of the problem. They are so legally profoundly incompetent that their service can not and never will be an appropriate place to legally challenge an operator who can't wait to pass you on to this organisation... Ask yourself why?

Ps the gambling operator is not an agent of the tote and tote bets absolutely can be cancelled before the first the race- don't let gambling operator's tell you otherwise and certainly don't let ibas copy and paste the operator's legally wrong terms and conditions.

They took my complaint very seriously and were very helpful. In fact their advice could have been decisive.

There is no way u should be allowed to run as the ombudsman. The service should be totally independant and have nothing to do with you and the pathetic imcompetent UKGC. We need someone who can actually put pressure on the UKGC and tell them how incompetent thay really are. The problem is that gambling still has so much corruption and deceit and lies involved and we need someone who can investigate companies like playtech and evolution gaming etc and dig deep onto the fraud from countries like Malta and Latvia that have online casinos so rigged its fraudalent how thay are allowed to operate.

Had a dispute with a company who said they were excluding a card I used but I missed the email and kept depositing money which was accepted over and over by betting company . Betting company shut my account suddenly and thst is when I found out they had emailed to
Advise exclusion of a card. Betting company refused to return my deposit money
Contacted IBAS spoke to a James Ironside and this man listened , understood and passed on complaint to the adjudicators, who after 6 weeks made a final decision the betting company was wrong and I just had my significant deposit returned into my account from the betting company today
Totally over the moon , I cannot thank IBAS enough for their patience with me and their help , I would have been lost without them
Totally recommend this company

had put an anti post 8 fold football bet with sky bet in October and a few months later because all of the selections where all doing very well for the £15 stake they where offering £217 on the cash out obviously with a long way to go of the football season , i let it go on because the pay out if all came in was exactly £12,278 but then a few days later after most of the selections had a good weekend i logged in to the account only to see a pop up message wich stated that the account had been suspended they said to send in some photo with ID wich I did and then they kept saying the same thing asking the same over and over for months till eventually got fed up of it all as it looked in Feb--march time that the bet was going to go down but it has now eventually won all 8 selections have come in , and suddenly after the confirmed winners had been sorted Sky bet re opened the account and in amasment the bet had one selection changed and where confirmed runners up they had changed Portsmouth in league 1 wich where champions to Derby county runners up but Derby was a totally different price at 7s to Portsmouth at 6s meaning that the amount would not add up to what was written down on the betslip after it was placed because the only selection wich would of paid out the £12,278 was Portsmouth, Derby would of been over £14k but they had changed even that 100% they have committed fraud and only re opened my account after the winners where confirmed and IBAS has told me that they can't do nothing won't even contact them about it even to ask as to why was there a cash out offered so high to this bet of £217 after a short period wich if it had derby in it wich where in 5th place at that time the offer was made and where 10 points adrift they would not of been offering even the stake back if it was Derby in the bet it is obvious that the team Portsmouth which was in it was doing very well , on top 4 points clear that is why they where offering this £217 at that time and when after the following weekend results won they suddenly suspended the account and did not open it up even thou everything that was asked for was sent then all of a sudden they asked again for ID and re opened my account after Portsmouth where confirmed winners and they had removed them and re placed with a looser the season was over it stinks to the hilt of fraud and IBAS don't want to know and they are the police of the Gambling industry don't know who to turn to my god how on earth can they get away with stealing over £12k from someone that have chosen rightly 8 selections and waited 8 months for it horrible people in this world and IBAS can't be asked even to go and ask some questions inspecialy about why they where offering such a cash out with one selection 10 points behind it not hard is it to work my god our police not bothered about a fraud such as this , (Ron hearn) remember the name in charge of my complaint is such an arrogant person who 100% should not be working with such a firm to help people but he does nothing to help anyone its like he is on the bookies side dont think he has anything between them eyes who else is out there to try and sort something like this as IBAS is none existing in specially when on the other side you have Ron Hearn my god what a nightmare

I was using IBAS to resolve a dispute with Copybet bookmakers as they froze my account when I requested a withdrawal. I sent copybet bank’s statements, bank cards and id, but they refused to reply to any of my requests. They replied to ibas’s request but would not email me personally. Copybet now just emailed me personally for the first time in months, asking for a bank statement. I REFUSE to give copybet my bank statement as they are a rogue company and I DO NOT trust them with sensitive information. Copybet had previous bank statements clearly showing copybet on a deposit. I informed ron hearn(ibas) of this. He has now sided with Copybet as I refuse to give them any more of my documents. When it became apparent that I wasn’t prepared to give copybet anymore documents, Ron Hearn's(IBAS) became arrogant and condescending on his final emails to me, Not fully recognising that id been scammed and was at my whits end. I will now disrupt copybet and its endorsers on the race course as IBAS and the gambling commission are in bed the copybet and bookies in general. The whole racing community, riders, trainers, owners, IBAS and the gambling commission are all paid by bookies one way or another. The arrogance is astounding

IN RESPONSE TO IBAS’S REPLY. I WAS USING MY CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESS WHEN I MADE SEVERAL DEPOSITS BEFORE ANY ISSUES. I HAVE RECEIVED EMAILS FROM COPYBET DATING BACK TO JAN 24 USING MY CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESS. I WISH I COULD POST IMAGES OF THESE EMAILS ON HERE. THIS DOESN’T CHANGE THE FACT THAT IBAS ARE FUNDED AND INFLUENCED BY THE BOOKMAKERS. COPYBET HAVE SCAMMED ME AND YOU SIDED WITH THE SCAMMERS.

IVE JUST RECENTLY SELF EXCLUDED MYSELF FROM COPYBET IN THE HOPE OF GETTING MY MONEY BACK. JUST HAD AN EMAIL CONFIRMING SELF EXCLUSION. THE SAME EMAIL IBAS CLAIM WAS ANOTHER. ANOTHER SHOCKER FROM IBAS. IN THE BOOKIES POCKETS

Great impartial service!! Scammy Paddy retail shop refused to pay 1k in dog winnings reffering to a "!!business decision??" so I had to contact IBAS. Without this service those billionaire fatcats could add another 1k to pay for those lovely escorts, restaurants, yahts, jets and private islands they spending the immasurable exess they make from selling terrible odds to the stupid masses.

So far so good with hardly any response from the gambling site and refusing to payout 18k winnings it has resulted in a deadlock and involving IBAS, case is still on going but Danny is very prompt at replying and very helpful thank you IBAS for this service