One of the top two bookmakers in South Africa, World Sports Betting, has been the subject of complaints from punters on forums and discussions online.

The sponsor of many racing events including the iconic Cape Met had been offline from around midnight on 12 Sept to the late afternoon the same day after promising only a 4 hour down time between midnight and 4am. They promptly awarded clients with a R50 voucher but erred in offering many close to R500 in free bets and then apparently removed that when it came to their attention. However, the IT problems haven't stopped.

The site has been slow, withdrawals have been delayed and payouts in certain instants have been days in the making. For example, one customer complained that a rugby payout for their predication competition was only paid out on Tuesday for a Saturday result.

Others online have complained about withdrawal issues that have taken days and not been executed.

This also gave some punters an opportunity to complain about WSB's policy on limits. Some claiming WSB only like losing punters and refuse to honour bets outside of limits. This is termed as 'normal practice' for most bookmakers as they limit risk. However the one complainant is willing to go to the gambling board with his issue.

Punters seem to be taking a stand with bookmakers these days and resorting to airing grieviences to others. This could have a knock on effect for the bookmaking industry who invest heavily in customer retention and marketing.