[Reprint from SUN]

A £23MILLION betting bungle yesterday saw odds of 28/1 offered on a horse seconds before it romped to victory.

A whopping £800,000 was staked at those odds as thousands of punters thought they had cleaned up using the Betfair exchange online. 22

Voler La Vedette, ridden by Andrew Lynch, had been four lengths clear and approaching the winning post when the huge "in-running" odds were offered. He had gone off as 13-8 favourite on the course in Leopardstown, Ireland.

There was fury when Betfair, which allows people to gamble against each other, later voided all bets — avoiding a £23million payout. Its in-running screens seemed to show a punter offering the 28/1 odds and willing to take bets up to £21million. The win could have left the punter with losses of £588MILLION.

Betfair blamed an "obvious technical error" for the blunder.

But punters on web forums demanded compensation. One said: "If one of us made a mistake betting on our computer we would be expected to pay up. This is sure to be challenged in the courts."

Betfair bosses last night apologised for a "very poor customer and betting experience".

（一个慢牛）