The first victim to contact Critique Africa stated, “it started by saying my account is inactive, I almost cried, I did not know what to do, my account has never opened ever since then, all my money is inside.”

With approximately 745000 followers on Facebook, 131000 on X, 79900 on Instagram and a website with about 5.5 million daily visitors, Betway South Africa has always been a preferential choice for gamblers across South Africa until recently.

In June 2025, Critique Africa received several reports and evidence indicating that Betway South Africa has been closing accounts of their clients without any justification.

Some of the complainants say that their accounts have been placed on a standard review process indefinitely and without any feedback from Betway support team, via their email support@betway.co.za . They add that no assistance from the 24/7/365 Phone line, live chat, Facebook or X has been given to them.

To confirm the allegations made by the disgruntled customers who feel Betway takes advantage of the vulnerability of gamblers to enrich themselves, Critique Africa appointed a team member to open an account with Betway South Africa.

The account was used for several months before our team member met the same fate as another customer whose account has been closed by Betway with an excuse of it being under a standard review process.

The team member started to report delay of payments from Betway. At first payments were received within two of a withdrawal request, then it moved to 24 hours waiting period, 48 to 72 hours and then 5 days. Before the investigator’s account was closed, he had just won a bet of an amount we can not disclose.

After requesting a withdrawal, the team member’s account was automatically logged out and all attempts to regain access became unfruitful.

Just like others, the account created for the purpose of this investigation had just been closed with money in it. All attempts to reach Betway’s support team has become nothing but a complete waste of time. Our team member has been told via livechat to wait indefinitely by a Betway agent.

During the course of this investigation, it was discovered that Betway operates under licenses from the UK Gambling Commission and the Malta Gaming Authority. In South Africa, Betway is fully regulated by the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board. It operates under Bookmaker License Number: 10181496-010, issued on December 01, 2016.

Our investigating team was perturbed to discover that Betway SA has no walk-in offices in South Africa where customers could reach out to them if need be. Even though it is an online gambling company, it is only expected that offices are opened in a country where the entity has approximately 32 million customers.

This case raises serious questions the ethics of all the financial institutions such as Blu, OTT, 1 Voucher, Nedbank, First National Bank, Capitec and Standard bank who have a business relationship with Betway.

Another major question that this situation raises is, what happens to monies in the accounts that have been closed indefinitely.

It has been 10 weeks since our investigator’s account was closed and Betway South Africa has not given any reason why the account was deactivated and placed under standard review. The team member was just told to wait for feedback.

It is indeed sad to see that individuals who got into gambling to pay their bills or solve whatever financial crisis they may be going through have to succumb to such a harsh treatment from Betway SA.

Screenshots of part chat between our team member and Betway South Africa

Screenshots taken from Betway South Africa social media accounts where customers complain of not being able to access their withdrawal or account

Written by Sema Fonkem 25/12/2025