A FORMER bookmaker who sued a betting chain for £250,000 winnings over Rangers’ relegation has lost the action after a judge ruled his wager was “a losing bet”.
Arthur Kinloch placed £100 on the Ibrox club being relegated from the SPL in 2011 and was given odds of 2,500 to 1 by Coral Racing.
The club went into administration in February 2012 and later into liquidation that year and returned to playing in the bottom tier of the
Scottish senior leagues in the SFL.
READ MORE: 'Curious' Rangers' player payments 'to avoid tax' were repayable on death, court hears
Mr Kinloch, 72, of Simshill Road, Glasgow, took Coral to the Court of Session in Edinburgh after it refused to pay out on the bet he placed on September 5, 2011 at its branch in Tollcross Road, Glasgow.
His betting slip read: “From SPL – Rangers to be relegated” and insisted relegation meant an SPL side started the next season in a lower league.
Coral argued relegation was confined to going down only one league on points, according to league rules.
It said Rangers Football Club Plc sold its one share in the SPL to Sevco Scotland following the sale of assets by administrators, which required the approval of at least eight members of the SPL and the application was refused, making it no longer eligible to play in the top tier.
It then applied to join the SFL and was permitted to come into the lowest league.
READ MORE: WATCH: The final day of the Rangers Big Tax case LIVE from the Supreme Court
Lord Bannatyne said: “It would be impossible for a betting business to be run without reference to the rules of the sports.”
He said he was persuaded that the sound construction of the bet placed was that advanced by the betting firm, adding: “Accordingly, on this construction of the pursuer’s bet, it is a losing bet.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel