A DUNDEE man has beaten the odds and last night received a windfall of £105 from betting giant Ladbrokes after he disputed their refusal to pay out on a football bet.

Late last year Derek Dunbar, of Fintry Drive, placed a £5 bet at a Ladbrokes store in Edinburgh that footballing greats Ruud van Nistelrooy of Real Madrid, David Villa of Valencia, Kaka of AC Milan and Dirk Kuyt of Liverpool would all score at some point during their Champions League matches.

But Mr Dunbar claimed that the decision by Liverpool management to bench striker Kuyt until the 75th minute had adversely affected his chances of winning and he had been unfairly disadvantaged.

He felt he was entitled to a partial payout on his accumulated bet but Ladbrokes in Edinburgh didn’t agree.

So when Mr Dunbar returned to Dundee he took his dispute to the Independent Betting Arbitrary Service (IBAS) and was last night rewarded with a £105 settlement deal from the UK bookies.

“In the first 75 minutes I had no chance of winning with Ladbrokes but they said it was still a fair bet in their eyes,” said a delighted Mr Dunbar after collecting his winnings from the Ladbrokes shop in Dundee’s Clepington Road.

“I didn’t agree with their decision so I fought it and I fought it and now I’ve won.

“They tried to deny me the right to win the bet and I thought that was unfair. I got no joy with them so I got in touch with IBAS and this is a great result.

“The bookies have always had it their way and the more they argued with me the more determined I was to fight them, but this decision just goes to show what can happen if you refuse to accept such an unfair ruling.

“Ladbrokes said that they would only pay out this one time but this is a moral victory for me.

“The money was never the issue it was always the principle and about forcing Ladbrokes to accept that their rules are unfair.”

Last night Ladbrokes confirmed they had paid out on the three goal scorers, Van Nistelrooy, Villa and Kaka, which at odds of 20 to one came to £105.

Had Dirk Kuyt scored for Liverpool, with odds of around 40 to one, Mr Dunbar would have won just over £400.

“Our rules are pretty clear that it doesn’t matter whether the guy starts the game or not and we could argue that the odds also reflect that,” a spokesman for Ladbrokes said.

“An accumulated bet has an added element of risk, but in this case it seems Mr Dunbar has been very unlucky and because Kuyt didn’t get a fair game neither did he.

“It’s an unfortunate situation and we can see both sides of the story, but we are not the big bad bookies that some people think we are and because we value Mr Dunbar as a customer we have awarded him the pay-out based on three of the four goal scorers.”

Danny Cracknell, adjudication manager at IBAS, confirmed they had received a letter from Mr Dunbar in November appealing against Ladbrokes’ decision, but that the dispute failed to reach the panel stage after Ladbrokes decided to settle.

He commended Ladbrokes for their decision to pay out on the bet stating, “We wrote to Ladbrokes who said that on this occasion, as an act of goodwill, they would offer a monetary settlement.

“There are rules in place that clearly state this was a losing bet and we feel that Ladbrokes have been very gracious to settle against their rules.”