🎭 Gaming and Entertainment

This covers businesses that provide betting services, lottery services, casino-style online games, and sell digital entertainment such as movie or music streaming services.

Businesses that provide ticketing services for events or movies also fall under this category. These transactions typically involve wallet top-ups, ticket purchases, subscriptions, and payouts. Because these services are digital and often provide instant value, customer expectations are high.

• Value not received:

  • A customer’s payment was successful, but the balance of the betting wallet didn’t change.

  • A customer pays for an event or a movie, but is not granted access. Another scenario is if the customer pays for the event and does not get an SMS or email with their digital ticket.

  • An online gamer pays for credits or tokens, but they don’t appear in the account.

• Dissatisfaction with service: Customers could raise a dispute after placing bets and are dissatisfied with the outcome, or if a customer is not satisfied with an event they attended.

• Not as described: Customers could raise disputes if they attended an event or signed up for a betting promo, and it ended up being different from what was advertised or promised. E.g., a customer paid for a live show, but it ended up being a pre-recorded one, or a betting promo advertised free spins, but then none were awarded.

• Event-related problems: Anything related to the event, such as last-minute changes in scheduling, access to event venues, or cancellations, can lead to disputes being raised.

• Duplicate payments: A customer may raise a dispute if they are charged more than once for a single successful transaction.

• Failed transaction: Customers get debited for failed transactions, and in an attempt to get a refund, they can raise a dispute with their bank.

• Unrecognized transactions: Some customers may not recognize transaction descriptions on their bank statements, or they might get a debit days or weeks after completing a payment, making it difficult to identify. This confusion can often lead to a dispute.

• Unauthorized transactions: Disputes may arise from stolen card usage or an account takeover by a fraudulent individual.

• A betting receipt showing the customer’s details, their name, email address, phone number, and details of how the disputed amount was used in the betting wallet, e.g., the details of bank transfer withdrawals.

• A ticket invoice clearly showing the customer’s information, transaction amount, transaction date, and the specific event that the ticket was for, or what digital content was being paid for.

• Your terms and conditions that show the refunds and cancellation policy for your business. For a ticketing merchant, if refunds are to be processed by the event organizers, you should have proof that this information was communicated to the customer before their purchase.

If a customer raises a pre-arbitration chargeback, it means they are dissatisfied with your response to the first chargeback. You need to review the transaction carefully to confirm if the customer indeed received value. If value was not given, then you should accept the chargeback so that the customer gets a refund of their payment. Accepting the chargeback should, of course, be according to your refund policy.

However, if the customer received value, you would have to provide additional evidence to support this.

• As a betting merchant, to resolve a pre-arbitration chargeback, you can provide a statement of the customer’s betting wallet that shows their recent history. It should show transactions that happened both before and after the disputed transaction, and how the customer utilized the disputed amount on the betting platform. If there were any withdrawals, you should provide details of this.

• As a merchant in the ticketing business, you would need to provide additional evidence that the customer attended an event. You can provide:

  • Proof of ticket deliverability to the customer via email and SMS. If available, you should provide proof that the customer also viewed the email that was sent with the ticket.

  • Proof that the customer accepted the refund/cancellation policies on the website.

  • Evidence that the customer checked in at the event.

• As a merchant selling online games or providing related services, you should provide:

  • Proof that a link with the online content was delivered electronically to the customer via email.

  • Evidence of service delivery logs that display all gaming account activity for the affected customer.

  • Proof that all policies were accepted by the customer before they made their payment.

• Seamless online experience: You should ensure your website and mobile application are user-friendly. If customers encounter errors while transacting on the website or app, they could raise disputes.

• Validated customer identity documents (valid government-issued ID, a valid passport, driver’s licence, bank verification number, etc.): As a betting merchant, these are necessary details to request before your customers or users sign up. In the event of a court order, you will also be asked to provide the BVN of your customer, and having this information from your users is important.

• Clear transaction details: It is necessary to present details on events or movies, pricing, discounts, and other necessities in a clear and easy-to-understand way. If transaction fees are being passed to customers, this should be communicated clearly on your website or betting application. Clearly label non-refundable events so that customers are aware.

• Build trust and transparency:

  • Transparent policies: Be clear about terms of service, refund, and other policies.

  • Strong customer service: Provide reliable customer support to promptly respond to customer complaints. Some issues can be resolved by great customer support, and do not have to escalate to the disputes stage.

• Proper documentation: It helps to keep logs of all ticket deliveries to customers’ emails and via SMS, as well as timestamps for content download or event access. Having these goes a long way in defending disputes.