Ladbrokes’ Belgium suffers duplicate player registration glitch

The Belgian arm of Ladbrokes suffered a glitch in its player database system when several incorrect registration requests, known as tokens were submitted to the Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC) for players who were already registered account holders in Belgium.

Several existing players recently received an automatic e-mail from a BGC email address containing a player key (token) allowing them to gamble on the Belgian version of the Ladbrokes website.

Under the current system, when players register with operators for the first time, a token request is sent by the operator to the BGC, which serves as a prompt for the commission to check the person is not in the BGC’s database of self-excluded players.

Once this request is received, the BGC provides the operator with a token confirmation, registering the player in the BGC database. If player information changes, the relevant information is updated without the need for a new token to be obtained.

However, due to a “technical glitch” in its database, Ladbrokes sent token requests to the BGC for existing players. Ladbrokes said it is working with its database suppliers to resolve the issue and has informed the BGC of the breach.

The BGC has confirmed it is currently investigating the issue but has said no duplicate registrations of existing players have taken place on its systems.

A spokesperson for Ladbrokes parent company GVC said: “We are working with our supplier to resolve a technical issue which led to a number of Belgian citizens being erroneously contacted following token requests sent out  by our systems to the Belgian Gaming Commission. We are in close liaison with the Commission over this issue.”