Call recording provides vital source of evidence for Star Sports
26 September 2011
What do you do when a rogue client reneges on a bet? Here's a disturbing story from Star Racing which could serve as a timely warning for other bookmakers.
The Bookmaker
Launched originally as Star Racing in 1999, the company
rebranded to Star Sports in the summer of 2009 to reflect the
dramatic increase in the number of sports bets it now takes.
The Managing Director and owner, Ben Keith, was previously a
leading on-course greyhound racing layer, having earlier worked
with both Victor Chandler and City Index.
Based in Hove, East Sussex, Star Sports is the fastest growing and most exclusive private bookmaker in the world. It continues to grow on the back of its reputation for offering not just a quality service, but also by accommodating some of the largest bets struck in the industry and rewarding the loyalty of its clients.
Star Spreads was launched by Star Sports late in 2009 as a dedicated spread betting service. Spread betting on sport and the financial markets has enjoyed a dramatic rise in popularity over the last decade and Star Spreads offers an exclusive credit and debit telephone spread betting service.
The Specific Requirements
Set against a background of complex bets being placed over the phone for significant sums of money, the requirement for call recording becomes obvious. It is important for Star Sports to be able to record accurately the time, value and details of all telephone bets.
Call recording solutions are used extensively by a wide variety of organisations from financial institutions, where there may be a legal requirement to record calls, to taxi operators who find it increasingly useful to resolve customer booking disputes.
In addition to delivering compliance or safeguarding the enterprise against disputes, call recording and associated software is used by many companies to help improve operational performance and provide invaluable management information.
When Operations Manager, David Haddrell, started working with Star Sports over two years ago, they had an unsophisticated and unreliable call recording system.
"We take some of the largest bets in the industry so it was important that we specified a call recording system which would be robust, reliable and allow us to retrieve calls quickly and easily," explained David.
Given the rapid growth of the Star Sports business, it was also important that the system could be expanded easily to accommodate an increasing number of lines and call volumes.
The Solution
Reviewing the market, David spoke to several other call recording suppliers before pursuing a solution with Liquid Voice.
"The other suppliers were expensive and, quite frankly, were not on the same page," said David.
"I spoke directly with Liquid Voice's staff over several weeks so that we could determine a solution which would meet our specific technical and business needs.
"The relationship with all of Liquid Voice's staff was good from the start. I knew that they were determined to overcome any technical issues and provide a system which was right for us rather than shoe horning us into a specific, inflexible off the shelf solution."
The Benefits
Star Sports has had the Liquid Voice system installed for over two years, progressing from an analogue to a digital solution. Of the 16 lines, ninety per cent of the calls recorded by Star Sports are in-bound and ten per cent are out-bound.
"We have an excellent relationship with our clients built on respect and trust," explained David "but, putting it bluntly, with telephone bets, if we come across a rare rogue customer, it is our word against theirs.
"We now have a robust and reliable call recording solution from Liquid Voice which provides a welcome safety net.
"It allows us to access and listen to calls quickly and easily. I can also email the calls to colleagues and, in the rare case of disputes, to the clients so that they can hear the relevant conversations themselves."
As anticipated, Star Sports recently extended its call recording system at its two buildings in Hove to accommodate increasing call volumes. This was achieved easily and cost effectively with no operational disruption.
"The call recording system has already proved its worth. Significantly, we had a rare dispute with a client recently involving a considerable sum of money," said David.
"Unfortunately, we were unable to resolve this with the client who continued to deny that he owed us money.
"This eventually escalated to court proceedings where our ability to provide call recordings was fundamental to us winning the case. Without call recording, it would have just been our word against his."
"Working with Liquid Voice is a pleasure and I would advise other bookmakers to review their call recording solutions now to guard against any potentially costly disputes in the future."
Source: BOS Magazine September 2011