Betfair’s High Court Case Examining its Duty of Care Set to Start

A High Court case beginning this week will look into whether Betfair failed in its duty of care to a customer who took his own life in 2021.

Betfair, owned by Flutter Entertainment, is expected to face questions about whether it failed to identify Luke Ashton’s gambling addiction and intervene before he committed suicide. The claim has been brought by Luke’s widow Annie Ashton and his family, following a 2023 coroner’s inquest which concluded Betfair had failed to step in after Luke’s gambling habits had increased. The hearing is expected to last for three weeks.

What the report said

Ashton’s prevention of future deaths report mentioned he had a gambling disorder from at least 2019 and that this contributed to his decision to end his own life. The coroner mentioned how Ashton had attempted to use self-exclusion tools, but the only contact he had received from Betfair was emails informing him about these tools that could be accessed.

The inquest found Betfair had identified Ashton to be “low-risk”, despite indications of problem gambling based on his betting behaviour. There were times where he was found to be spending all day betting on Betfair, but the activity was not picked up by Betfair’s automated algorithms. Ashton’s gambling behaviour was found to have become more distressing in the last 10-12 weeks of his life.

The Gambling Commission was sent a copy of the inquest, but the British regulator decided in February 2025 not to take any further action against Betfair. Annie Ashton also filed a separate claim for a judicial review of the Commission in February last year, deciding to challenge the Commission’s ruling.

Flutter said in response to the inquest that it “holds itself to the highest standards” and “aims to lead in the area of safer gambling and customer protection.” A Flutter spokesperson is quoted by City AM as saying: “We reiterate our sincere condolences to Mrs Ashton and her family over this tragic case. Unfortunately, we are unable to comment further at this time because of the legal proceedings.”

Previous failings

Last December, Paddy Power, also owned by Flutter, was fined £2 million by the Commission for social responsibility failures relating to customer interaction. Paddy Power was found to have systems in place that were not sensitive enough to identify indicators of harm; one customer deposited £12,000 across 15 days before being identified for review and another deposited £25,000 in 25 days without interaction.

This was the second time Paddy Power had faced regulatory action. In 2023, the operator was fined £490,000 for sending promotional push notifications to devices linked to customers who had self-excluded. On November 21, 2021, Paddy Power’s app distributed an offer for enhanced odds on an English Premier League football match to devices either linked to Gamstop or accounts that were self-excluded.

Problem gambling rate up

The problem gambling rate in Great Britain rose to 2.7% for 2024, up from 2.5%. The number was published as part of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB); the second of its kind to be published. Those two surveys have indicated problem gambling rates have been significantly higher than the data was showing in previous surveys published by the Commission.

The Commission previously announced that in the year to December 2022, a total of 0.2% of respondents classed as problem gamblers. The data from 2022 was based on the Commission’s quarterly telephone survey, which has since been replaced by the GSGB.