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The Final Balance / The bets
A bet struck before a death is still a bet
What happens to open bets when the holder dies
The most counterintuitive thing about an account after a death is that the bets keep running. A bet is a contract that was struck while the holder was alive, and nothing in it depends on the holder surviving the event. The estate inherits the position, and the position settles on its own result.
Desk spec
- with open bets
- 286
- mean each
- 3.1
- antepost
- 41
- in-play
- 132
the authorityThe document that lets an operator deal with an estate. Of 600 sampled claims, 372 were made on a grant of probate, 148 on letters of administration after an intestacy, 54 under a small-estate exemption, and 26 were refused for producing none of them.
the balance layersWhat the number on the statement is made of. The mean sample balance is 412.60: 318.40 of real money, 61.90 of a bonus whose wagering was never met, and 32.30 of stakes sitting in open bets. Only the real money and the settled bets reach the estate.
the clockThe time the claim takes. A median 9 days from the death to notification, 61 days from notification to a grant being proved and 23 days from there to release, so 84 days from notification and 93 from the death; nine claims in ten close within 310 days.
Direct answerBets already struck normally stand. An in-play bet settles on the live result and its return joins the estate; an antepost bet settles whenever its event takes place, even months after the death; a bet on a market that is later void returns its stake. Of the 1,240 sampled estates, 286 had open bets, averaging 3.1 each, of which 41 were antepost and 132 in-play.
Three kinds of open bet
An in-play bet is already running when the holder dies: it settles on the result of the event and is no different from any other live position. An antepost bet is placed long before its event and settles when the event happens, which can be many months on - a bet struck in one season and settled in the next is still open while the estate is being valued, and the executor has to decide whether to wait for it. A bet on a market that is later void returns its stake, and that returned stake is the estate's money.
The freeze does not settle these bets, and it does not void them. What it does is stop new ones. The sample's 286 accounts with open bets carried 41 antepost positions, 132 in-play positions and 113 positions waiting on a market that had not yet been priced, and every one of them resolved on its own terms rather than on the death.
What the samples show
Sample E - the open bets held by 286 of the 1,240 sampled estates
| Kind | Bets | Share | How it resolves |
|---|
| In-play | 132 | 46.2% | Settles on the live result, usually within days |
| Waiting on a market | 113 | 39.5% | Settles or is void when the market is priced |
| Antepost | 41 | 14.3% | Settles when the event happens, months later |
| Bets that survive the holder | 286 | of 1,240 accounts | 23.1% of all estates in the sample |
sample E - a running bet, carried through
estates in the sample = 1,240
with open bets at the freeze = 286 = 23.1%
mean open bets on those accounts = 3.1
total open bets = 886
of which antepost = 41
the antepost case in time:
a bet struck on 14 March on an event in the following November
the holder dies on 2 August; the bet is open at the death
the event takes place on 8 November and the bet wins at 3.20
a 5.00 stake returns 16.00, and the 16.00 belongs to the estate
the estate was distributed in October, before the result:
the executor has to decide whether to hold the claim open or
distribute on the balance as it stood at the death.
of the 41 antepost bets, 27 settled after the estate had already
been valued, which is the only case in this desk where the estate
receives money after the paperwork is closed.
sample E - what the in-play bets are worth
of the 15.00 in-play stake in the single-estate example:
the bet was struck at 2.10 and won
return = 15.00 x 2.10 = 31.50
of which stake 15.00 and winnings 16.50
the operator settles it as it would any live bet, and the return
is credited to the account, which is frozen:
the executor then claims the credit as part of the balance.
a losing in-play bet instead loses its stake, and the estate
receives nothing for it: the position is symmetric, as any
bet is, and the death changes neither side of it.
Five questions about the open bets
- Which bets were open at the date of death, and what each one settles on.
- Whether any bet has a cash-out value, and what accepting it would do to the estate.
- Whether an antepost bet can be left open until it settles, or must be closed with the account.
- What happens to a bet whose event is abandoned after the death - the void rule still applies.
- Whether the operator will hold the claim open for a settling bet or pay the balance as it stood.
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