Romania: Superbet pays out €30m across multiple players after glitch
A bug caused thousands of players to receive inflated winnings when playing a slot game, with Superbet deciding to honour the payments.
Key points:
– The slot in question was Playtech’s Fire Blaze Red Wizard
– Gambling Insider understands the glitch did not arise from the supplier’s technology
– Superbet will pay €30m to around 7,500 players
Superbet paid out more than €30m ($35m) after a glitch caused the winnings of thousands of players to be incorrectly calculated.
The mishap took place over the weekend and arose from a technical issue that is still being investigated.
Social media in Romania was abuzz with speculation and some reports suggested the issue lay with the Playtech slot game, Fire Blaze Red Wizard.
Gambling Insider understands these claims to be wide of the mark with all parties satisfied that the glitch did not originate on Playtech’s side.
A spokesman for the game developer has added: “We confirm that there are no malfunctions or gameplay issues with this or any other Playtech slot. Playtech games are operating as normal, and any reported concerns are unrelated to Playtech game functionality.”
Reports suggest that Superbet initially froze the accounts in question and indicated that the platform’s terms and conditions did not necessitate honouring the abnormally large winnings from small stakes.
What precisely caused the operator to change its mind is not clear, but legal precedents in the UK at least suggest the operator will often come off the worse when disputes like these go the distance in the courts.
Good to know: In 2025, the UK High Court ruled that Paddy Power must pay the full £1m ($1.35m) jackpot to a player who had been told that the figure she saw on her screen was a display error
The cost of reputational damage when operators are caught in a public dispute over pay-outs is difficult to calculate – in 2021, a three-year long court battle between an individual and Betfred concluded with the judge ruling in favour of the player.
The drawn-out nature of those proceedings is something Superbet will likely have averted with its decision to pay all of the players the face-value of what they believed themselves to have won.
While the glitch is understood to have arisen somewhere other than Playtech’s game, the supplier will support its licensee in whatever review process happens from here.
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