Is this bet void?

I had a bet on the overall winner of the Tour de France. The bet was made after the start of the first stage but the rider did not start the stage and I believe was withdrawn from the race the previous day. As there was no chance of the bet winning should the bet be void?
BF have treated it like a losing bet and deducted it from my account.

Have you checked the rules, what do they say?

Rules clearly state ***ALL BETS STAND RUN OR NOT*** in the market info.

So you mean you didn't even bother to check to see if he was starting or not before placing your bet?

The bet was actually for a mate of mine (a keen cyclist) who phoned me up about an hour into the first stage and asked me to back Vincenzo Nibali to finish in the top 6 overall for him. He's now found out that Nibali actually withdrew the day before and so obviously didn't start the first stage so expects his money back, which does seem fair as the bet could never have won. However if the rules say  ***ALL BETS STAND RUN OR NOT*** he'll have to accept that.

If he withdrew the day before then you couldn't possibly win. It's akin to someone laying dead horses in ante-post markets or 0-0 after a goal's been scored and should be void.

If the bet was made 1 hour into the stage then surely Betfair should have removed all non-runners from the in-play market ... if not then I would try and plead a case to them that you bet on a non-runner while they KNEW he was a non-runner

They can't void it as it is clearly stated in the rules for that market that "ALL BETS STAND RUN OR NOT"
  One can argue the rule shouldn't be like that, but it is like that in cycling for a very good reason.

I would say yes, you would lose all your money had you bet BEFORE the stage started, but you bet after 1 hour ... simple, I would take this further if Betfair refuse to pay up !!

Eddie the eagle

They can't void it as it is clearly stated in the rules for that market that "ALL BETS STAND RUN OR NOT"
  One can argue the rule shouldn't be like that, but it is like that in cycling for a very good reason.

Yes, but this is in-play ... surely it is Betfairs job to remove non-runners ... if not then I shall be pumping all my money into laying non-runners in all stages of it !!

That sounds like a good idea !  Spending hours every day researching cycling news and maybe be lucky and snitch a few quid during the 3 weeks this thing is scheduled for...

It sounds like pulling teeth to me lol, but if people are placing bets on people that can't win then I would be a happy layer

Incidentally today's stage has been going nearly an hour but you can still back Kern and Brajkovic who both retired yesterday.

Thats ridiculous !! I would be raging if I stuck a bet on, it's completely possible that you could be given false info from a source and then go back a non-runner .... I would be complaining to Betfair and betting authorities !!

Eddie the Eagle.
There's no need to spend hours researching, you just look on the Tour de France website and it gives you the names of the riders who retired each day.

That's going to be way too slow to cash in bix.

bix
07 Jul 11 11:30   

Eddie the Eagle.
There's no need to spend hours researching, you just look on the Tour de France website and it gives you the names of the riders who retired each day.

As Lori said, yu would have been to late. Someone else would have taken whatever what was in the market, be it 2 , 3 or maybe even 4 quid.

It would however be the sensible thing to do before you tried to back someone.