Last Updated on September 28, 2023
A message for a suspended Sky Bet account is of the most annoying things that can happen. This can shock some people, mainly if they are doing everything on the up-and-up. Why would Sky Bet restrict your account?! Did you accidentally do something wrong? Was there a policy change of some sort? Were hackers involved?
It could be any number of things, so don’t panic. Let’s walk through all the options so you can contact support and resolve this quickly and calmly.
What Not to Do If Your Sky Bet Account is Suspended
Let’s start by covering the things that will only worsen your situation. You must keep a cool head and follow the official guidelines to fix this. Remember that a suspension can be temporary… a permanent ban is not. Don’t make things worse by engaging in the following reckless activities:
Do Not immediately Create a New Account
At the very least, you need to contact support to find out what went wrong. Or you don’t use the login information hackers might have in hand.
Do Not Curse at Support Staff
The Sky Bet, Sky Vegas, and Sky Casino support staff probably had nothing to do with your account being suspended. They can only improve your situation unless you go off the deep end. An automated process most likely suspended your account.
Some monitoring program probably detected what it thought was suspicious activity and locked the account down before any more damage could be done. So please only take it out on the support staff if you want a more permanent ban. Start the conversation calmly, saying, “Hello, I got a message saying Sky Bet closed my account. Can you help me?”
Do Not Contact Third Parties
All third-party ‘unsuspension’ services are scams. They’re just trying to get your login, financial, and personal information! Direct contact with the Sky support staff is the only way to get unsuspended. Use the links directly from their website. After you’ve gone through this article to determine the root cause of your suspension, use this link that will take you to a page with nothing on it but Sky Support’s contact button.
Do Not Try Logging In Repeatedly
Your Sky Bet restriction status will stay the same in attempting to log in a dozen times in a row. You might be flagged for trying to evade the suspension and earn a permanent ban.
With all of these things in mind, let’s determine the root cause of why your Sky Bet account was suspended.
The Four Main Reasons Your Sky Bet Account is Frozen
Determining the root cause of why your Sky Bet account is locked is essential. That way, you can be helpful when speaking to the support staff and giving them all the information they need.
There are four main possible reasons why your Sky Bet account is frozen:
- You’ve accidentally created a duplicate account on the Sky Gaming Network.
- Your account has been hacked.
- You accidentally violated the Terms of Service (ToS).
- Your account was idle for too long.
There are other potential reasons, of course. But these are the most common scenarios that will get your Sky Bet account suspended or restricted.
Let’s review each possibility so that you can accurately tell the support representative the entire story and have the maximum probability of resolving the issue quickly.
Sky Bet Restricted Due to Duplicate Accounts
This scenario is more likely than you think because Sky Bet is just one of the gaming services on the Sky Gaming Network! You might have accidentally created duplicate accounts if you create an account on multiple Sky Casino services instead of using the same one on all their sites.
You only need one login to use any of the following sites, apps, and services:
- Sky Bet;
- Sky Vegas;
- Sky Bingo;
- Sky Casino;
- Sky Poker.
Do not create new accounts for each of these! A single account works across the entire Sky Gaming Network.
If you accidentally made a duplicate account, it will be suspended. If that happens immediately, without you making any deposit, that’s no big deal. Log in with your main Sky Bet account instead, assuming there are no issues.
This is a big deal in the first place because some people try to abuse new account bonuses by creating tons of accounts instead of just using their own. This is a violation of site rules, as well as the duplicate account standard.
If both the duplicate account and your original Sky account are suspended, contact Sky Support and explain that you accidentally made an account for a specific Sky service. Not knowing that your actual account could be used for all five of their gaming sites.
Sky Bet Suspended Due to An Old Free to Play Account
This situation can also happen if you had an old ‘free to play’ account on one of Sky’s fantasy services (Sky Fantasy Football or Sky Super 6, for example) and attempted to upgrade it into a ‘real’ account when you already have an active Sky Gaming Network account on one or more of the services listed above.
If that’s the case, explain to support that you didn’t know that upgrading the fantasy account would interfere with your account on the five main sites listed above. It’s similar to the accidental account creation scenario in that there’s a slim chance that your original Sky Bet account will also be suspended. But most of the time, only the duplicate account gets shut down, and you can use the original for whatever services you like.
This is the most common reason an account gets suspended. It’s ordinary and relatively innocent. If you don’t overreact or be rude to support, this situation can be rapidly clarified and resolved.
Your Account for Sky Bet was Restricted Because of Hackers
Sadly, some people will engage in malicious activity to gain illicit access to your Sky accounts. These hackers normally won’t target you out of the blue, however. There’s often a reason why your account would get targeted that has nothing to do with Sky.
It would help if you used a different password across multiple sites. Because if one site gets hacked, and the username and password list gets published, all of the sites you used the password on can be compromised.
One site that can help you see if your username and password from other sites might be floating around in the hacker community is HaveIBeenPwned. The site will review commonly available usernames and passwords to see if any are associated with your Email address.
Now you can see why reusing the same password might be a weakness. With these lists commonly being passed around the hacker community, a security weakness in one app or website can open you up to attacks on multiple sites.
This is the most common way that hackers access your information, and as a result, you can get your account for Sky Bet restricted. As soon as the automated security programs run by Sky detect a hacker in your account, they’ll freeze it.
How To Find Out If Your Sky Bet Account Is Being Hacked
It might take some time to sort out the chaos of a hacked account. While that’s happening, your Sky Bet account will be suspended, as will your access to Sky Bet services. This is to ensure nobody else re-hacks your account if, for example, they also gained access to your Email address. By using an independent way to verify that you are the account owner, Sky Support can start you and help you get control back.
Upon detecting that you’ve been hacked, you should start changing common passwords across all websites and apps. By eliminating any shared passwords, you can ensure that a hacked site can’t result in anyone using that same information to get into your Sky Bet or any other account.
Fewer hacks don’t involve your username and password, which might also impact your account. This is why when you call Sky Support, they may ask for additional information to verify your identity. Please be patient with them and go through the validation process; remember that the worst thing they could do would be to do a half-hearted job and accidentally hand control of your account to a third party!
Sky Bet Restricted Due to a Violation of the Terms of Service (ToS)
This broadest category can result in suspending and closing a Sky Bet account. The Terms of Service (ToS) are crucial to Sky Gaming’s support staff since they are the first defense against cheating, money laundering, and other unfair practices. You want to avoid getting drawn into these things accidentally!
If your Sky Bet account is frozen and has yet to be hacked or accidentally duplicated, a ToS violation is the most likely culprit. Once again, it’s essential not to panic. Innocent mistakes can trigger ToS violations or set off one of the bots looking for things like money laundering.
Here are some of the common ToS violations that can get your account for Sky Bet restricted:
Collusion
It happens when an account does things that might be interpreted as cooperating with other players in single-player games. For example, suppose a series of bets and folds on Sky Poker benefits another player unfairly or is based on information that could only be attained by knowing another player’s hole cards. In that case, the automatic collision detection might get the player’s Sky Bet account suspended since accounts on all five sites listed above are part of the Sky Gaming Network. Of course, bots aren’t perfect and can also be accidentally triggered.
Money Laundering
Similarly, intentionally losing money to another account or doing strings of deposits and withdrawals to ‘clean’ money. This will set off the automated money laundering detection bots. Even suspected money laundering activity will result in a Sky Bet account suspension, as national laws and international banking standards need to be considered. If this check is accidentally triggered, it can take a little while for Sky Support to clear things up, so patience is required.
Account Sharing
You should never share your account with friends or family members or create an account in a family member’s name. Every account must fully belong to the named individual, and their identity must be confirmed personally. Anyone suspected of account sharing will have their Sky Bet account frozen pending an investigation. Once again, the bots that detect this can be wrong. So if there’s a false positive and your account is flagged for account sharing, contact Support to get the situation cleared up.
Bug Abuse
Anyone taking advantage of a bug to gain an artificial advantage over the system or other users can have their Sky Bet account suspended. This Terms of Service violation is one of the easiest to perform accidentally. Some bugs are nearly invisible, and you might think your positive results are just a run of good luck instead of an interface issue. Because these bugs aren’t always obvious, you’ll need to work with Sky Bet Support to determine precisely what happened.
Overseas And VPN Use
You are only allowed to use your Sky Gaming Network account in the U.K. If you attempt to use a VPN to access one of the services named above from outside the country or you otherwise try to use these apps while overseas, your account might be flagged. If it was an innocent mistake, simply contacting Sky Bet support and working with them will often result in a happy ending. But repeated overseas and VPN policy violations can result in a fully shut down Sky Bet account.
These are just some of the most common ToS violations that can result in a shutdown of a Sky Bet account. To reactivate your Sky Bet account, Sky Support needs to be contacted directly.
What Countries Can I Play From Without Getting My Sky Bet Account Restricted?
Sky Bet’s license restrictions mean you can only play from England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man, or Gibraltar.
Playing games on the Sky Gaming Network from foreign countries is a ToS violation, even when using a VPN. You risk the penalties in the ToS violation section if you try to get around the country’s access limitations.
Your Sky Bet Account was Suspended for Being Too Idle
This process isn’t unique to gambling sites, but it is vital to protecting the customers of gambling sites. When an account has been idle for too long, it gets frozen. That minimizes the opportunity for hackers and other malicious actors to go after an account that might not notice the tampering.
This policy is clearly stated in Sky Bet’s Terms and Conditions. And the amount of idle time required is quite reasonable; it takes two years of constant idling before the Sky Bet account is restricted.
If your Sky Bet account was suspended for being too idle, Sky Support could be contacted directly. This is usually a quick fix; they need to reiterate that all of your details have stayed the same, make any corrections, and enable your account for active play.
Of all the reasons an account on Sky Bet is restricted, this is the most uncomplicated and straightforward to rectify.
What Happens to Bets and Cash Balance on a Suspended Sky Bet Account?
If your Sky Bet account gets suspended after you’ve made a bet but before the bet results have been settled, don’t worry. It will be processed as usual, and any winnings from the wager will be added to your balance. The balance will remain untouched without government or legal involvement (freezing accounts due to money laundering, conspiring to collude against and defraud other players, etc.).
Sky Bet support will tell you to submit the correct documents to withdraw money from a suspended account. They may involve confirming your identity, agreeing to stop using their services and never creating another account in the future, and submitting bank details. This is to cover them legally and ensure that there’s a paper trail that cuts you off from their service.
Because of this, if your suspension is an honest mistake, it is best to correct the situation before requesting an account withdrawal and closure. Otherwise, you might become banned for life.
What Happens to Pending Withdrawals on a Suspended Sky Bet Account?
Any withdrawal request made before the account is suspended is processed as usual unless funds have been frozen due to illegal activities, as mentioned above. It should take the same duration as a regular withdrawal unless you paid for a speedy transaction.
If your withdrawal takes more than five working days, you’ll want to contact support directly. The type of investigation being conducted (particularly in cases of fraud or money laundering) may prohibit the money from being moved. Keep calm and stay factual in your dealings with support… it honestly has nothing to do with them; they don’t make suspension decisions. Keep your conversations with them civil if you want to streamline the process as much as possible.
If I Feel That I’ve Been Unfairly Suspended, What Are My Options?
Sky is an independent company. They can choose to restrict services to individuals they believe are a security risk or threaten the enjoyment and fairness of other players.
But there are ways to dispute suspensions and bans that the vendor has mishandled.
If Sky Bet is unresponsive to your claims or behaves unprofessionally, you can contact the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS). They help gamblers with their arbitration claims. If you’re unsatisfied with the results of your dispute, you are not bound to use the IBAS. You can continuously pursue a lawsuit on your terms instead.
The second avenue is only available if the organization breaks regulations or laws about how gambling establishments must act. The U.K. Gambling Commission collects reports on operator misconduct and investigates as needed. However, they don’t study and report on individual cases so you won’t see any direct compensation.
What Can I Do if Sky Bet has Closed My Account?
If your suspension leads to permanent account closure and your balance is sent back to you, that closes the door on your relationship with the Sky Gaming Network.
You will need to seek out a new gaming venue. Luckily, there are plenty of fish in that particular sea. Assuming you’ve never had an account with your new choice of online sister casino, you might be entitled to various new players’ perks, such as deposit bonuses and free slot spins. So, it isn’t all bad news.
Remember that gaming shouldn’t be a stressful activity. So find a platform that you genuinely enjoy, not one that gives you fits.
