At least 800 people who have a World Cup pool at Scorito in Breda have received an email from the company. They are ordered to transfer several hundred euros within a week. According to Scorito, many users pretend to be family and friends, while they are actually colleagues and should purchase a business, paid package.
In the email that was sent, Scorito writes that starting a World Cup pool is free for consumers, but only if it concerns friends, family and ‘small business use’. A maximum of ten people may participate in the free business pools. If more colleagues participate, this is contrary to Scorito’s conditions.
Business groups above ten participants must purchase a paid package. The platform uses different price ranges for this. The cheapest package costs 100 euros: for a large field of participants the amount can rise to several thousand euros.
‘Nothing business related’
On social media, users are disgraceful about the emails that the Breda company sends out. A man who has started a group for a primary school must pay 253 euros. Another reports that he has to transfer 465 euros, while his group says he mainly consists of friends and family and only a few colleagues.
Yet another participant complains that ‘many private participants who wanted to do something fun for colleagues on their own initiative are being put on the spot’. There is nothing businesslike about that, the man adds. Another angry user endorses this: “It has nothing to do with business if you create a friendly pool with a few colleagues.”
‘Deliberate abuse’
When asked, the director and founder of Scorito, Martijn van Dijk, explains NOS know that in his eyes it is a storm in a teacup. According to him, the platform makes it clear on all sides during the registration process when a group is seen as business and when it is not. Everyone will also receive an email about this.
“There are people who deliberately abuse this to save 100 euros,” says Van Dijk. “We did indeed send an email to these people.”
Van Dijk does not want to explain in detail how the company determines which users receive an invoice and which do not, but in some cases it is clear as day, according to him. “With a group created by, for example, Henk de Vries Transport with hundreds of people in it, it is clear to us what it is about.”
For small groups with a mix of family members, friends and colleagues, Van Dijk promises to be accommodating. He calls on the administrators of these groups who have received an email to report to customer service. They will receive a response within 48 hours, the Scorito director promises.
If participating companies refuse to pay, their pool will go black. “We have to draw the line somewhere,” says Van Dijk. He ignores a heard criticism that Scorito could have written to people well before the World Cup started. “That is not possible for us. Most participants arrive on the last day before the World Cup.”
Big business
Scorito has existed since the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine in 2012 and started with 72,000 participants. Two years ago at the European Championships in Germany, the number of users had grown to 1.1 million. This number has grown further this year to almost 1.5 million participants. About 5,000 companies have purchased a business package, according to Scorito.
The company also creates pools for other major sporting events, such as cycling races, darts competitions and tennis tournaments.