Betfair could have done more to help a father-of-two who took his life after making more than 100 bets a day due to a “pervasive” gambling addiction, a coroner has ruled.

Luke Ashton, 40, died in April 2021 after losing thousands of pounds gambling on Betfair’s exchange. At one point he was £18,000 in debt.

At the end of the three-day inquest, Ivan Cartwright, the Leicester coroner, ruled that a gambling disorder contributed to his death and said that he was “perplexed” that the betting company’s algorithm, which is designed to detect the risk of harm among their customers, did not flag Ashton.

The coroner said: “He was assessed as being a low-risk gambler although his activity was more intensive in the ten weeks prior