Archive for January, 2012

TopBet is the latest of a slew of sportsbooks giving the online sports betting industry a bad reputation. In the last few months, TopBet has gone from middle of the pack sportsbook to enemy number one for many handicappers, as the site has paid out rather slowly. In an industry where 90 percent of the sportsbooks offer the same NFL scores, paying out your customers as slowly as possible does you no favors. Here is a review of TopBet.

Whether you are new or experienced in the world of online gambling, if you are looking for a new sportsbook to join, the first ones you’ll avoid are the ones that can’t pay you. TopBet falls into this category, as they have had complaints ranging from slow payouts to in some cases no payouts. Meaning to say, if you can’t pay your clients, everything else you offer falls by the waste side. There have also been reports, that the old owners of TopBet are leaving, and the company is in a state of flux. With this being the case, many people are avoiding opening accounts with TopBet.

As well, the people who do have accounts with TopBet, are looking to close them and start fresh. Trouble with the latter approach is, that the bettors still want their money, so they are stuck waiting for TopBet to get their act together. However, after reading how poorly TopBet is dealing with customer complaints, you may be wondering why they haven’t shut down entirely. One reason describes why this hasn’t happened, marketing. Despite the aforementioned slow payouts, TopBet remains in business, because it attracts new bettors with their flashy website, 50 percent welcome bonus and VIP program. Anytime you can make someone feel special, it buys you time regardless of your payout structure.

Skybook is another in a long list of British bookie software sites that have emerged, after the recent shutdown of the US Online sportsbook industry. For those unfamiliar, the US Department of Justice has shutdown a plethora of online betting and poker sites since May of 2011, in an attempt to reduce the amount of online gambling. As a result, many former US shops have reopened their doors under European addresses. Meanwhile, new British shops are being introduced online, with a catch concept, such as Skybook. Here is a review of this new site.

Skybook is the home of the free half point system, which means, that the bettor can receive a lot more value for their money, then what they normally would. The free half point, allows for you to move the point spread line on NFL and NBA games just enough, that you don’t get cheated by the juice price set down by the line makers. In other words, the free half point gives you better value, then if you were to join a site such as matchbook, which requires that you pay juice for them to match you with a sportsbook of your choice.

Aside from the free half point, Skybook also provides its clientele with the option of a good initial deposit, and is one of the safest and most secure sportsbooks, that also provides a good payout. These latter two points can’t be stressed enough, as far too many times a shop will advertise that it provides safe and secure depositing methods, but then makes it difficult for the client to collect the winnings from their account. On the other hand, the bad part of Skybook is that because it spends so much time offering point value and quick payouts, it hasn’t really spent much attention on things such as the site layout.