How to Select a Trusted Online Sportsbook

3. Introduction
 

Before we begin, I would like to introduce myself; I am Christopher Haugen, the editor of SportbookRating.Com and I decided to write this guide after I working as a consultant in the Caribbean for a number of years, to various offshore companies. My business and technology background served as foundation for building a solid clientele in the online gambling industry. The technology requirements of these operations were extremely intensive, an area in which I had substantial experience. And my understanding of the financial services sector was an asset to this industry. After working with several online operations over the course of many years, it become glaringly obvious that not all Sportsbooks were created equal, many were seriously flawed and unstable.

 

Case in point, a financial brokerage that I consulted for, shared a satellite Internet feed with an online casino / hosting service. These feeds are quite expensive, and in this particular destination, the quality of service was 10x that of the domestic ISP.

 

One morning, the market was particularly busy when we lost our connection. So, of course we called the casino (our Internet partners), to remedy the problem. What I got was no answer, and a great deal of frustration. I called again and again, still no answer. Finally, I figured that they must be having serious problems, so I got in my truck and headed over. Now keep in mind, this operation did substantial business (albeit with very little staff), I figured I was heading into a massive chaotic storm of people frantic to get the business back online.

 

The operation was located in a residential area, just a few steps from the beach. When I got to the business, the security guard was asleep. And as it turned out, so was their IT guy. In fact, I had to kick the door several times until the man woke up. He had this indignant look on his face, and was quite perturbed at being awaken from his slumber. So to say that he wasn’t exactly helpful, would be a drastic understatement. But since our brokerage was keeping their doors open, he begrudgingly opened up. When I finally got inside the building, the root of the problem became apparent, the ‘casino operation / beach-house’ had been used for a small party the night before.

 

Now in fairness, it was not like they were guzzling beer in the server room. But there were people passed out in the lobby, and the IT guy seemed stoned. There was no one monitoring the network or answering the phone to field customer calls. It was a complete total mess.

 

In the end, the city power had gone out (a fact of life in the Caribbean) and IT Boy Wonder had forgot to refill the fuel in the generator for our relay point the night before (presumably he was too busy). In total, their operation was down for around 90 minutes and we lost 90 minutes of communications with our clients. Not good for either of us, and we found an alterative solution immediately.

 

Late, I had more of a chance to think about it, was this simply the norm in the industry, or simply an operation gone haywire. Well, I am glad to announce that it is not the norm by any means. But it should also be noted that this was not exactly an isolated instance, as I would later come into contact with a few other similar operations. But unless you saw it with your own eyes, it was painfully hard to tell simply by looking at a website, or making a phone call. And what would become of this little casino / sportsbook? It would be out of business inside of 3 months, and they took several players money with them.

 

“How to Select a Trusted Online Sportsbook” was not intended to teach people how to beat the bookmakers or give Poker Room Secrets, so you will find no tips or tricks in this guide for increasing your winning percentage. There are far better people out there then myself to give players tips or secret systems, but what I will discuss here is the single most important choice in online gambling. What would that be you say? Selecting a responsibly run stable operation that PAYS OUT. You can win a 100K playing the horses, but if the sportsbook doesn’t pay out, it will do you little good. Let’s face it, offshore sportsbooks are… well…. OFFSHORE.

 

So what can I do? For starters, don’t panic, there are several quality offshore betting operations that have exceptional records. This manual discusses the characteristics and attributes that the trusted services share. What I will say before moving on now is a cliché that my father drilled repeatedly into my thick skull, ‘if it seems too good to be true…. It is’. The one thing that you will find in common with all the top sportsbooks is that they have sound business models, are well funded and provide a quality service without all the bells and whistles. This for good reason, they have been in business for a long time and they have built their clientele the old fashion way… they earned it!