Bearing in mind the numerous inquiries from users who still haven’t tried betting through online bookmakers, we have decided to write a short tutorial for online betting and an overview of some of the most interesting bookmakers. In case we have left some questions unanswered, feel free to contact us.
How to deposit and withdraw money from online bookmakers?
While local betting houses operate in a way that you pay a ticket and pick up your winnings if you have been successful, the online betting houses require that you have an open account. When you first open an account, you have to enter your personal information (which you later have to verify with personal documents – ID card or passport, an account which proves your address etc.). Each account has a balance, and you can only bet once you deposit your money into it. If your balance grows as a result of betting, you can ask for a withdrawal, or you can withdraw your money for any other reason.
Each betting house has several methods for depositing and withdrawing the money, and the three most important ones are credit card, bank transfer, and the best one Skrilla (Moneybookers).
Skrill is the new name for Moneybookers, a famous online money transfer service, supported by virtually all bookmakers. You can deposit your money into the Skrill account via credit card, bank transfer, or receive a transaction from someone who already has a Skrill account (and you can reimburse him in some other way, e.g. in cash). The Skrill transactions are processed immediately.
Why should you use Skrillinstead of credit cards or bank transactions? First of all, the matter of depositing and withdrawing money via bank account usually takes days, while Skrill processes the transaction in a few seconds. In addition, bank transfer is pretty expensive (more than 10 euros), while withdrawing and depositing money into Skrill is completely free (they only charge transactions between users with a nominal fee of 0.50 euros). The credit card transactions allow you to make a quick deposit, but they generally cannot be used to withdraw the money. In addition, credit card transactions also come with a certain fee (1-2 % of the transaction), which is charged every time you deposit the money into the bookmaker’s account.
This means the best strategy is to open a Skrill, account, deposit your assets into it (via credit card, bank transfer or by receiving money from another Skrill user) and distribute them into bookmakers accounts. When and if you want, you can withdraw money from a bookmaker’s account and re-distribute it into other accounts or transfer it into your account.
Which bookmakers to use?
There is a large number of online bookmakers available online, and some local bookmakers have also added the online option into their business models recently. We have made an overview of the most interesting bookmakers with a short description for each betting house. Nobody is stopping you from opening an account in several betting houses and seizing the "best opportunities".This is not bookmakers's offical information. This is our personal opinion based on our experience.
Pinnacle sports
Pinnacle is an American bookmaker which generally has the best odds for most events (as a result of the lowest gross margins on the market). It is ideal for playing single bets, and in fact, it is impossible to make parlay (multiple) betting tickets on their website for most events. They follow a wide range of competitions and they allow very high stakes (especially for popular competitions). Even if you make a bet with a certain limit, you can repeat it in 10 seconds with lowered odds. They have introduced great betting options for tennis bets lately (alternative handicaps and totals, total games per player), and have also increased their live betting offer. They are known as one of the rare betting houses that almost never limits its players.
Bwin
Definitely the most famous bookmaker in the world. Their biggest advantage is their wide offer – there seems to be no sport or competition that you cannot bet on with Bwin. In addition, they also have good betting options for a large number of events, their limits are not small (especially if you go for multiples), and they even have "live streaming" for many events.
Bet365
Bet365 is a bookmaker with a very large and a detailed offer for many events. Their biggest advantage is live betting. They have countless events that you can bet on in real time, which often come with video (live streaming), and clearly have the biggest live betting offer. In addition to main margins (handicap and total) for sports like basketball and handball they also offer various alternative margins that you can bet on, depending on whether you want a safe or a more "dangerous" bet.
Betfair
Betfair is actually not a typical bookmaker. They are a service which allows people to offer bets to each other. This means that you can make a certain bet and enable others to bet on your odds and risk a certain amount of money. The problem is that there is no action for some less popular sports and competitions, but the most popular competitions come with great odds, and practically without betting fee (you only pay a fee to Betfair – a relatively small one, around 4 %, and only for winnings).
Unibet
The Swedish bookmaker with a large offer and detailed betting options, such as number of points or goals per player, and they have a good live betting offer.
188bet
The Asian bookmaker with a large number of events and a solid number of betting options. Their advantage is the option to repeat a bet with reduced odds, just like with Pinnacle.
Bookmaker with good offer and, lately, with solid limits (after they were purchased by Centrebet). Another interesting thing is a solid number of betting options, such as total points per player or team, a very popular bet on the international market.
5dimes
American bookmaker with quality odds and large limits for popular sports (most of all, American sports), but with a large number of other events, such as tennis challengers.
The Greek
Another American bookmaker with good odds and good limits, especially for American sports.
Bet-at-home
Bet-at-home has a very large offer and they are among the best bookmakers on the market in this respect, since there seems to be no events that you are unable to bet on. They have high limits, but their betting options are mostly limited.
Bet Victor
British bookmaker situated in Gibraltar that has invested a large amount of money into their own product. They’ve undertook a rebranding from "Victor Chandler" to "Bet Victor", they changed their website’s appearance and significantly improved their live betting offer. Their current offer is not far from that of other British bookmakers, and they also allow relatively high limits. Their live content is good and their live offer tends to include tennis challengers and ITF tournaments.
Doxx bet
Slovakian bookmaker with decent offer and options, but with relatively small limits.
William Hill
One of the biggest British bookmakers with an increasing offer, especially for live events. They are very open towards their customers and are one of the rare bookmakers that don’t adjust their mistakes and don’t cancel their bets. They have pretty high limits both for "pre-match" and live offer.
Betsson
Scandinavian bookmaker with solid offer and often interesting betting options.
Tipico
Bookmaker with basic betting options for almost all interesting events.
Stan James
Stan James is a British bookmaker with a big offer and good betting options, such as alternative handicap and total points for certain sports.