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Sports Betting

Depositing options at the sports betting sites

Over the years the funding methods at the sports betting websites have changed considerably, which is probably the reason you are here reading our guide on what’s available to the customer. When the first sportsbooks started popping up online, depositing was quite easy and a bit more convenient – simply use your credit card and you are ready to bet.

And while things have changed a bit as of late, the change could be seen as glass half full. The betting sites have added some new depositing methods, which can also be used for much speedier payouts. Today in this guide we will take a look at what depositing options are available in general at the sports betting sites and provide a bit more detail on each of them.

Funding options at the sportsbook websites

[alert variation=”alert-info”]Bitcoin[/alert]

The creation of the first and most popular cryptocurrency was a welcome addition to the funding options at the betting sites. It eliminated the restrictions and hurdles the sportsbooks faced with credit cards processing, and gave the customers a convenient way to deposit at the online sportsbooks. We have a dedicated guide to Bitcoin, but in a nutshell, people can buy and sell Bitcoin at cryptocurrency exchanges, either using a credit car or with funds from their bank account, and deposit those Bitcoins at the sportsbook. The betting site treats it like real money, using a predetermined exchange rate at time of deposit, and from there on – it’s just like if you funded your account with any other method.

While credit cards have a high bounce rate with gambling websites, Bitcoin suffers from no such drawbacks, which is why the betting websites prefer this depositing (and payout) method over any other. It has made it very easy for a player to fund their account and even more so – faster. It takes only a few minutes for your deposit to become available at the sportsbook and ready for action. Withdrawals using Bitcoin are also a breeze, yet another plus for this alternative funding. Many sportsbooks will offer additional bonuses and promotions, not to mention, wave all fees for using Bitcoin, in order to push the customer towards using the crypto over anything else.

On the negative side, using Bitcoin in general could be quite the intimidating experience for the first-time Bitcoin buyer. It also requires some virtual “leg work” before you are set up to use the crypto. For example, one must have a wallet and an account with an exchange, so they can buy and sell Bitcoins. Granted that once this is set up, there is really not much else one would have to do, nevertheless, it takes some time to understand the basics and get everything ready. But frankly speaking, it probably takes longer to get a credit card than a Bitcoin account at the exchange.

Working with Bitcoins or other cryptos could be a double edge sword, too. Because of the very high fluctuation of the Bitcoin price, oftentimes is hard to budget it properly. The day-to-day price of Bitcoin could fluctuate as much as 5%, which means that you could lose money by doing nothing…or gain profits by doing nothing. That’s why most bettors try not to do a lot of payouts, instead staying with their sportsbook balance for the long term, a month or even throughout the whole season. The high quality betting sites have either very high payout limits with Bitcoin or even none at all, making it comfortable for the customer to employ this strategy, knowing that they could accumulate a large balance and take it home with one swift payout.

[alert variation=”alert-info”]Credit Cards[/alert]

For the longest time, credit cards have been the preferred method for most people to do any payment online, including funding their betting account. Over the past decade or two, the credit card has become ubiquitous in the wallet of nearly everyone, making it a convenient way to fund an account at the sports betting sites. Visa and MasterCard have been the easiest for the sportsbooks to work with, although some sites take even Discover and Amex. Unfortunately for both consumer and sportsbook, the major credit cards have had seen a large number of attempted charge-backs, which led to a distaste for this payment method from both the banks issuing the credit cards and the sports betting websites alike. On the bank side, many simply began to reject any transactions that were suspected to originate from gambling websites, which ended up frustrating customers to no end. Some sportsbooks began using third party processors to complete the transactions, but that was a hit-or-miss situation.

The betting sites weren’t happy about the chargebacks either, which in today’s reality resulted in the annoying credit card verification forms. If you aren’t familiar with those forms consider yourself lucky. Basically, the sportsbooks began requiring a signed form, including attached copies of any credit card used to make deposits to the player’s account, which in turn had to be reviewed and approved by the staff at the sportsbook. To this day, this requirement has to be made before anyone can make a payout request, if they had ever used a credit card to deposit at the betting website. The process takes time to complete, often as long as a week, which in turn slows down the bettor’s payout request, leading to even more frustration.

It’s naive to think that credit cards would disappear as a depositing method at the betting sites, it’s just to convenient to forego. Therefore even today all sportsbook will accept credit cards as a funding option. The most popular remain Visa and MasterCard branded cards, although a couple of the top sportsbooks also take Amex and even Discover, although on a limited base. It is recommended that if one decides to fund their betting account with a credit card, they complete the verification form as soon as possible. This way your credit card is verified and when it comes time to request a payout – there would be no issues or slowdowns.

[alert variation=”alert-info”]Bank Wire and Transfer[/alert]

This used to be a very popular funding option in the past, but you would hardly find it available today. Most of the betting sites have moved away from this type of deposit, as well as payout. There are a few that still have it listed as a funding method, like Intertops, but the rest of the sportsbooks would offer bank wire as an option only to their long-time customers. Not only do you have to be a well-established customer of the betting site, but be a high-roller, as well. The betting sites that work with wire and bank transfer for such customers often require deposits (or withdrawals) to be five-figures in size, hardly appealing to the average bettor. The fees both the sending and receiving banks charge for wire transfers are generally pretty high, yet another reason to avoid this payment method, if available at your preferred sportsbook.

[alert variation=”alert-info”]Person-to-Person (P2P)[/alert]

Yet another payment method that has fallen out of favor with the betting sites. Not many would offer it today, the fees are high and it takes quite a while to both send and for it to show up in your betting account. Overall, it’s a deposit option of last resort.

[alert variation=”alert-info”]Sportsbook Transfer[/alert]

In closing, sportsbook transfer is a unique funding method at certain betting sites and most players have no idea that it exists, since it’s often not advertised on the banking page of the sportsbooks. Essentially, if you have an account with two (or more) sportsbooks, which have an agreement with each other for this type of transfer, you could request a portion (or all) of your balance to be transferred from one sportsbook to the other. This is a great depositing option for people with large balances betting at multiple sportsbooks, as it takes very little time to complete and the fee, if any, is very small. You would, however, have to have those accounts at sportsbooks “friendly” with one another and it must be requested via customer service, since you won’t find this option in the cashier section of your sportsbook. One example of two betting sites that work with each other for such transfers are Bookmaker and 5Dimes. A customer of one of them can transfer to the other and vice versa.