Betting is a multibillion-dollar revenue business that increased exponentially in the last decade. While some punters bet for fun, others are professional gamblers who make a good living from gambling. However, with daily large sums of money transactions between the bookies and the bettors, betting scams have become more versatile. To protect your identity and money, I will unveil the modern-day betting scams and how to protect yourself from being tricked.
Research bookmakers from various sources
Being a very profitable business, more bookies joined this market through the years. While some bookmakers have been in the game for ages, others entered the market recently using a lot of advertising to attract customers and close the gap towards their established competitors.
Still, before opening a new betting account, you should research in detail the betting company to avoid being scammed. The bookmaker’s history, holding a valid operating license and details of the owners are important information you need to obtain from reliable sources before opening a new account.
History
The history of a betting company is important because it will give you details regarding any problems reported by the law, customers and other relevant authorities. Use reliable sources of information such as Wikipedia to find key details like:
- when was the betting company founded
- is the bookmaker licensed and operates legally
- who owns the company
Furthermore, read reviews on trustworthy sites regarding the betting company to obtain general information on how the bookie treats its clients. Here you will find what type of customer support a betting company provides to their clients and how the queries are handled. To put it simply, reviews are a mirror of how the bookie cares for its punters.
License
Every betting company that operates legally holds a valid license regulated by the relevant authority. This holds for both online and street shop betting. You must check the bookmaker’s claim of having a valid and legal operating license.
Let’s take bet365, one of the biggest bookmakers in the world. Before you open an account with the multi-awarded UK bookie, navigate their website and identify the operating license (in this case the information is in the footer).
You can see in the above screenshot bet365’s company details and the claim of having an operating license issued by the government of Gibraltar and regulated by the Gibraltar Gambling Commission.
The next step is to go on the Gibraltar Gaming Commission website and check if bet365 appears in the list of operators holding a valid license. Notice that Bet365 features in the list of licensed betting companies (see below). You can further examine the license details by opening the pdf document.
To avoid being scammed, it’s critical to follow both steps of identifying and checking in detail the operating license issued by the relevant authority.
Owners
Checking the owner’s background gives you a hint about the betting company since the bookie reflects its owners. Dig deep here and find out the key figures behind the betting company and research if they had any law problems in the past. Often, news about former owners involved in fraudulent activities surfaces, some of them being found guilty of money laundering and insider trading.
Check if clients reported any payout issues
There have been reports on many occasions when bookmakers refused to pay bettors invoking different reasons like arbitrage betting, players or even entire teams influencing the result purposefully. Besides the growing suspensions of high-profile players accused of breaching the betting rules witnessed recently, many well-known bookies refused to honour large payouts by invoking the breach of the Terms& Conditions.
The most recent case was that of a UK punter denied £1.7 million by Betfred. Most of these cases were settled in court after trials that took several years to reach a final verdict. Shop elsewhere if you know that particular bookies repeatedly refused to pay. This is a severe scam when the betting company refuses to payout, dragging you to court in a long-lasting trial. Unfortunately, some punters did not have the money to withstand the lawsuit and accepted the bookmaker’s fraudulent decision.
How to avoid betting scams
Betting scams developed greatly in the last decade with fraudsters finding new ways to trick punters by using sportsbooks and online casino fake bonuses. Generally, if it sounds too good to be true, it’s most likely a scam. What I mean is don’t fall for the oldest trick of being deceived by fake promises. Nothing comes free, therefore most probably you are being subjected to a betting scam in this situation. I will further discuss some of the two most used betting scams to steal data and money: phishing websites and fake tipster services.
Phishing websites
Phishing websites are fakely masked as reputable companies designed to steal sensitive personal data such as name, address, email, phone number and credit card details. You might receive a text or an email from a ‘high-rated betting company’ asking you to click on a link fill in your details and make a deposit to receive a high bonus.
To avoid falling into a phishing attack, I recommend you take the following steps:
- have an updated antivirus installed on your device
- use a firewall for an added layer of protection
- activate a phishing filter extension into your browser
- use a professional phishing filter software
- don’t open suspicious e-mails or text messages from unknown senders
Besides, you can extensively research phishing using websites that have special tools to identify fraudulent websites.
Fake tipster services
Fake tipster services are as old as betting itself. Back in the days when information was not readily available to the general population, false and misleading rumours skyrocketed. The scammers took advantage by manipulating bettors who didn’t have the option to check the truth and relied solely on the word of mouth of other people.
Today, hundreds of tipster websites charge a fee for their service. While some are trustworthy and completely transparent, most use fake tipster results to attract punters into a trap of paying a fee to access the ‘miraculous’ tips that will bring them a fortune.
As mentioned in the previous section on how to research betting companies, the same applies to tipster services. Check the company and the tipster you want to subscribe to by using relevant information from credible sources before paying for such a service.
Use all these tips to identify and avoid betting scams and protect your hard-earned money from being stolen and make sure to follow SoccerNews.com where you will be presented with nothing but the most reputable online bookmakers!
