Playtech is set to become new Betfair software provider of poker, casino and bingo products.

Betfair spokesperson stated an official announcement will follow later this week while Playtech refused to make any comments at all.

Playtech licensees portfolio includes such big names as William Hill, Paddy Power, Bet365 and Betfred.

Was a bit surprised by new tactic of William Hill cause they are first bookie requesting documents to verify your age less then 24 hours after opening a betting account.

On the other hand this shows they are a serious online bookie that follow the rules by the book.

Bet limits at William Hill are now also lower then what it used to be last year before financial crisis hit all markets. Still if you bet less then 500 euro, you’ll be able to place most of your bets.

All in all a good bookie with solid reputation but not appropriate for big bettors - either you won’t be able to place as much as you want or you’ll get limited eventually if you make a profit.

This is something you probably rarely expect to happen but in case of online bookie StanJames it has become a daily practice.

Here is an email content that they send their clients once they decide to terminate your betting account if you earn more then 200 euro betting with them.

Dear Mr XY,

 

I am writing to inform you that due to the unprofitable nature of your account it will be closed with immediate effect.

Internal funds will be transferred to you in the usual manner.

 

Yours sincerely Padma Cara

International Administrator

Stan James Plc.

No 1, The Square, Marina Bay, Gibraltar.

 

 

Email: service@stanjames.com

This is just one more proof to start betting with asian bookies if you want to bet at least 500 euro on a regular basis.

Lately I was contacted by few angry and disappointed bettors regarding Unibet delaying withdrawals and I can confirm that this is sadly true.

When it comes to handling withdrawals then Unibet is a total opposite from being Bookie Of The Year as they love to advertise themselves.

Unibet can and will delay payments up to 30 days or more when a bettor that won big amount of money wants to withdraw his winnings.

Unibet’s standard delaying  procedure is following:

1) Client request a withdrawal and Unibet simply rejects client’s withdrawal request and Unibet blocks his betting account without notifying him.

2) Client sends mail why his Unibet betting account is blocked and waits up to 7 days to receive explanation that due to security measures Unibet requests a document with a photo ID and a document that proves client’s home address.

3) Client sends scan of a passport and a scan of a bill for electricity that has written his name and home address.

4) After 3 days still no reply and clients sends mail what’s going on. After additional 2 days Unibet reply that scan of a bill for electricity is not good enough document to prove his home address. But they again don’t say what document is good enough for them.

5) Client then sends scan of his monthly bank statement. After waiting again up to 5 days he gets mail that his account is unblocked and he is now verified and he won’t be asked for any more documents.

6) Client requests maximum daily withdrawal amount in day 1 and receives money.

7) In day 2 client makes again request for a maximum daily withdrawal amount but this time he again after logging in his account, see that request was rejected and again no notification why they rejected his request. At least this time they didn’t block his account.

8.) Client sends new mail why they rejected his withdrawal request in day 2 when in day 1 they approved his request.

9) After waiting again 3-5 days he’s informed that due to security reasons they’ve decided to request for an additional document. With other words - Unibet tries anything to delay new withdrawals.

10) Finally after almost a whole month and sending 4 different types of documents (scan of passport, bill for electricity, monthly bank statement and additional document usually depending of deposit method), client is allowed to withdraw entire money.

Summary: Unibet as a bookie is OK, their offer, odds and lines are OK but when it comes to withdrawing money they are one of the worst online bookies.

If you like to bet big then stay away from Unibet since after sending them sensitive documents like your monthly bank statement and passport they still have the nerves to take 30 days to allow you to withdraw YOUR money.

Not to mention rejecting client’s withdrawal requests and blocking client’s betting account without even notifying him of such action is a matter of a total disrespect towards their clients.

MANGAS GAMING, French leading group in online gaming and sports betting, which operates Betclic, active in France and Southern Europe, announces the two following transactions:

    - The acquisition of all the operations of Expekt, a major
      online sports betting company, addressing primarily the Scandinavian
      and Northern European markets. Expekt is also a major player in online
      poker.

    - The acquisition of a controlling stake in Bet-at-home from
      its founders. Bet-at-home, a Frankfort listed company, is an online
      betting and gaming operator mainly present in Central and Eastern
      Europe. A public offer will be launched shortly to acquire the shares
      held by Bet-at-Home's minority shareholders.

Both transactions benefit from the full support of the management of the acquired companies.

With these acquisitions, MANGAS GAMING, enters the top 5 online sports betting operators in Europe, with gross gaming revenues amounting to around 200 million euros in 2009, over 4 million registered clients and a staff of about 500 people.

Few months ago BetFair betting exchange shocked online bettors and traders with their new rule that top volume traders will have to pay special tax.

This was just another version of paying additional fee for making constant money with trading.

It was not enough for BetFair to hold a monopole but decided they want even more money from traders that are turning the most money at their exchange platform.

And now this decision showed to be a bad one since trading volume dropped and this means less money for BetFair from fees - not to mention negative publicity with such special tax rule.

Once again we can witness that no good comes for clients when a firm has monopol in any target industry.

If you bet big then you may ask yourself why a lot of online bookies offer you such low withdrawal limits when they don’t limit you when you want to deposit big amounts of money.

I guess the answer is really simple - to politely say to big bettors (that win on a regular basis), to go and bet big amounts somewhere else.

Second option is to turn off bet traders that need to bet big amounts to make a moderate profits.

Third option is to  repel arbers that prey on their mistakes in offered odds.

It all comes down to bookies not liking big bettors among their clients no matter they win or lose.
In this recession time bookies are scared of anyone betting big so they rather not have them as their clients at all.

I wish all BookieSniper members, newsletter subscribers and visitors a happy new year 2009.

Year 2008 was amazing regarding betting profits and I have new systems that I’m testing already for year 2009.

If you’re at least a medium stake bettor - by which I mean betting at least 500 euro on a regular basis, then you’re very disappointed by most euro bookie’s behavior.

They are cutting limits to such bettors after few bets or few days after opening accounts.

Even if you bet on biggest soccer leagues like English Premier League you’ll get your stakes limited from 30,000 euro down to 300 euro or even below 30 euro at bookies like PaddyPower or Bet365.

Looks like recession these days are driving bookies to panic as well even if they take 3% or more margin on soccer asian handicap bets.

Also BetFair with their new rule where highest traffic traders are now charged 20% tax on their profits is a total disgrace that will drive big bettors and traders to bet at Asian bookies.

All in all Asian bookies are the place to bet now and in future and euro bookies will be place for 10 euro bettors and bonus hunters that are wasting lots of precious time with whoring for 20 euro bonus that comes with 3x or even 5x rollover requirement.

For few months now I’m seeing that european bookies are to conservative and afraid to deal with big bettors and rather limit them to stupid 10 euro limits.

Especially on top soccer leagues where they could make risk free money by accepting big bets at lower odd and sell those same bets at asian bookies or at BetFair.

Simple example and calculation:

A client wants to bet 10,000 euro on English Premier League on Chelsea win @1.9 at european bookie.

At same time asian bookie like 188bet offers same bet @1.95 or Betfair @2.0 (which is when deducting a 5% fee also @1.95).

European bookie could easily accept this 10,000 euro from his client @1.9 and sell it @1.95

No matter if bet won or lose then european bookie would win at least 2% or 200 euro from such big bettor every time he’d place a bet with them.

But no, european bookies will rather limit such client to a 10 euro bet limit and drove such client to bet elsewhere.

So much on how NOT to make money if you are a manager for an european bookie.