Probably most of you haven’t experienced this but if you decide to withdraw an amount from SBObet account that will leave your account balance below 20 euro, then SBObet thinks that you’re trying to close an account.

Even more, you probably won’t receive any email correspondence until you ask their live help why is withdrawal request still pending after more then 24 hours.

Then they will ask you if you want to close an account.

If you say no, they will reject withdrawal and let you withdraw again but you have to have at least 20 euro left on your account.

Weird catch, rule or whatever you wanna call it but this is nowhere written on their website or when you make a withdrawal.

Other then this annoying catch, SBObet is at the moment one of the most reliable online bookies with fast payouts.

Punters got the better of bookmaker Stan James last year with the chain showing a £285,800 loss against a profit of £2.8m in the previous year.

Turnover at the company, based in Newbury, Berkshire, dropped from £348m to £300.5m due in part to the economic downturn and increased competition, which led to the decision to sell its phone and online betting operations in February.

Stan James, founded in 1973 by entrepreneur Steve Fisher - it owes the name to Steve, his wife Anne and former partner James Holder - is owned by a parent company based in Gibraltar and was once among the biggest operators of phone and internet betting.

However, remote gambling operations were hit hard by a number of large payouts in the first half of 2008 as fewer than usual football matches ended in a draw, benefiting the punters, and popular horses such as Sea the Stars enjoyed winning streaks.

While turnover in its 19 shops was up due to the continuing popularity of fixed-odds betting terminals and the opening of new shops, margins fell, taking a toll on profits.

Top online sportsbook PinnacleSports decided to discontinue the new player 10% deposit bonus (max up to $500 or currency equivalent), effective 23:59 PST on Sunday 1st November 2009.
Any new player funding their account after this date will no longer be entitled to receive a signup bonus.

This is just one of many decisions lately by online bookies to reduce all kinds of bonuses, lowering affiliate commission percentages and wagering limits.

Looks like most online bookies are embracing new strategy to accept just small wagering bettors that lose constantly, not to mention trying to offer betting affiliates one time CPA deal (cost per acquisition) of $20-$100, instead of life time revenue deal (usually 20% up to 40% of referral’s loss) for the lifetime of the referral.

Bookmakers lose and put in danger of missing profit targets amid a football season of high-scoring matches and a distinct lack of draws. Punter-friendly Premier League results have added to the pressure on betting companies following a string of unfavourable outcomes in other sports.

Sportsbkooks prefer draws as punters normally back a winning scoreline. However, earnings have suffered with only eight draws in 75 top-flight football matches this season.

In a typical season, about one in four matches ends in a draw, so the start of this campaign has been a huge shock to the system.

David Hood, public relations director at William Hill, said: “2009 has been a sterling year for the punter, but we can’t forecast results, we can only manage business accordingly. It is a fallacy that the bookmakers always win, but there are some results where the punters win.”

The Manchester derby on September 20 is reported to have cost a bookmakers a total of £95m after Michael Owen scored a last-minute winning goal.

You can never be to careful with any bookie when you win big with them or have a lot of money on their sports betting account.

This has shown lately with certain asian bookies that are not under any European law since most of them are stationed in Philippines.

But this doesn’t mean that because of few bad asian bookies that all are bad.

Latest bad experience is by 1 bettor that is waiting more then 3 weeks to get his $3,744 from 12bet but they don’t reply to his mails and are rejecting their withdrawal requests.

You can read his situation by clicking HERE.

12bet is now with new policy of 250 euro limit per soccer game and now this situation of not replying to mails and not wanting to pay this bettor on my black list of bookies NOT to bet with.

There are many much more respectable asian bookies out there to bet with like 188bet that now sponsor 4 English Premier league teams and also by Isle Of Man legislation (small island in UK). Not to mention 188bet soccer limits of around 22,000 euro per bet - which you can place again at changed odd.

I thought since asian bookies all have more or less same odds that same will be applied to betting limits but now 1 asian bookie 12bet decided to follow steps of euro bookies with low limits.

By new 12bet policy, bettor can stake maximum 250 euro per ticket and maximum 750 euro per game.

Some clients requested larger limits and to some was granted a limit of 2,000 euro while some other bettors they even reduced limit to 150 euro.

Guess if you want to bet big, you better stay with only few asian bookies like 188bet and SBObet.

Any customer that funds their account by making an initial deposit will be required to stake in bets 7 (seven) times the amount of the initial deposit, plus cash bonus, before requesting a withdrawal. Failure to do so will risk forfeiting the bonus.

As I have written in April 2009 for Stan James, same is happening with UK bookie Coral.

Coral also is closing betting accounts of clients that are in small profits with their bets.

No need to vaste time opening accounts with such bookies to have 5 euro limits or closed accounts.

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.