I’d give BetOnline a mixed review. I haven’t had any experiences with them to indicate they are crooked in some blatant way, but to me they’re a mediocre book that looks to nickel-and-dime you and interpret gray area cases against you.
Negatives:
1. I routinely got deposit bonus offers for a long time. On one of the occasions that I accepted the offer (I don’t recall now if the offer came via email or if it was simply an option to check on the deposit page—I think it was the latter), I noticed subsequent to making the deposit that the bonus was not in my account. I contacted customer service and they said that my account wasn’t eligible for that bonus. Why was it offered then? Well, no real explanation except that if there is a discrepancy between the site telling you that you’re getting a bonus and whoever reviews it ruling that you don’t, that the post-deposit determination is what counts.
OK, not a huge deal. I’ve come to learn through experience that bonus offers nowadays can be of the “You’ve been preapproved for this credit card!” type, where it really just means that you might be eligible for a bonus. And it wasn’t some huge amount of money, so I let it slide and it didn’t affect my opinion of BetOnline more than very slightly.
What I made a mental note to do, however, is to make sure in the future to confirm any such bonus before making the deposit.
So the next time I was looking to make a deposit, and I again had a bonus offer, I first called customer service. I said my account is such-and-such, I have this bonus offer such-and-such, could you please check for me to make sure that I’ll in fact get that bonus if I deposit, as last time I was in this exact situation and retroactively it was decided not to honor the offer after I deposited. The rep put me on hold for a brief period, came back on, and informed me that I would indeed receive the bonus.
I deposited, received no bonus, and called them back. They said that anything one is told about a bonus beforehand—in writing, by phone with customer service, etc.—is not binding, that really all that matters is what is decided after you make the deposit, and the decision by whatever person or department after the fact here was that my deposit wasn’t eligible for that bonus, and there was nothing more that could be done.
Bullshit move. But I just adjusted my expectations even lower to: Ignore all bonus offers, assume regardless of what I’m told in advance that I’ll get no more deposit bonuses.
2. I never play online casinos unless I’m given free plays. BetOnline sent me casino free plays periodically for a while. I don’t remember exactly how much--$10, $20, $50, whatever. And I would play them for $1 a pop or whatever, not paying close attention at all, and eventually a pop up would say that my free play funds were exhausted and giving me the option to switch over to cash play if I chose. At which point I would stop playing, and whatever few dollars the free plays happened to generate would be my winnings for the session.
On one occasion, I followed this usual procedure, again not monitoring it closely at all (simultaneously following some sports bets in another window or something probably, I don’t recall), and it occurred to me that it felt like I had been playing far longer than would correspond to the amount of free play funds of this latest promotion. I glanced up at my (cash) balance and it looked lower than I recalled. I checked my records, and indeed I was short between $100 and $200.
I called customer service and told them what happened. The agent’s immediate response was to indicate that they understood and that they would immediately escalate it and I would be contacted shortly. It’s not so much what the person said as the way they said it that I very much read as, “We get this all the time. This is a very common problem. There’s a standard way we rectify it; we just have to go through the proper channels and it’ll be taken care of.” Like, he basically knew where I was going when I had barely started telling him what happened. “Ah, yes, yes, let me open a case for you and we’ll get this addressed,” like he hears this all the time now.
I got an email notification a day or two later saying that the account had been double checked and it had been confirmed that I had indeed placed the slot wagers or whatever that were in question and so no adjustment would be made.
I called customer service to say that of course that didn’t address my complaint at all, that my question had to do with the system somehow switching me to playing cash when I had been playing free play, in spite of multiple prior experiences I had that that was not how it worked. “Oh, OK, no problem, we’ll have it looked into,” etc.
A day or two later I get the same form letter about how they confirmed that the bets really were made in my account, etc. At which point I dropped it.
Again, not much money involved. So, I’m not going to lose my temper over it, trash them, refuse to ever play there any longer, etc. One can certainly reasonably take the position that it’s on me to be more careful in that situation, to check before every wager if it’s coming from the free play balance or cash balance, etc. Which is fine. I got burned for a few dollars because I have virtually no experience with online casinos (as opposed to online sportsbooks). (And I’ve never played in their online casino again, free play or not.)
But again I interpret it as kind of a chickenshit move. Evidently at some point their software changed so that when you tapped out your free play funds it no longer generated that pop up giving you the option of betting cash, but instead simply switched you to betting cash automatically. Either they did that intentionally to trick the unwary into betting (and losing) money they didn’t intend to bet, or that was an unintentional byproduct of the software switch that they chose not to rectify when people brought to their attention how it cost them money. Within their rights I suppose, but poor customer service.
3. I have, and have had in recent years, about 15-20 sportsbook accounts, some in the U.S. and some offshore. BetOnline is literally the only one that charges for withdrawals. (I use crypto with them.) Nothing dishonest about that, but it’s a small mark against them.
4. They recently changed their frequent bettor points system or whatever it’s called to where you cannot access that money without a Telegram account. Why every other book in the world that I’ve ever played with that has such a system can administer it without requiring you to download some other software and they cannot, I have no idea. (Unless, to be cynical, it’s precisely because adding another hoop to jump through means a certain percentage of customers—older folks, less tech savvy folks, whatever—won’t jump through it and so they won’t have to honor their earnings.)
What little I’ve heard about Telegram—and it is indeed little; I don’t claim to have some firm and well-informed opinion—makes me wary of it. What I’ve heard or read is that people have had issues with their security, that it has a reputation of being connected with far right wingers and Q-Anon types, Russians, terrorists, whatever—just not a company that I’m particularly eager to give any business to.
So, I was on the fence about whether to bother. I really didn’t want this thing on my phone. (I do almost nothing on my phone but am much more a computer person. I have all the spyware/virus protection stuff on my computer but haven’t educated myself about how to similarly safeguard my phone.) So, I decided that if I could set it up on my computer, I would, albeit with misgivings.
I looked into it, Googled, found instructions about how to have a computer rather than phone Telegram account, attempted four or five separate times, and got nowhere. I eventually decided that since I was very much on the fence about whether to bother at all, I’ve invested more than enough time, effort, and aggravation by now, so screw it.
I did then contact BetOnline just to ask if there really is no other way to access my frequent player earnings, and they said that, no, a Telegram account is indeed now the only way.
So, I’m back to being undecided. It’s three figures as I recall (plus whatever I earn moving forward), so I’d rather get it than not, but it’s hardly something life-changing. Maybe I’ll end up holding my nose and putting the stupid software on my phone, maybe I won’t.
But in any case, again just kind of a bullshit policy indicating that this is a book that’ll nickel-and-dime you in ways that (some) others won’t, where I’ve learned that they just aren’t a customer-friendly book when it comes to gray area cases or anything that requires some flexibility.
Positives:
1. BetOnline is far from the most valuable book in terms of the things I like to bet, but it has some value. As far as how often they have the best line or tied for the best line, maybe if I’ve played at 20 books in recent years they are something like 13th or 14th best. So, nothing special, but certainly not useless. It’s an account worth having, but it wouldn’t be all that big a blow to lose them.
2. Several books by now have reduced my limits to something ridiculously small, basically a soft boot. (American books typically are worse than offshore in this respect, in my experience.) So far, BetOnline has not. They’ve eliminated my bonuses or played games with them, but I can still get down decent-sized bets.
3. I have now finished in the money in one or another of their contests several times. I have never had any problem at all as far as the winnings being credited into my account, and my subsequently being able to withdraw that money.
4. On withdrawals in general, I’ve never had a significant problem. All have been quite smooth. (As mentioned, they charge a fee that others don’t, but I mean there hasn’t been anything dishonest, no suspicious slow pay, etc.)
5. All the things that have adversely affected my opinion of them are reasonably minor. Does it leave a bad taste in my mouth about them, make me think of them as kind of a chickenshit book? Yes. Do I have grounds for saying that they’re out-and-out crooks, that they’re thieves, that one should run away from them and stay away? No.
Just a decidedly mediocre book that I don’t recommend to people when they ask me where they should play. No better and no worse than that.
Negatives:
1. I routinely got deposit bonus offers for a long time. On one of the occasions that I accepted the offer (I don’t recall now if the offer came via email or if it was simply an option to check on the deposit page—I think it was the latter), I noticed subsequent to making the deposit that the bonus was not in my account. I contacted customer service and they said that my account wasn’t eligible for that bonus. Why was it offered then? Well, no real explanation except that if there is a discrepancy between the site telling you that you’re getting a bonus and whoever reviews it ruling that you don’t, that the post-deposit determination is what counts.
OK, not a huge deal. I’ve come to learn through experience that bonus offers nowadays can be of the “You’ve been preapproved for this credit card!” type, where it really just means that you might be eligible for a bonus. And it wasn’t some huge amount of money, so I let it slide and it didn’t affect my opinion of BetOnline more than very slightly.
What I made a mental note to do, however, is to make sure in the future to confirm any such bonus before making the deposit.
So the next time I was looking to make a deposit, and I again had a bonus offer, I first called customer service. I said my account is such-and-such, I have this bonus offer such-and-such, could you please check for me to make sure that I’ll in fact get that bonus if I deposit, as last time I was in this exact situation and retroactively it was decided not to honor the offer after I deposited. The rep put me on hold for a brief period, came back on, and informed me that I would indeed receive the bonus.
I deposited, received no bonus, and called them back. They said that anything one is told about a bonus beforehand—in writing, by phone with customer service, etc.—is not binding, that really all that matters is what is decided after you make the deposit, and the decision by whatever person or department after the fact here was that my deposit wasn’t eligible for that bonus, and there was nothing more that could be done.
Bullshit move. But I just adjusted my expectations even lower to: Ignore all bonus offers, assume regardless of what I’m told in advance that I’ll get no more deposit bonuses.
2. I never play online casinos unless I’m given free plays. BetOnline sent me casino free plays periodically for a while. I don’t remember exactly how much--$10, $20, $50, whatever. And I would play them for $1 a pop or whatever, not paying close attention at all, and eventually a pop up would say that my free play funds were exhausted and giving me the option to switch over to cash play if I chose. At which point I would stop playing, and whatever few dollars the free plays happened to generate would be my winnings for the session.
On one occasion, I followed this usual procedure, again not monitoring it closely at all (simultaneously following some sports bets in another window or something probably, I don’t recall), and it occurred to me that it felt like I had been playing far longer than would correspond to the amount of free play funds of this latest promotion. I glanced up at my (cash) balance and it looked lower than I recalled. I checked my records, and indeed I was short between $100 and $200.
I called customer service and told them what happened. The agent’s immediate response was to indicate that they understood and that they would immediately escalate it and I would be contacted shortly. It’s not so much what the person said as the way they said it that I very much read as, “We get this all the time. This is a very common problem. There’s a standard way we rectify it; we just have to go through the proper channels and it’ll be taken care of.” Like, he basically knew where I was going when I had barely started telling him what happened. “Ah, yes, yes, let me open a case for you and we’ll get this addressed,” like he hears this all the time now.
I got an email notification a day or two later saying that the account had been double checked and it had been confirmed that I had indeed placed the slot wagers or whatever that were in question and so no adjustment would be made.
I called customer service to say that of course that didn’t address my complaint at all, that my question had to do with the system somehow switching me to playing cash when I had been playing free play, in spite of multiple prior experiences I had that that was not how it worked. “Oh, OK, no problem, we’ll have it looked into,” etc.
A day or two later I get the same form letter about how they confirmed that the bets really were made in my account, etc. At which point I dropped it.
Again, not much money involved. So, I’m not going to lose my temper over it, trash them, refuse to ever play there any longer, etc. One can certainly reasonably take the position that it’s on me to be more careful in that situation, to check before every wager if it’s coming from the free play balance or cash balance, etc. Which is fine. I got burned for a few dollars because I have virtually no experience with online casinos (as opposed to online sportsbooks). (And I’ve never played in their online casino again, free play or not.)
But again I interpret it as kind of a chickenshit move. Evidently at some point their software changed so that when you tapped out your free play funds it no longer generated that pop up giving you the option of betting cash, but instead simply switched you to betting cash automatically. Either they did that intentionally to trick the unwary into betting (and losing) money they didn’t intend to bet, or that was an unintentional byproduct of the software switch that they chose not to rectify when people brought to their attention how it cost them money. Within their rights I suppose, but poor customer service.
3. I have, and have had in recent years, about 15-20 sportsbook accounts, some in the U.S. and some offshore. BetOnline is literally the only one that charges for withdrawals. (I use crypto with them.) Nothing dishonest about that, but it’s a small mark against them.
4. They recently changed their frequent bettor points system or whatever it’s called to where you cannot access that money without a Telegram account. Why every other book in the world that I’ve ever played with that has such a system can administer it without requiring you to download some other software and they cannot, I have no idea. (Unless, to be cynical, it’s precisely because adding another hoop to jump through means a certain percentage of customers—older folks, less tech savvy folks, whatever—won’t jump through it and so they won’t have to honor their earnings.)
What little I’ve heard about Telegram—and it is indeed little; I don’t claim to have some firm and well-informed opinion—makes me wary of it. What I’ve heard or read is that people have had issues with their security, that it has a reputation of being connected with far right wingers and Q-Anon types, Russians, terrorists, whatever—just not a company that I’m particularly eager to give any business to.
So, I was on the fence about whether to bother. I really didn’t want this thing on my phone. (I do almost nothing on my phone but am much more a computer person. I have all the spyware/virus protection stuff on my computer but haven’t educated myself about how to similarly safeguard my phone.) So, I decided that if I could set it up on my computer, I would, albeit with misgivings.
I looked into it, Googled, found instructions about how to have a computer rather than phone Telegram account, attempted four or five separate times, and got nowhere. I eventually decided that since I was very much on the fence about whether to bother at all, I’ve invested more than enough time, effort, and aggravation by now, so screw it.
I did then contact BetOnline just to ask if there really is no other way to access my frequent player earnings, and they said that, no, a Telegram account is indeed now the only way.
So, I’m back to being undecided. It’s three figures as I recall (plus whatever I earn moving forward), so I’d rather get it than not, but it’s hardly something life-changing. Maybe I’ll end up holding my nose and putting the stupid software on my phone, maybe I won’t.
But in any case, again just kind of a bullshit policy indicating that this is a book that’ll nickel-and-dime you in ways that (some) others won’t, where I’ve learned that they just aren’t a customer-friendly book when it comes to gray area cases or anything that requires some flexibility.
Positives:
1. BetOnline is far from the most valuable book in terms of the things I like to bet, but it has some value. As far as how often they have the best line or tied for the best line, maybe if I’ve played at 20 books in recent years they are something like 13th or 14th best. So, nothing special, but certainly not useless. It’s an account worth having, but it wouldn’t be all that big a blow to lose them.
2. Several books by now have reduced my limits to something ridiculously small, basically a soft boot. (American books typically are worse than offshore in this respect, in my experience.) So far, BetOnline has not. They’ve eliminated my bonuses or played games with them, but I can still get down decent-sized bets.
3. I have now finished in the money in one or another of their contests several times. I have never had any problem at all as far as the winnings being credited into my account, and my subsequently being able to withdraw that money.
4. On withdrawals in general, I’ve never had a significant problem. All have been quite smooth. (As mentioned, they charge a fee that others don’t, but I mean there hasn’t been anything dishonest, no suspicious slow pay, etc.)
5. All the things that have adversely affected my opinion of them are reasonably minor. Does it leave a bad taste in my mouth about them, make me think of them as kind of a chickenshit book? Yes. Do I have grounds for saying that they’re out-and-out crooks, that they’re thieves, that one should run away from them and stay away? No.
Just a decidedly mediocre book that I don’t recommend to people when they ask me where they should play. No better and no worse than that.
