The Greek sportbook not allowing me to open an account with them

[FairPlayBet]

Hi to all.

I had a very unpleasant experience with The Greek sportbook. Today when I tried to open an account there I was very surprised when at the beginning of the procedure noted that there is no my country in the residence list ( Serbia). At first I thought it was a mistake and immediately contacted their customer service. Although the response was very quick, was followed by another disappointment when I read the answer. First they asked me to state where in Serbia I am located. It seemed to me that I have not been well understood, so I send them one more e-mail and than got the answer: "If you are not finding your country on our list this means we do not offer wagering for customers from this country. We do apologize."
In my opinion this is big joke and very unprofessional customer care. So far I have not stumbled upon a bookmaker that has the restrictions for the citizens of Serbia. Also it is strange that all countries from former Yugoslavia (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, even Macedonia are on the residence list), but not Serbia. So, for me it is just mistake that there is no one to correct.
Also while I was reading Reviews of Top-Rated Sportsbooks here at SBR, I found this about The Greek:
Country Restrictions: None

So what do you think, is it worth it to contact them again?

[Richards]

Sorry to hear about your experience. Maybe you'll get some clarification from someone here.

I think that some sportsbooks have stopped taking customers from some eastern european countries due to excessive bonus fraud but I hadn't seen this with Serbia or any other FYR's.

Living in USA, we are all too familiar with sites that will not take our bets (although not really the sites fault in the case of the US), can be frustrating.

[mighty maron]

I seem to remember on BetJam a whole slew of countries where bonuses werent not allowed due to fraud. There is more going on than what you are telling us. Why would they not want money?

[FairPlayBet]

Come on, what bonuses,obvious this is their mistake that there is no one to correct. For example, while I was reading review of all these A+ bookies, I saw that The Greek and BetJam are sisters sites. Now I checked on BetJam and saw Serbia & Montenegro. By the way this counntry has not existed for some five or six years now. Now Serbia and Montenegro are two different and independent states. The funniest is that they have even Yugoslavia,country which splits on six new countries almost two decades ago. So there is nothing to do with bonus abuse (at least for all these former Yugoslavia's republics). It's just a big mess and uninformed about all these relatively new countries. For me it is incomprehensible mistake for bookie that is rated with A+.

[AimingHigh]

In terms of what SBR's guide said, there are often errors in there.... things change, and it can take months to get updated. Just look at the books that are out of business with dead websites, but still included in the ratings guide.

Did / do you have an account with BetJam? They're the same company, so maybe they have made a business decision to restrict residents from countries with high bonus abuse to one of their sites only (which immediately reduces the change of people wh0ring the new account bonus). Kind of like how BetPhoenix has lots of books in its group, but has been geographically shaping its customer base at each. IMO, Greek is a more useful out than BetJam, so if you have an account at BetJam, they might let you close it, and swap for one at the Greek.

Otherwise, if you don't have an account at BetJam, I think you'll just have to see this as a legitimate business decision on their part, based on bonus abuse from Serbia, and move on. It's certainly not worth your time filing a complaint about it, though it would be nice if SBR updated the guide.

ETA: If you really think it's got nothing to do with bonus abuse from Serbia, then by all means fill out the complaint form and try to get SBR to force Greek to give you an account. Can't seem them budging though. No one's entitled to an account anywhere.

[noyb]

Can't seem them budging though. No one's entitled to an account anywhere.

exactly. any book can decide which countries they want to accept. serbia is apparently not on their list, tough break, time to move on.

[HeeeHAWWWW]

Maybe just had a handful of expensive CC chargebacks from there, and decided the minimal number of customers signing up wasn't worth the cost.

[chase hardy]

Gl finding u a new book. The Greek is top notch.

[bachngocduong]

a lot good book try another one bye The Greek

[mtneer1212]

They don't have to take your action. They can restrict whoever they want; but it seems this would be a case of bad geography knowledge

[increasedodds]

I would email support@thegreek.com and ask if they take customers from Serbia.

If they say yes, tell them your country is not on their list and they will probably fix it. Very unlikely BetJM would and Greek would not...

[ehp6737]

They don't have to take your action. They can restrict whoever they want; but it seems this would be a case of bad geography knowledge

Agreed

[leon]

Croatia,Slovenia,fyrom etc are friendly countries to Usa.
Usa hates Serbia.

["Sic"]

Greek is a great book...give them a call and speak to Keisha..She'll hook you up with happy ending

["Sic"]

Make sure you tip her

[Monte]

Don't take this offensive please, but what kind of customers could they expect from a country like Serbia at a book that focuses on US sports like theGreek? Yea, bonus whores...

[lukahh]

I think the reason for refusing customer is simple - they haven't updated countries list. Serbia is relatively new country, and Greek software simply haven't updated to allow it.

[nyplayer33]

Go find another book...Greek is top notch and they can choose who they want

[BranchDavidian]

I thought The Greek happily took all pro action. Seems like they would just not give bonuses to Serbia if they were having problems with bonus abuse from there.