Pinnacle Sports (also known as Pinnacle) is an online gaming website that was founded in 1998 and is operated by Pinnacle Sports Worldwide. Since its inception, Pinnacle Sports has become one of the world’s largest, fully licensed, online sportsbooks. Presently, the company has customers in over 100 countries and is available in 14 different languages.[1] While most of the company information, including number of employees and gross revenues are kept private, Michael Konik, author of The Smart Money, believes "it would not be out of line to guess that their [Pinnacle Sports] annual handle is in the billions of dollars."[2] Former Intertops CEO and WWTS executive Simon Noble was their Marketing Manager at the time of disappearing from Pinnacle.[3]
Pinnacle Sports is located on the island of Curaçao, and is fully licensed and regulated by the Government of the Netherlands Antilles, which also functions as the regulating body for the gaming industry. Regulation requires that Pinnacle Sports must maintain sufficient funds to be able to honor the winnings of their customers at all times.[4]
When Pinnacle Sports began trading in 1998, most gaming companies used bonuses to lure potential customers. Rather than offer sign up or reload bonuses, Pinnacle Sports became the first sportsbook to introduce a reduced margin pricing model or reduced juice, thus deriving profit from lower margins but a far higher turnover. Pinnacle Sports began offering -105/-104 ($1.95-$1.96) prices on head-to-head match odds and spreads, significantly undercutting the standard -110 ($1.91) pricing model that was used by its competitors.[5]
Pinnacle Sports is able to operate under this pricing model by posting opening 'overnight' lines with smaller limits. This allows Pinnacle Sports to shape their lines according to the betting activity of 'sharp' bettors without exposing the book. According to Noble, these early, low limit bets ultimately allow Pinnacle Sports to offer betting limits with confidence as high as $50,000 or more on selected games with their low margin pricing model.[6]
On January 11, 2007, in what was considered a controversial move, Pinnacle Sports voluntarily announced that it would no longer accept wagers from customers based in the United States in accordance with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which was passed on September 30, 2006. The law, which was a last minute addition to Security and Accountability For Every Port Act, stipulates that “participants in designated payment systems to establish policies and procedures reasonably designed to identify and block or otherwise prevent or prohibit transactions in connection with unlawful Internet gambling.”[9] At the time, Pinnacle Sports posted the following message to their U.S. based customers:
“After careful consideration, Pinnacle Sports has chosen to voluntarily exit the U.S. market. Accordingly, wagers will no longer be accepted from clients within the U.S. as of Thursday, January 11, 2007.”
At the time of the announcement, nearly 60-65% of Pinnacle’s customers were based in the United States.[10] Passage of the legislation led Pinnacle to have problems with transactions involving US banks.[11] Shortly after the decision, an executive at Pinnacle Sports was quoted as saying: "When the U.S. focuses on something and says 'Enough,' and when they go to war, no individual company can possibly win in a fight of this nature." The executive also reportedly said that "since the Internet Gambling Bill went into effect, we have lost the ability to do business with many quality banks."'[12]
After the decision, Pinnacle teamed up with World Sports Exchange (WSEX) to offer their US based customers an alternative to their website. At customer’s requests, Pinnacle willingly transferred all money left in US based accounts to new accounts at WSEX.[13]
On December 19, 2008, Pinnacle ceased offering odds on North American horse racing. Although no official reason was given, it is believed this decision was made due to ongoing pressure from the U.S. Government, as well as a general decline in interest from their non US based customers.[14]
Pinnacle Sports is located on the island of Curaçao, and is fully licensed and regulated by the Government of the Netherlands Antilles, which also functions as the regulating body for the gaming industry. Regulation requires that Pinnacle Sports must maintain sufficient funds to be able to honor the winnings of their customers at all times.[4]
When Pinnacle Sports began trading in 1998, most gaming companies used bonuses to lure potential customers. Rather than offer sign up or reload bonuses, Pinnacle Sports became the first sportsbook to introduce a reduced margin pricing model or reduced juice, thus deriving profit from lower margins but a far higher turnover. Pinnacle Sports began offering -105/-104 ($1.95-$1.96) prices on head-to-head match odds and spreads, significantly undercutting the standard -110 ($1.91) pricing model that was used by its competitors.[5]
Pinnacle Sports is able to operate under this pricing model by posting opening 'overnight' lines with smaller limits. This allows Pinnacle Sports to shape their lines according to the betting activity of 'sharp' bettors without exposing the book. According to Noble, these early, low limit bets ultimately allow Pinnacle Sports to offer betting limits with confidence as high as $50,000 or more on selected games with their low margin pricing model.[6]
On January 11, 2007, in what was considered a controversial move, Pinnacle Sports voluntarily announced that it would no longer accept wagers from customers based in the United States in accordance with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which was passed on September 30, 2006. The law, which was a last minute addition to Security and Accountability For Every Port Act, stipulates that “participants in designated payment systems to establish policies and procedures reasonably designed to identify and block or otherwise prevent or prohibit transactions in connection with unlawful Internet gambling.”[9] At the time, Pinnacle Sports posted the following message to their U.S. based customers:
“After careful consideration, Pinnacle Sports has chosen to voluntarily exit the U.S. market. Accordingly, wagers will no longer be accepted from clients within the U.S. as of Thursday, January 11, 2007.”
At the time of the announcement, nearly 60-65% of Pinnacle’s customers were based in the United States.[10] Passage of the legislation led Pinnacle to have problems with transactions involving US banks.[11] Shortly after the decision, an executive at Pinnacle Sports was quoted as saying: "When the U.S. focuses on something and says 'Enough,' and when they go to war, no individual company can possibly win in a fight of this nature." The executive also reportedly said that "since the Internet Gambling Bill went into effect, we have lost the ability to do business with many quality banks."'[12]
After the decision, Pinnacle teamed up with World Sports Exchange (WSEX) to offer their US based customers an alternative to their website. At customer’s requests, Pinnacle willingly transferred all money left in US based accounts to new accounts at WSEX.[13]
On December 19, 2008, Pinnacle ceased offering odds on North American horse racing. Although no official reason was given, it is believed this decision was made due to ongoing pressure from the U.S. Government, as well as a general decline in interest from their non US based customers.[14]