|
 |
 |
Sports.com Sportsbook Review
|
|
| Learn
More: |
Sports.com Summary Review | >>Sign Up for Sports.com
|
Overall
Rating (1-5 Stars):
|
 |
Pros & Cons
|
Sports.com Sportsbook Pros:
Intuitive interface
Sports.com's betting process is easy
Above average customer service
Sports.com Sportsbook Cons:
Sports.com offers a slightly limited sports offerings |
URL
|
www.sports.com |
Description
|
Sports.com came into being in July 2002, when UK based Sportingbet, a publicly-traded company, purchased the Sports.com website. The stability of an established firm and the marketability of the Sports.com brand combined to create one of the most popular online betting destinations, one that offers a myriad of events, promotions, and betting options.
Perhaps the strongest feature of the Sports.com sportsbook is its intuitive interface and navigation structure, based on the omnipresent vChip betting system. Finding sports betting information, betting odds, or betting tools rarely takes more than 2 clicks at Sports.com, and data is presented in clear and unambiguous terms. The betting software is not the most elegant but is functionally sound and easy to use. The process of placing a bet at Sports.comis also very intuitive (a player selects a sport, bet type, and then places their wager). The bet ticket is a very convenient feature, providing users with a constant view of their account balance and outstanding wagers.
Despite being based out of the United Kingdom, Sports.com caters mainly to a US target audience, offering wagers for each of the 4 major American Sports, as well as major NCAA sports. In addition to Football, Basketball, Hockey, and Baseball, players can also wager on Golf, Tennis, Racing, Boxing, and European Football.
Creating a Sports.com account is simple, although a deposit of $20 is required prior to placing any bets. First-timers receive a 10% premium on their deposit, and all other deposits are augmented by 5% free of charge. Credit cards, Western Union, and Wire Transfers are all acceptable methods of depositing cash into an account. Sports.com reimburses deposit fees of over $200 for Western Union and over $500 for Bank Transfer fees.
When ready to make a withdrawal, Sports.com players are presented with three options: 1) receiving a bank draft by Priority Mail (5-10 business days, for no extra charge); 2) receiving a cashier's check by FedEx (1-5 business days, $20 fee); or 3) Wire Deposit (3-5 business days, $10 fee). For FedEx withdrawals of $500 or Wire Transfers of $1000, Sports.com charges no withdrawal fees.
Customer service is a key factor in critiquing any Sportsbook, and Sports.com offers a variety of ways to gather information. 24-hour support is available by telephone and online chat. When calling in for support, an 800 number is provided for US customers. A call during prime time to this support number surprisingly resulted in zero wait time and a representative who spoke English well, and was relatively knowledgeable and courteous. Detailed questions regarding available lines, however, were deferred as being "available on the website." A second call to Sports.com resulted in a representative who could not answer the basic question of whether one "can bet on Wimbledon tennis," saying "you probably can."
Sports.com's online chat representatives, while helpful, tend to cut and paste responses quite a bit. Often they do not answer the question asked, or respond with too much information that needs to then be "sorted through" by the customer. Overall, however, the quality of service Sports.com provides was above average. While the representatives did not always know the answer right away, they made the effort to find out and remained extremely polite when bombarded with question after question.
Security and privacy are always key concerns with online purchases. All monetary transactions at Sports.com are performed via 128-bit encryption to protect the customer.
Sports.com also performs IP-address tracking to closely monitor visitor movements and betting activity. This is done for two primary reasons: ostensibly to deter and capture fraudulent wagerers, but also to monitor overall trends and valuable user-specific data. This may raise privacy concerns with some players. The Privacy Policy on the Sports.com website, however, indicates that only aggregate data is used. The policy also indicates that Sports.com reserves the right to contact users at their discretion, presumably to promote both their services and those of 3rd party advertisers. Such advertising, thankfully, is strictly opt-in.
Despite leading the pack of online sportsbooks in terms of users and transactions, Sports.com shows no signs of slowing down. Regular visits to the website turn up a wide array of promotions, ranging from 10-cent baseball lines to $2000 daily giveaways. Indeed, stickiness of the user base is the core component in long-term business success, and Sports.com has done a solid job of ensuring their users will return time and again. Among its peers, Sports.com stands as one of the best sport wagering sites available.
Upshot: Recommended |
Initial
Deposit Bonus
|
10% |
Initial
Deposit Bonus Terms
|
No limit |
Re-Load
Bonus
|
5% |
Re-Load
Bonus Terms
|
On all deposits |
Recent Contests
|
10-cent baseball lines and $2,000 daily giveaways |
Sports Offered
|
|
| Year
Started |
1998 |
Languages
|
English, Spanish, German |
Site
Speed
|
Slow |
Deposit Methods
|
Credit Cards
Western Union
Wire Transfers
Transfer fees are reimbursed for Western Union deposits of over $200 and Bank Transfers of over $500. |
Withdrawal & Pay-Out Methods:
|
Bank Draft by priority mail (5-10 business days, for no extra charge)
Cashier's Check by FedEx (1-5 business days, $20 fee)
Wire Deposit (3-5 business days, $10 fee).
Note: No withdrawal fees for FedEx withdrawals of $500 or Wire Transfers of $1000 |
Minimum & Maximum Bets/Pay-Outs:
|
Minimum Bet: $10
Minimum Deposit: $20
Maximum Payout: None
Maximum Bet: $1,100 to $5,500 depending on the sport |
Types of Wagers
|
Parlays, Straight Wager, Futures, Props, Moneylines, Over/Unders, Pointspreads |
Customer Service
|
24-hour support via 800-number and Online Chat |
Software
Used
|
vChip System |
| Learn
More: |
Sports.com Summary Review | >>Sign Up for Sports.com
|
|
|
|
|
