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How to open an account with online sportsbook

There is a good reason our betting guides are the most popular - when it comes to receiving an accurate and important advice, this is the place to start. And today's topic is no different. Here we will tackle the important, but often overlooked guide to opening an account with the offshore sportsbooks. First and foremost, we must mention that you should check your locale's laws for the legality of sports betting in your jurisdiction, but for this guide we assume that it's legal; ultimately it is your responsibility to verify this. Now that the legal stuff are out of the way, let's look at the process and steps involved in opening an account with an online sportsbook.

 The first step to take is, of course, to find a good sports betting website. You can face this daunting task on your own, if you so choose, or you can take the shortcut and pick a sportsbook from our home page, rest assure, those are the best sportsbooks the internet has to offer right now. They are monitored daily (literally) and you can bet at any of them with confidence. We will assume that you have already chosen the sportsbook and move to the next step: the actual opening of an account with the offshore betting site of your choice.

 No matter of which country you are a resident, the basic steps will always be the same and it will always involve personal information. Unlike the brick and mortar sportsbooks, where one can walk in, place their bets, collect winnings and walk out without as much as mentioning their first name, when you open an account with the online sportsbooks you must tell them who you are (and that's not all, but we'll get to this a bit later). This is done by filling in the sign-up form on the sportsbook's website, the usual stuff - name, address and phone number. And believe it or not - at this point you are already ready to start betting with that bookie, after you fund your player's account, of course.

 At this point in time one may say, "Hey, opening an account with the online sportsbooks seem rather easy and smooth, no?"". Well, that's not all. Unfortunately, sports betting fraud conducted by bettors, rather than sportsbooks, is quite common in the Internet world. If you are not taking an active part in the online betting industry, the way we do, you probably have no idea or even could begin to imagine the elaborate schemes and the lengths some people would go to, in order to trick the sportsbooks. The most basic is the fake or stolen identity. Therefore once you have opened an account with the sportsbooks for the first time and have won some money, before you could withdraw the winnings you must go through the sportsbook's identity verification process (a one-time requirement for first time withdrawal). This usually involves sending copies of recent bills (electricity, water, rent, etc), all needed to make sure you are who you say you are. Now, one may ask, why don't the sportsbooks ask for these things when you open the account, rather than later? Well, simply and bluntly put, the online sportsbooks don't care if a crook is losing money - they would be more than happy to let a would-be trickster lose his or her money betting on sports. The good sportsbooks we have listed are also more than happy to pay legitimate winners. But no one wants to send money to a cheater. That's why after one opens an account with the online sportsbook - they don't care if you are cheater or an honest customer. And once you have shown that you are the person you say you are you wouldn't have to bother with this verification process again.

 If you have more sportsbook-related questions, feel free to visit our betting guide, where more answer to the most common questions are already posted.

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