Misleading Online Sports Betting Promotions: How to Stay Safe

6 minute read

The online sports betting industry is massive today, and includes hundreds of online sportsbooks scattered across different legal jurisdictions and operating under different licenses. While some of these operators are legitimate businesses who care about their customers, that’s not always the case.

One common example of betting operators dealing unfairly with their customers has to do with sports betting promotions, an area in which some of them choose to remain as vague as possible so they could manipulate promotions however they wish.

Whether we are talking free bet promotions, welcome bonuses, risk-free bets, or other types of promotions, bettors must be aware of what operator they are dealing with before they deposit their hard earned money.

A good example of this comes from 2012, when an international sports betting site SportsBook.ag decided to go back on their offer to reimburse players who bet on the Green Bay Packers in a match that was botched by refereeing decisions.

While SportsBook.ag had no legal obligation to refund any bets, it went forward with a statement that bets would be refunded. However, it failed to make it clear that this offer did not apply to its American customers.

Shady and misleading promotional offers and promises from operators like SportsBook.ag have been a problem in online gambling since its dawn, and are only becoming more problematic with every passing year.

An image of an excited person for misleading online sports betting and safety tips.

How Sports Betting Promotions Work

Compared to in-person betting, one of the biggest advantages of online sports betting is the fact you can benefit from numerous sports betting promotions. This includes various bonuses, free bets, and other promotions that operators use to attract customers.

When they are fair and without a catch, sports betting promotions can actually be amazing deals, as they allow players to get extra value and perhaps even be profitable against the sportsbooks.

However, some sports betting sites tend to advertise their promotions falsely, claiming to offer value that isn’t really there. Before we look at how promotions can be misleading, let’s take a look at the different types of promotions you might see at sports betting sites.

Types of Sports Betting Promotions

There are many different types of promotions used by betting sites, all of which are designed to get players in the door and keep them making bets.

Some popular types of betting promos include:

Risk-free Bets: Risk-free bets are promotions in which the operator offers to refund your losses up to a certain amount on a particular bet. For instance, if you bet up to $100 on a certain team to win, the operator refunds you $100 in free bets if you lose.
Free Bets: Free bets are awarded to a player’s account, and the player can place their full value on any market of their choice. If the bet is a winner, the profit is paid to the player in cash.
Welcome Offers: Also known as deposit bonuses, these offers match a player’s deposit to a certain extent and allow them to bet with more than they deposited. For example, deposit $100 with an operator and bet with $150.
No Deposit Bonuses: Unlike deposit bonuses, these offers don’t require you to deposit money. Simply sign up with an operator and get a small amount of betting money to try the site with, completely risk-free.
Reload Bonuses: Much like first deposit bonuses, reload bonuses will match your subsequent deposits and give you extra money to bet with when you reload your account with a real money deposit.

Read the Fine Print: Dangers of Sportsbook Promotions

While sportsbook promotions generally tend to look pretty appealing, there are many cases where hidden terms and conditions make them less interesting than they look at first sight.

For example, a risk-free bet may give you back your losses in the form of a free bet. However, the money you get back as free bet may be subject to a playthrough requirement, forcing you to bet the full amount many times over before you can cash it out.

Similar is the case with other promotions such as deposit bonuses and reload bonuses, which also come with playthrough requirements in place.

Other operators go even further with disingenuous terms and conditions, making it impossible to play from certain locations, banning players from betting on certain markets, and more.

If you are going to bet real money with a sports betting site, you better be sure that site is 100% clean and working in the best interest of its customers.

How SportsBook.ag Deceived its Players

Back in September 2012, one of the most controversial NFL games of all time was played between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks. In the dying seconds of the game, a controversial decision in the end zone by a replacement referee gave Seattle the win.

The entire sporting world was outraged, but the NFL officials decided that there was no way to confirm that the call was wrong. Thus, the decision stood and the Seahawks took the win.

Some sportsbooks, including SportsBook.ag, decided to make it right by their players and pay back any bets that were made on the Packers in this match. While this was not a win, many bettors who had substantial bets got excited at first.

The excitement didn’t last too long, as SportsBook.ag waited long enough to get some recognition for this “fair” decision, before letting everyone know they would not be paying back their American customers.

Considering this was an NFL game, the vast majority of all bets were coming from the US, which meant the vast majority of affected customers would not get repaid.

This was only one of the many cases in which sports betting operators were not 100% open about their promotions or deals, with others including the likes of DraftKings and BetMGM, both 100% regulated and licensed operators in the US, getting in trouble over the fine print of their promotional deals.

The SportsBook.ag customers were stiffed just because of their place of residence at that time, and this was not the only time operators used fine print or changed their mind at the last minute to avoid paying thousands or even millions of dollars in promotional money.

Avoiding the Trap: How to Find Fair Betting Promotions

Of course, the case of SportsBook.ag is not the norm, but rather an exception that teaches us an important lesson that we should always know who we are dealing with before putting any real money on the line.

There are many online betting sites out there that are perfectly legitimate and whose betting promotions are not only fair but actually quite lucrative.

The real trick is to know how to distinguish between such operators and offers and those that have absolutely no intention of staying true to their word.

The answer, of course, comes mostly to trust and reputation. Online betting operators with a strong reputation will tend to try and maintain it, while those without one will not care too much about any bad press they might bet. They will rather keep the money!
When looking to make use of some sports betting promotions, focus on doing so with operators that have a good reputation and have been around for a long time, operating in good faith and getting good reviews from their customers.
If you live in a market where online gambling is regulated, always bet with operators that actually have the appropriate gambling licenses for that legal jurisdiction. If you don’t, you may want to avoid placing online bets altogether.
Finally, before you take any betting promotion that looks too good to be true, you may want to consider looking into its terms and conditions in more detail, so as to make sure you are not missing a key piece of information that changes the entire deal for the worse.

Conclusion: Stay Safe and Bet with Legitimate Betting Sites

Online sports betting can be very fun and the excitement of winning your bet is one that every sports bettor knows all too well.

However, if you are going to bet online, make sure you are doing so only with licensed and reputable betting sites that you know you can trust.

Picking online betting sites with low reputations and weird licenses from offshore locations that tend to harbor shady sites is a recipe for disaster, especially if you look to benefit from such operators’ betting promotions.

Betting in such places will lead to operators letting you use the promotion, only to find a reason not to pay you when you win, especially if the number is big.

So, keep betting with reputable online sportsbooks and make sure to always read the terms and conditions of any betting promo you decide to try out.

Paul Richard - Author Visit my profile page Find me on LinkedIn

Paul Richard is a professional sports betting and casino content writer with over three years of experience. He provides expert tips, strategies, and betting advice to help bettors succeed.