Sportsbook Poker Review

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Sportsbook.com have been taking bets online since 1996,
making them one of the oldest
online sports betting sites around. They are largely
considered to among the biggest of all the online sportsbooks.
That is no surprise, with arguably the best domain name in the
business. Their website does the domain justice and is well
designed and easy to use.

Overview

Sportsbook.ag is one of the oldest names in the industry.
Opened in 1997 as an offshore sportsbook, the site soon added
casino games and eventually a poker room and racebook. One of
the first big “all-in-one” sites, Sportsbook.ag is partnered
with PlayersOnly, another big name in the all-in-one gambling
industry.

Sportsbook.ag is now run by Jazette Enterprises, Ltd., a
group that operates a long list of sportsbook and other gambling
properties. This was not always the case – before the 2006 SAFE
Ports Act and its UIGEA bill wrecked the US gambling market, the
site was called Sportsbook.com, and was run by Sportingbet.
Wanting rid of its potentially litigious dealings with US
customers, Sportingbet famously sold the site for $1 to Jazette.

How Do I Feel About Sportsbook.ag?

I’ll Start with Some
Positive Features – Reasons to Consider Opening an Account with
the Site:

(Most) American customers can open accounts at
Sportsbook.ag. This is a big deal, because American
customers have a short list of places that will even accept
their deposits. I can’t find a complete list of US states that
are restricted at the site, but I know that residents of
Kentucky are restricted.

Sportsbook.ag partnered with Betsoft to produce their
casino library. Betsoft is producing some of the best
games in the industry, so I’m always excited to review a site
with a Betsoft-powered casino. I cover the site’s games and
various bets in greater detail below.

Now for the Bad News – A Few Features That May Make You Want
to Reconsider a Membership:

The casino library is small and boring.
Look, just because Betsoft is my favorite casino game design
firm doesn’t mean I automatically love every site that plops a
Betsoft slot or two on their game library. Hosting a total of
132 games in this day and age is a strong choice – the world’s
best-reviewed gambling sites tend to host hundreds of titles
produced by a variety of designers. I talk in more detail about
my complaints with the casino library below.

Sportsbook.ag and PlayersOnly are pretty much
identical sites. In other words, I’m bored by them.
Look, I review twenty sportsbooks a month, and I visit a few
more than that. Repetition in this industry strikes me as
laziness or downright disregard for your customers. I know
that’s probably not the case – that this is a business decision
more than anything – but I can’t help the way it makes me feel.

The site’s bonus, banking, and customer service
options are severely lacking. I’ve not seen such a weak
promotional lineup in about fifteen years, mostly because
promotions pages are one of the main ways online gambling
businesses market their services. I have to believe that the
lame collection of promos is due to me being an American – but
since this site depends heavily on American business, I’m not
sure they get off that easy. Throw in the tiny collection of
deposit and withdrawal options and the equally-anemic customer
service options covered below, and the site just looks lazy.

Bonus Details

Reading through the bonus terms and conditions pages at
Sportsbook.ag, I got a bit confused. The site maintains at
several different points that they operate using “a standard
rollover requirement” in order to clear bonuses. For casino
bonuses, the site indicates that the standard rollover is 35x
bonus-plus-deposit. Unfortunately, other details are not as easy
to find. Sportsbook bonuses aren’t even given a specific
rollover requirement, and I say that having scoured the site for
half an hour.

I’d like to point out, too, that in the T&C pages, the site
makes it clear that bets on the following casino games do not
count toward clearing any rollover requirement:

• American Roulette
• European Roulette
• Mini Roulette
• Craps

It makes sense that they’d make exceptions for these games –
they happen to have the best odds of all the site’s casino
games. This is a bit of a disappointment, because other casino
sites still honor wagers on low-odds games, just at a reduced
rate. If you’re a casino gambler and want to clear bonus cash,
make sure you know that only long-odds games will count towards
clearing your money.

Here’s an outline of the promotions available at
Sportsbook.ag, valid as of the time I wrote and posted this
review. You’ll want to check the site’s promotions page to see
what offers are available at the time of your visit.

• Refer-a-Friend Bonus

  Customers who
  refer a friend can earn a free wager worth 100% of their
  first deposit of $50 or more, though the offer is capped at
  $50. The site goes out of its way to point out that you can
  re-trigger this bonus an unlimited number of times. The free
  bet offer expires if it goes unused for thirty calendar
  days, and it also requires the site’s infamous “standard
  rollover.”

• 20% Weekly Reload Bonus (Casino)

  Casino
  customers that opt in to this bonus will receive a unique
  bonus code every week that makes them eligible for a 20%
  reload bonus, worth up to $100 per bonus. A standard
  rollover and other T&Cs apply.

• Bet Match Bonus (Casino)

  New customers
  to the casino are eligible for one free bet in the amount of
  their first qualifying deposit. Eligible customers deposit
  between $1 and $100, and earn a free wager matching the
  exact size of their deposit. Standard rollover requirements
  apply.

• Cash-Back Happy Hour (Casino)

  Casino
  customers that play between the hours of 7 and 10 PM EST
  every Tuesday can earn 25% cash back on the site’s entire
  list of instant and mobile games, restricted games listed
  above not included. The site will pay back 25% of your
  losses, provided you were an overall loser for the day. Of
  course, standard rollover requirements apply.

• Welcome Bonus (Poker)

  This is
  Sportsbook.ag’s only traditional casino bonus currently
  available – aimed at the site’s poker=playing crowd, the
  bonus gives first-time depositors a deposit match bonus
  worth up $1,000 matched at a rate of 100%.

• 8% Daily Cash Back (Racebook)

  It’s nice
  to see a site making overtures to racebook customers, but
  this one may be too little, too late for some bettors. A
  rebate of between 3% and 8% is available for all bets in the
  racebook of $2.20 or more. These rebates are paid out daily
  – check the site’s promos page linked above for specifics on
  this deal.

Banking Options

Sportsbook.ag Currently offers just three deposit methods:

• Bitcoin – $5.00 is the Minimum Deposit and the Maximum Deposit for this option is $10,000.
• VISA – Use any VISA-branded credit,
  debit, or gift card to make deposits of up to $1,000.
• Western Union – You can transfer up to
  $999 via Western Union, for a fee.

The site has just one withdrawal method listed – customers
can choose either a cashier’s check or a gift card, which the
site will send via snail mail. This requires a sliding fee and a
waiting period of as much as fifty days.

Sports Book

Sportsbook.ag, like the URL implies, is primarily a
sportsbook. Most of its business comes from its sports and
racebook categories – this is pretty common for the Web’s
biggest all-in-one gambling sites.

The list of markets available for wagers at the site is a big
feather in their cap. I like long lists of games, markets, and
wagers, because I prize variety over almost anything else.

Here’s the list of all available sportsbook markets, at the
time of my review:

• Auto Racing
• Baseball
• Basketball
• Boxing
• Cycling
• Entertainment
• Football
• Golf
• Hockey
• Live Betting
• MMA
• NCAA Sports
• Politics
• Racebook
• Rugby Union
• Soccer
• Street League Skateboarding
• Tennis
• Women’s Basketball
• eSports

Most of these categories expand to include a variety of
leagues. For example, if you click on Soccer, you’ll see a long
list of world leagues, some amateur, most professional. The same
is true for football, which also includes bets for Aussie rules
games when in season.

Just like PlayersOnly, Sportsbook.ag currently offers Squares
betting. I think this is a really neat addition to their
sportsbook, and it’s a feature I hope to see at more books in
the future. If you’ve ever bet on the Super Bowl or any other
sporting event at the office, you’re familiar with Squares. It’s
usually a casual game played between friends and family, but
Sportsbook.ag has it available as a casino-style wager.

The Casino

Sportsbook.ag is home to 132 Betsoft-designed casino titles.
The site’s mobile options are even more limited – I counted just
30 titles available to casino gamblers on the site’s mobile
platform. Both of these numbers are below the industry average.

Another odd feature of the game library at Sportsbook.ag’s
casino – the ridiculous number of available game categories.
Some of them contain one, two, or three different games – a sure
sign that the site should reorganize their layout and maybe
condense some of these categories into larger ones.

If it sounds like I’m really down on Sportsbook.ag’s casino,
I am – but not entirely. I’m a huge fan of Betsoft. Betsoft
titles tend to look fresh, with crisp graphics and
professional-grade audio and video effects to keep gameplay
interesting. Sportsbook.ag simply doesn’t give me enough of
Betsoft’s great titles, and that’s a disappointment.

Here’s a breakdown of each of the site’s nine categories of casino games:

Blackjack Games

• Blackjack – played according to traditional rules
• Classic Blackjack – a single-deck version
• High Stakes Blackjack – the standard game but with a max wager of $2,500
• Blackjack 7’s – one of many Betsoft blackjack variants with a fun side bet
• Blackjack Switch – allows the player to switch their cards for new ones
• Blackjack 52 – a two-deck game
• Spanish Blackjack – a European variant with slightly different rules for the player and dealer

Table Games

• Three Card Poker – a poker game that includes one round of raises
• Caribbean Stud – casino-style five-card stud with a progressive jackpot
• Casino Hold’em – casino-style classic Texas Hold’em play
• Red Dog – a poker-like luck-based card game
• Craps – the classic casino game
• American Roulette -roulette with two green zero spaces
• Casino War – a classic children’s game translated for the casino
• European Roulette -roulette with one green zero space
• Baccarat – a casino classic casino game of guessing
• Pai Gow – a poker game based loosely on an ancient Chinese game of chance

Video Poker

• Aces and Eights
• 7-Stud Poker
• All American Poker
• Bonus Deuces Wild
• Bonus Poker
• Bonus Poker Deluxe
• Deuces Wild
• Double Bonus Poker
• Double Double Bonus Poker
• Double Double Jackpot Poker
• Double Jackpot Poker
• Jacks or Better
• Joker Poker
• Loose Deuces
• Mystery Bonus Poker
• Pick’Em Poker
• Sevens Wild

Jackpot Games

Rather than being a category of unique titles, this heading
collects every titles with a progressive jackpot in one
easy-to-find location. It’s designed to be a convenient way for
bettors to find jackpot titles, but there are no unique games on
this list.

Slots

Just over 100 of the site’s games are slots – a small number,
even when all the games are designed by Betsoft, my favorite
slot producer. For the sake of convenience, Sportsbook.ag breaks
up their slot collection into the following categories:

• All Jackpot Slots
• 30 Pay Line Slots
• 24 & 25 Pay Line Slots
• 15 & 20 Pay Line Slots
• 8, 9 & 10 Pay Line Slots
• Classic 3 Reel Slots

By far the largest category is 30 Pay Line slots, an area of
design where Betsoft really outdoes itself in terms of quality.

Scratch Card Games

I found just one game under this heading, a scratch
card-style virtual lottery game called Scratcherz.

Hi-Lo Games

• Casino War – a classic children’s game as played in the casino
• Draw Hi-Lo – a guessing game played with cards

Keno & Lotto Games

• Keno Jackpot
• 80 Ball Keno
• Krazy Keno
• Klub Keno
• Virtual Lotto

Sports Games

The only game listed here is the Virtual Racebook, which
allows bettors to take a chance on a simulated horse racing
event. If you enjoy horse racing, though, I’m not sure why you
wouldn’t bet in the site’s attached Racebook. This is an oddly
tone-deaf inclusion for Sportsbook.ag – I didn’t even know
Betsoft made a game like this, which is not one of their
triumphs. I found it slow and boring.

Besides a so-so collection of slots, I have nothing to say in
recommendation of this casino library. Maybe Sportsbook.ag
should cut a deal with a couple of other game designers to
include some variety and spice up what has to be one of the
least-inspired collections of Betsoft games I’ve ever reviewed.

Poker

The poker software at Sportsbook.ag comes from the Merge
network – Sportsbook.ag was once a part of the Cake network, but
jumped ship to Merge when it became apparent that Cake was going
to fail. The software is decent – it looks good, has plenty of
features that poker players will love, and contains native
support for both Mac and Windows.

I’m not so keen on the Merge network mostly because it’s
small. According to PokerScout, Merge’s peak traffic amount in
the past week was 527 cash players. That makes it one of the
smaller networks – by no means the smallest, but nowhere near
the size of the top five.

It’s common to read that competition is “soft” at all-in-one
sites like Sportsbook.ag. This has to do with the fact that the
site operates casino games, a sportsbook, and a racebook as well
as a poker room. The assumption is that sportsbook and casino
customers wander into the poker room with very little skill,
providing a school of fish for more experienced players to take
down. I remain unconvinced about this fact – I’ve seen stellar
poker play at all-in-one sites and terrible play at the big boys
in the business.

Games Available at Sportsbook.ag’s Poker Room

• Texas Hold’em
• Omaha
• Omaha hi-lo
• Seven card stud
• Seven card stud hi-lo

Most of the traffic is condensed into the micro and
medium-stakes games, with very little traffic at all beyond the
$1/$2 level at my last visit.

As for tournaments – this is one area in which
Sportsbook.ag’s poker room does pretty well. The site hosts a
long list of daily, weekly, and monthly tournaments, which is
nice for a site with a small player base. I saw buy-ins ranging
from $0.25 up to $200, but I know larger buy-ins are available
on weeks – I visited on a weekday.

Sportsbook.ag has a variety of tournament styles, too – not
just Texas Hold’em tournaments up and down the board, either.
Right now, tournaments in Omaha and various forms of hi-lo are
taking place, with plenty more on the daily schedule to come.

As is often the case at poker rooms of any size, the most
popular tourneys are the site’s weekly and monthly guaranteed
prize pool events. Sunday’s guaranteed tournament hands out
prizes worth $50,000 – an amount that doubles to $100,000 once a
month when the site runs its biggest monthly guaranteed event.

Customer Support

Usually, if you click a link that says “Contact Us”, you’ll
be taken to a list of phone numbers, email addresses, and live
chat links, and so on. That’s not the case at Sportsbook.ag –
clicking their “Contact Us” link takes you to a pretty useless
FAQ section, with not a phone number or email address in sight.
The fact that the site doesn’t run a Live Chat service is very
disappointing.

I did some googling and found the following contact
information for the site’s customer support desk:

• 1-800-632-6088 – agents are available at this number between 8 AM and 3 AM EST.
• Email the Site – [email protected]

Summary

Sportsbook.ag is pretty much indistinguishable from
PlayersOnly and a few other properties owned by the Jezette
group. The best section of the site is the sportsbook – just
look at that long list of available markets. Unfortunately, it’s
still not worth writing home about. The interface looks outdated
and (at least from my last visit) performs very slow. It tends to
lag or at least does something similar, which really slows down the
overall betting process.

Verdict

I’m not in any way excited about Sportsbook.ag – the
casino library is lame, the poker room is a low-traffic affair
on a mediocre network, and the sportsbook promises more than it
delivers. Combine that disappointment with a limited promotions
program and financial system, and I can’t really recommend this
site to anyone.

Sportsbook.ag FAQ

Is it safe to place bets at Sportsbook.ag?

The site’s been in
business since 1997, and even though it’s under new ownership,
I’d say it’s still reliably safe to place a bet at the site.
Sportsbook.ag doesn’t hide the fact that payouts will probably
take a really long time, listing their deposit method as having
a waiting period of up to fifty days. I can’t say that I’d play
very long if I had to wait two months for a check, but if that’s
not an issue for you, then safety shouldn’t be a concern.

Sportsbook Poker Review

Why does Sportsbook.ag’s have such limited banking methods
available?

No doubt this has to do with the fact that they cater
mainly to American bettors. The traditional online gambling
deposit and withdrawal methods tend not to work with customers
based in the US and even sometimes Canada. The site has clearly
found those methods that are most likely to work without much
trouble, and made only those methods available to their
customers.

Sportsbook Poker Review

Does the site limit how much I can win?

Yes. This is standard
operating procedure for online sportsbooks and casinos. I found
this line in the site FAQ, and I think it answers your question
pretty directly: “The maximum dollar amount that may be won by
an individual member on a weekly basis is US$100,000.00.” The
terms and conditions go on to indicate that this restriction
doesn’t apply to progressive jackpot prizes or a few other
prizes.

Sportsbook Poker Room

Does Sportsbook.ag run any sports betting contests?

Sports Betting Poker Scam

Yes – a
quick look through older reviews indicates that the site ran a
popular $100K NFL Survivor Pool last season, as well as a
$100,000 NFL Parlay contest, an annual March Madness Bracket
tourney, and (just recently) a $20K NBA Survivor Pool.