Choosing a betting site

This article outlines the criteria that bettors should consider when choosing an online betting site. Each sportsbook yields different advantages and disadvantages that players should be aware of prior to making a deposit. This guide covers determining betting site availability, deposit methods, withdrawal time, and the type of lines.

Availability

Online gambling laws force betting sites to have restrictions on which countries or states they can accept customers from. Before a bettor can begin comparing betting sites it is recommended that they draft a list of all options available to their region. A list of accepted countries and states should be available in the sportsbook's terms of service.

Betting Wiki includes a table of available countries on each sportsbook's respective wiki page. State-by-state restrictions will also be specified.

Example Sportsbook Availability by Country
	Albania		Australia		Austria
	Belarus		Belgium		Bosnia
	Bulgaria		Canada		China
	Croatia		Czechia		Denmark
	Estonia		Finland		France
	Germany		Greece		Hungary
	Iceland		Ireland		Italy
	Japan		Latvia		Lithuania
	Macedonia		Mexico		Moldova
	Montenegro		Netherlands		New Zealand
	Norway		Poland		Portugal
	Romania		Russia		Serbia
	Singapore		Slovakia		Slovenia
	Spain		Sweden		Switzerland
	Ukraine		United Kingdom		United States

Reputation

After determining all betting sites available in your country it's time to verify each sportsbook's reputation. With plenty of options on the market players should not feel pressured to give their business to sites with a history of dishonest practices. A quick internet search should reveal any major incidents that have occurred in a sportsbook's past. Bettors should be aware that most betting site reviews do not highlight negative events in a bookmaker's history as their websites are partnered with the sportsbooks. As a result posts made on message boards and social media are often the best source of honest information. Betting Wiki aims to maintain a list of any concerning incidents on a sportsbook's respective wiki page.

Payments

Betting sites offer customers different methods of depositing and withdrawing funds. Bettors can narrow down their list of potential sportsbooks based on their preferred payment methods. Players should also be aware of any additional fees that might be charged to process a deposit or withdrawal.

Deposits

Deposits through credit card are the most frequently used funding method among sports bettors. Betting sites also offer alternative options including bank transfers, cryptocurrencies, and money orders. The majority of sportsbooks offer discrete deposits which means it will not show up as a betting site on your credit card or bank statement. Before selecting a bookmaker players should be aware of their available deposit methods, as well as if there are any additional processing fees associated with that payment option.

Betting Wiki maintains a table with each betting site's deposit methods on their respective wiki page. This table also includes the limits and processing fees associated with each method. An example of which can be found below:

Example Sportsbook Deposit Methods
Method		Min	Max	Fee
	VISA	$45	$2,500	None
	MasterCard	$45	$2,500	None
	MoneyGram	$100	$500	None
	eCheck	$100	$5,000	None
	e-Transfer	$250	$1,000	None
	Bitcoin	$45	No limit	None
	Bitcoin Cash	$45	No limit	None
	Litecoin	$45	No limit	None

Withdrawals

Before depositing into a betting site players must be aware of withdrawal policies. Bettors should verify that their preferred payout method is offered, as well as the processing time and fees associated with it. The most common withdrawal method is through check but many sportsbooks offer faster payout options through cryptocurrency or bank transfer. Similar to deposits most sportsbook withdrawals are discrete which means it will not be indicated that the funds are coming from a betting site when received.

Betting Wiki maintains a detailed summary of each sportsbook's withdrawal policies on their respective wiki page. This includes payout methods, processing time, associated fees, and limits:

Example Sportsbook Withdrawal Methods (USD)
Method		Min	Max	Fee	Process Time
	Bitcoin	$25	$5,000	None	2 hours
	Bank Wire	$500	$5,000	None	1 week
	eCheck	$50	$3,000	None	1 week

Betting Markets

In order to achieve long term success bettors must understand how their sportsbook sets their betting markets. These concepts might be challenging for novice sports bettors but it must not be overlooked. This section deals with intermediate concepts such as how betting markets work and the difference between square and sharp lines.

Square and Sharp

Assessing a sportsbook's betting markets might seem challenging for novice bettors. Before placing a bet players must understand how their betting site sets their odds relative to the rest of the industry. This section deals with more intermediate concepts including

The last criteria to evaluate is whether a betting site offers square or sharp odds. It helps to first understand how oddsmakers set betting lines. Although simplified, a sportsbook desires to have an equal amount of money staked on both sides of a given market. This guarantees profit as a result of the bookmaker's commission (known as vig).

Let's look at an example match to illustrate this concept. A moneyline bet is a wager on which team will win the match. The Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots both have the same odds of winning at -110. For those not familiar with American odds, this means a $110 risk would yield $100 profit for a total return of $210 if that team were to win.

Team		Spread	Total	Moneyline
	New England Patriots	PK (-110)	Over 49.5 (-110)	-110
	Baltimore Ravens	PK (-110)	Under 49.5 (-110)	-110

Imagine that a betting site's customers wagered a combined $22,000 on this game's moneyline market. The ideal scenario for a bookmaker would be to have a total of $11,000 bet on the Patriots and $11,000 on the Ravens. In this scenario regardless of which team wins they will pay $10,000 to the winners and collect $11,000 from the losers for a net return of $1,000.

With this in mind one can see how oddsmakers must anticipate how their customers will perceive the lines they set. It is often not optimal for a sportsbook to set a line based strictly on the expected outcome determined by statistics. Bettors often believe certain teams are stronger or weaker than they actually are. In the previous example match assume that the math indicated that on average the Ravens would beat the Patriots by 3.5 points. At the time of writing this guide the Patriots are a team many people frequently bet on. Releasing a spread of 3.5 based strictly on the expected outcome would likely result in a distinct imbalance in money staked. Instead the spread is adjusted to 0.0 (PK) and both teams are given equal betting odds on the moneyline in order to attract net action to the other side.

While this has been simplified it provides enough foundation to define the concepts of square and sharp. These terms can be used to describe individual lines or entire betting sites. It's important to note that different sportsbooks offer different lines for the same match, adjusted for their respective customer base.

A square line is one that has a large deviation from the expected outcome. Oddsmakers adjust the line to make the side they expect a majority of their customers' action to be placed on less favourable. This is done to attract more bets to the other side in an attempt to achieve a balance of action.

Consequently, a sharp line is one that has a smaller deviation from the expected outcome. Betting lines are close to what statistics would indicate is the average outcome of the game (if it were to be played many times over a large sample size).

It is common for betting sites to exclusively deal sharp or square lines. This is dependent on their respective customer bases' betting habits. Square sportsbooks cater to recreational and novice gamblers. Inexperienced sportsbettors are generally more inclined to bet on the square side of a given market. To take advantage of this oddsmakers shift the line to make it less favorable to bet on. This works to attract more bets to the other side in order to achieve a balance. And if it were to fail, and a majority of bets are still placed on the square side of the game, those bettors would be at an increased disadvantage for having a worse line relative to those available at competing sportsbooks. Those paying close attention might ask themselves why experienced bettors with large bankrolls don't take advantage of square adjustments by betting on the other side. These square sportsbooks generally prevent knowledgable bettors from doing this by restricting access, offering low betting limits, and issuing dual lines.

Sharp betting sites generally have a more diverse customer base. Novice, intermediate, and experienced sportsbettors allow the site to issue lines that are closer to the expected outcome. Even if a large portion of novice and intermediate bettors take the square side, experienced bettors would balance it out by placing larger wagers on the other side.