Why do bookies limit me directly after I open an account?

ghotiing · Group 3 Class Joined: 25 Apr 2011 Posts: 67

Hi everyone,

here is something strange that happened to me four times now, and which I really can't understand.

I'm living in New Zealand, which may be part of the answer to this problem. In the last few weeks I regeistered with a few bookies, and in all cases I created my first and only account with the respective bookie. In some of the cases (2 Aussie bookies, 2 UK bookies) I realised that I was restricted from the onset on, i.e. my maximum stakes were ridiculously low without having placed a single bet. Just as an example: If I wanted to bet on something outlandish like a 0-0 in a football game, my max stake would have been at 1.31 Euro (or thereabouts). The only markets where I would be allowed double digits stakes were the normal match markets of football matches, and even then the max stakes would be rather low - I'm pretty sure there was not one game where I could have bet 50 Euro.

Of course I contacted the bookies, but - as you would expect - they don't do much more than cite their terms & conditions "... right to restrict... no further explanation..." At least one of the UK bookies admitted something like "we don't market in New Zealand and therefore want to limit our liabilities" - liabilities, by the way, which amounted to 6 Euro or so for any of my allowed bets. But if they don't market in NZ, why do the accept NZ customers? And, of course, they didn't object to me depositing a sum that - under my limits - may have taken 50 bets to play through. (To be fair: There were no requirements to play through my money, so I simply withdrew everything after one bet.)

But here is the really strange part: These limits don't seem to be in place for horse races. Or if there are limits, they are definitely less severe: I could easily place hundreds of Euro on a 10:1 horse, but I can't place 2 Euro on a 0-0 draw? That makes no sense to me. Does anyone have any idea why this is so? Judging by the number of cases, this rather strange behaviour seems to be general practice.

Is it possible that the bookies think that they have more control over their horses markets? If so, this confidence seems unjustified to me: If I can put some hundred Euro on a horse at odds of 10, which at the time should be down to 8.5, I can do way more damage to a bookie than I can do if his odds on - say - a home win are to long by 0.2.

Really - does anybody have any idea?

Cheers,

ghotiing

PS: Did anybody ever have similar experiences?

The Shark · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:17 am Post subject:

thanks ghotiing for sharing.

this is very strange, especially not restricting horse racing as that is normally where bookies are most vulnerable from shrewdies.

Some bookies completely block new accounts from some territories which they arent currently marketing too or where they have received a lot of bonus abuse. I guess, based on what you are saying, other bookies must allow registrations but then majorly limit automatically?

We have started to build some pages on OLBG for different countries, including New Zealand. What I found was even Aussie bookies didnt seem interested in New Zealand, not having a different offer or landing page for New Zealand traffic and not really seeming to care about it. I know it isnt a big country in terms of population but would have though there were a fair amount of you betting there?

ghotiing · Group 3 Class Joined: 25 Apr 2011 Posts: 67

Hi shark,

I guess the amount of betting per capita here is not too different from the respective amount in Australia. There is a local betting company here (TAB), which is part of the Australian Tabcorp betting company, I guess. In NZ and in Australia betting companies seem to be under rather strict supervision by the authorities; in both countries, you have to provide proof of ID and address, usually by Justice of the Peace certified (!) copies of your documents or by turning up in one of their shops providing these documents. Why Aussie bookies should not be interested in NZ customers, I wouldn't know.

In the case of my 2 Aussie bookies I found out that these two companies were in fact one: One bookie was the daughter of the other, and at some point PaddyPower had bought this daughter and therefore owns a part of the mother. Not surprisingly, both Aussie books had identical odds and very similar odds to PaddyPower. Maybe they ruled that having an account at both bookies is having "double accounts", who knows... Still, that would be more than strange.

Both UK books seem to be completely uninterested in customers from NZ (or, in fact, from most of the rest of the world), as both also didn't offer any sign-up bonuses for poor cousins like me. But then, why don't they just reject any business with non-UK and non-ROI customers? Btw, both bookies are "featured" in the free bet section in this forum, so they are no dodgy backstreet companies.

in4now · 2yo Joined: 18 Jan 2012 Posts: 5

[REMOVED]

bigstk · Handicapper Joined: 23 Feb 2012 Posts: 10

hello guys don't want to start a new topic so I ask my question here because I think it gets in the same context...
what can i do if all sportsbooks ban me or limit my account once i start winning? This happened at Bet365, BWin, Bet-at-home and now I have an acc at 12bet which is limited to 20 euro/ match.

Antony OLBG · Stallion Read My Blog! Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 7108

You can use a betting exchange like Betfair or BetDaq - they wont ban you

bigstk · Handicapper Joined: 23 Feb 2012 Posts: 10

Thanks mate, I see that they offer good markets on horses, but I'm looking for eastern european soccer leagues and Betfair afaik does't have to many events from these leagues in their offer. So does Betdag have a wider offer?

The Shark · Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:03 pm Post subject:

Other bookies known for taking big bets and not limiting accounts quickly are 188Bet, Pinnacle and Canbet. They are all listed on our bookmakers page too - http://www.olbg.com/bookmakers.php

bigstk · Handicapper Joined: 23 Feb 2012 Posts: 10

thanks for the interest in my problem, but I decided to open an account at ibcbet, I found on olbg a user that had a test account (legman) and after logging in for the first time I decided to get a full account
so thanks once again for the support

bigstk · Handicapper Joined: 23 Feb 2012 Posts: 10

ibcbet is the best bookie:)) I just won 300$

kalor62 · 2yo Joined: 15 Aug 2012 Posts: 7

I had similar situation... , after winning 4 bets in a row on euro 2012 (newly opened account), my account was limited and i could place a bet with a total win not higher than 10 euro. The weird thing was that the limit didn't apply for live betting, so I was still able to wait few secs till the match starts and then place my bet for any amount. Of course there is a disadvantage of that as you can place only single bets. Some bookies are just not worth the hassle...

Online Trader · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 1:38 pm Post subject:

At least you have the exchanges Harry so all is not lost Yes