While online casinos and online poker are intimately related, online sports betting is definitely a world all to itself. There are different rules and different expectations, just as there are different rules and different expectations regarding corporate gifting. Building strong relationships with important customers and valued employees is always a key to successful for many businesses. Flowers, jewelry, and corporate gift baskets are ways to enhance a businesses marketing plan. However some companies have strict policies concerning gifts. Before sending a corporate gift or gift basket, be sure to check your own corporate policy on gift giving. In addition, many companies place restrictions on the value of the gift or on the situations in which gifts may be given. A case in point was the fall out from a holiday gift to all the staff at a sports betting office by a very successful client. He happened to send flashy sterling silver statement rings to everyone in the office from a well known online store that sells sterling silver jewelry. The business manager was freaked out thinking that the client was “paying off” the staffers since the rings looked really expensive with many having stunning diamond settings. Well, it turned out the “diamonds” were really cubic zirconia, a synthetic gemstone that is hard, optically flawless and usually colorless with a close visual likeness to diamonds. The sterling silver rings were relatively inexpensive and within the sports betting company’s gifting guidelines. Obviously, the client had called the personnel department for their guidelines and had followed their rules. BTW, I exchanged mine for one of SterlingForever’s Double Parallel Bar Sterling Silver Rings. Although the incident caused a slight brouhaha with the office manager, everything worked out just fine in the end. Likewise, know and understand the rules of online sports betting. You’re betting on predicting a particular sports results and placing a wager on the outcome that is happening in real life, rather than on the ‘roll’ of a computer’s dice or an online slots reel.
Sports betting has been around as long as there have been sports (maybe longer…I can imagine the first bettor, maybe some kind of caveman, betting on either the Woolly Mammoth or the Saber-tooth that was chasing him…but I digress).
Some countries have handled sports betting better than others; the UK, for example, has managed to set up some of the finest sports betting establishments in the world without destroying the fabric of civilization as we know it. The situation in the US (at an online sportsbook or online casino USA) is a little less ideal, however…
So we’re at the strange point where we have to recommend separate “Best” sportsbooks; one batch for US players, one batch for everyone else.
Luckily, the top US-based sportsbooks are world-league anyway, so it’s not amateur hour. We’re talking about names like Sportsbook.com (http://www.sportsbook.ag/), BetUS, and SportsBetting.com (http://www.sportsbetting.ag/)…three of the best there is. Take that, UIGEA!
The international scene is simply more crowded with excellence. On one hand, you have the tried-and-true online versions of reputable names like William Hill (http://www2.williamhill.com/), Ladbrokes(http://ladbrokes.com/football-betting/?AFF_ID=31077&ASSET_ID=82), and Paddy Power (http://www.paddypower.com). It’s hard to go wrong with companies that have been doing this for decades.
On the other hand, you have the ‘new breed’ of online-only sportsbooks (who match the classic in quality, and benefit from not risking spreading themselves too thin with land-based shops to operate) such as bet365 (http://www.bet365.com/) and bet770 (http://www.bet770.com/en/). Plus, there are the gambling megasites like 888.com (http://www.888sport.com/bet/) — most of which sacrifice quality for quantity, but not 888, whose sportsbooks, poker, online slots and everything else are among the very best in the world.
* * Update * *
I am a big fan of sports & I was a firm believer that I should not mix business with pleasure, so to speak, by betting on sports but I no longer feel that way. The reason being, there are so many sports to bet on that I do not have to bet my favorite games. If I feel superstitious then I can just bet on other games or sports. There are plenty to go around. I am pretty good at patterns & I can analyze certain games or teams & I feel like I begin to speculate on my money rather than betting on it. I have to say that I do pretty well when it comes down to making money in the book & I am still able to keep pure certain aspects of sports as well.