Sportsbook review: Intertops
INTERTOPS
PROS
Intertops has a very interesting feature on its website: betting trends (seems to be only available with “Sportsbook classic”, but not with the newest website version). I love this tool. It allows you to view what percentage of bets went on each team/player. For example, on June 5th, 2017 the following statistics were shown on Intertops’ website with respect to Game 3 of the NBA Finals:
- 88% of the bets were on the Warriors against the spread at -3;
- 1% of the bets were on the Cavaliers against the spread at +3;
- 4% of the bets were on the Warriors to win straight up at -155;
- 7% of the bets on the Cavaliers to win straight up at +135.
This bookie has built a solid reputation along the years; it was one of the early pioneers in the online gambling world. They are definitely one of the safest sportsbooks out there.
Intertops does have some fairly interesting sign-up bonuses (either 50% up to 200$, or 100% up to 100$ or 200% up to 50$). They also promote some “money back” specials once in a while, for instance getting refunded (as a free bet, not cash) if your match winner pick at the 2017 French Open lost in five sets (up to 100$). That’s a pretty interesting proposition.
They have a reputable customer service. Players have been praising this department for a long time.
Payouts are processed very quickly. And as mentioned earlier, no worries about not getting paid considering their unmatched reputation.
CONS
The juice on their lines is not great: -110 -110 on major sports, which means a 20-cent spread. That used to be the standard in the industry, but more and more sportsbooks are offering better lines now, especially on big sporting events.
Not only do they limit winning players, but they have low betting limits in general. The most you can wager on a single game (even on major markets like the NFL, MLB, English Premier League, etc) seems to be between 1000$ and 2500$. That’s extremely low compared to other big bookies that are willing to accept bets over 100 000$.
I’m pretty disappointed by their bet offer in general. Not that many sports or leagues are covered, and not a great deal of proposition bets either. That’s a pretty surprising observation from such a big sportsbook.
Their odds are pretty sharp, so if you like to shop for bargains you might have to look for a long period of time before finding one.
If you wish to make a withdrawal via a check or a bank wire, you will be charged a 50$ fee. Unlike many sportsbooks, you don’t get a free withdrawal per month.
QUICK FACTS
- Established in 1998.
- Located in Antigua
- Email: bet@intertops.eu
- They claim to have accepted the world’s first ever online sports bet.
- They also featured the first mobile gambling website.
- For a certain number of years they stopped accepting new US players (while keeping open the account of their current players from that country), but eventually went back to welcoming new Americans a few years ago.
METHODS OF DEPOSIT
- Credit card
- Bitcoin
- Skrill (not available to USA and Canada)
- Bank wire (not available to USA)
- Neteller (not available to USA and Canada)
- PaySafeCard (not available to USA and Germany)
- ecoPayz (not available to USA)
- SofortBanking (Germany, Austria, Spain, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland)
- EU SEPA Bank Transfer (if you have a bank account in a EU country)
- Money Global
METHODS OF DEPOSIT
- Bitcoin
- Check
- Skrill (not available to USA and Canada)
- Bank wire (not available to USA)
- Neteller (not available to USA, Canada, France and Spain)
- PaySafeCard (not available to USA and Germany)
- EU SEPA Bank Transfer (if you have a bank account in a EU country)
GOOD AND BAD STORIES FROM PLAYERS
A player from Austria filed a complaint about Intertops stalling payment of his winnings and giving him a hard time with document verification. His initial deposit was 500 euros and he grew his bankroll up to 3600 euros. He swears the scanned documents were clear and with high resolution. Upon verification, it was determined he committed fraudulent activities by forging documents. His initial deposit was returned to him, but not his winnings.
Source: https://www.askgamblers.com/casino-complaints/intertops-no-pay-money
Analysis: If the player did indeed forge ID documents, he got what he deserved. This should serve as a lessor to us all: don’t be dishonest with sportsbooks. They do have to verify their customers’ identity, namely to prevent money-laundering and to avoid gamblers who aren’t yet of legal age.
A player received a P2P (Peer To Peer) transfer from another player. He went on to earn some profit, but could not withdraw the money. Intertops says the sender made several chargebacks in the past and the plaintiff admitted this person was related to him. Therefore, Intertops took the decision to refund the original deposit and to close the account, but kept the winnings due to related accounts and the past fraudulent activities of the sender.
Analysis: If you read the whole story, you’ll see that the plaintiff says the sender is a 10-year loyal player who was stripped of HER account due to fraud “that wasn’t even fraud”. I may be wrong, but it sounds like a guy who was playing under his girlfriend’s name and when things started to get hot after making a few chargebacks, he opened an account for himself. Sportsbooks don’t like related accounts. And if one account is suspected of fraud, they’ll all shut them down for security reasons. I would do the same, personally.
BOTTOM LINE
I will always have an emotional attachment to Intertops because this is where I placed my very first online bet more than 15 years ago. My hand was literally shaking.
Here is a funny anecdote: back in those days, they were making a fairly big mistake by rounding the potential return amount to its nearest integer. Suppose the odds on a certain team were 2.45. If you placed a 10$ bet the potential return was 24.50$, which was rounded to 25$. In reality, you were therefore risking 10$ for a potential 15$ profit so your odds essentially became 2.50 rather than 2.45. If I wanted to wager 1000$, I took advantage of this flaw by placing one hundred different 10$ bets. A single 1000$ bet would have yielded a potential return 2450$, while I was getting 2500$. It may not sound like a big difference on the surface, but over the course of several months it made a significant impact.
Let’s go back to business: should you deposit money at Intertops or not? For more experienced sports bettors, it may not be the best avenue because of the low betting limits, the sharp odds, the above average juice and the small number of proposition bets. Also, live betting junkies may not be fully satisfied at Intertops and should look for other options.
I view Intertops as a solid option if you are starting out. Most beginners value more trustworthiness and bonuses, which are two elements that you get when registering with Intertops. This type of clientele generally focuses on bigger leagues and don’t need hundreds of side bets. Intertops’ friendly customer representatives will be there for you if you need help. From this perspective, I do recommend signing up with Intertops.