While the online sports betting industry has completely revolutionised the world of sports betting by offering a wide range of options for sites to choose from, it has not come without it’s downfalls.

Unfortunately many new punters turn to online sportsbooks owing to the ease of use and access, but many fall victim to scam sportsbooks who prey on the uninitiated. Here’s how to spot a dodgy sports betting site and avoid them at all costs.

They Will Look (Almost) Professional

The majority of scam sportsbooks know that they have to exude a professional image in order to be successful, but many of them are lazy in their attempts to do so.

Remember it doesn’t take longer than a few days to slap together a professional-looking website, but many of these scam sites will just copy and paste their website information from a legitimate website.

Look out for mistakes – they’ve likely forgotten to remove every mention of the original site from which the information was stolen from!

Too Good to Be True Bonus Offers

It’s important to remember that legitimate online sportsbooks will never offer something for nothing as they are not desperate for customers like scam sites are. Any online sportsbook offering an outrageous no deposit bonus to new sign-ups should be immediate cause for concern.

You should also be incredibly suspicious if there are no wagering requirements attached to the bonuses “gifted” by the online sportsbook – this is absolutely unheard of in the legitimate sports betting industry.

Pushy Marketing Campaigns

Dodgy online sportsbooks will operate much like legitimate sportsbooks and will have marketing departments and customer service representatives just as legitimate sportsbooks and casinos offering real online pokies do.

However, you will find that their marketing campaigns will offer you the moon and the stars for doing almost nothing and their marketing assistants will often cold call you repeatedly to attempt to get you to create an account by offering the too good to be true sign up bonuses which we mentioned previously.

Mysterious Void Bets

Scam online sportsbooks will gladly accept your deposits, give you a handsome match bonus, and approve your bet without question. However, if your bet is successful, you excitedly check your balance to see what you’ve received only to see that your bet was mysteriously voided.

Upon enquiring as to why your bet was voided, the customer service representatives will give you a whole host of illegitimate reasons as to why your bet was not valid in the first place. Owing to the fact that many of these scam sportsbooks operate without a license and are completely unregulated, you will have no recourse but to accept this result.

Unlicensed and Unregulated

Legitimate online sportsbooks make a big deal of their licensing and regulation as to assure their customers of their legal status as a legitimate website – but scam sportsbooks will often do the same thing. However, upon closer inspection it will become obvious that their license is anything but legitimate as they are not able to prove their legal status.

Legitimate online sportsbooks will have all their licensing and regulation certificates readily available to all customers, but scam sportsbooks will not be able to provide this information – this is a major red flag. Before creating an account and providing any personal information, be sure to check the legitimacy of all licensing and regulation certificates.