Credit Wagering Sportsbook

By Allen Moody, About.com

An old concept has taken a new twist with Credit Wagering (creditwagering.com), an online sportsbook that operates on the honor system. The premise behind Credit Wagering is that all new accounts are given a $1,000 line of credit to bet with and debts are only settled if the bettor is up or down more than $400. Otherwise, the tally is carried forward into the next week.

There are several rules that come into play with Credit Wagering, such as you cannot win more than your line of credit and you may only wager 10-percent of your line of credit on any game. You can’t really fault the company for its rules, as the 10-percent rule of credit rule is in effect to keep people from doubling up on the final game of the week in an attempt to get even, or at least underneath the $400 mark. The notion of only being able to win your credit limit has tripped up several bettors, who had won over their limit, so be sure to pay attention to your balance at all times.

For deposits, Credit Wagering accepts Western Union and MoneyGram, which shouldn’t create any problems for bettors. A quick glance at the two shows MoneyGram to be the least expensive.

For withdraws, Credit Wagering uses debit cards and players may withdraw up to $500 per day. The company earns solid marks in this regard, as several people who I respect have received and used the debit cards without any problem. The fees ($3 to load debit card) are much more reasonable than many other sportsbooks, some of which charge outlandish fees. There is a $2,500 limit on any debit card, although additional cards are available for $25 each.

The company’s servers are located in Costa Rica and the rules clearly state that Costa Rica laws will govern dealings between the bettor and Credit Wagering, which for practical purposes would make them a Costa Rican sportsbook. There was some debate among bettors earlier in the year if the company was located in North America, in which they would be operating illegally, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Betting

The lines offered at creditwagering.com during baseball are skewed in the direction of the favorite, so underdog bettors may be able to find value, despite the 20-cent baseball line. Other lines are comparable to the lines found at other sportsbooks, with some shaded a bit due to the amount of money wagered on a particular team.

As mentioned above, the betting limit per game will be different for each player depending on the bettor’s credit limit. Players who do not make a deposit, but play on credit from the start, will have the $100 per wager limit, although players can wager $100 on the side, $100 on the total, make a $50 parlay and bet a $100 teaser on the same game.

The company accepts wagers on the four major sports, along with soccer, golf, auto racing, boxing and tennis. Additionally, Credit Wagering accepts horse betting, offers casino gambling, as well as lottery play.

Credit Wagering’s Goals

A company spokesperson said that about 20-percent of sports bettors have proven to be trustworthy, which was a higher figure than they anticipated. Frankly, I was a bit surprised, assuming the figure would be much higher, but there are more stiffs among sports bettors than I realized.

Such a figure shows how difficult it is to show a profit over the long haul. If just 20-percent of the losing bettors pay their losses, you would have 83.5-percent of the bettors lose money to break even. But as most estimates have 90-percent, or more, of sports bettors losing money, it is possible for the sportsbook to show a profit even with such a small percentage of bettors paying their debts.

Credit Wagering does have several things in its favor, however, the main one being that bettors often make irresponsible bets when they are playing on credit. Games bettors would typically pass on if they were forced to put the money up front, become bets, often to the detriment of the player. The sportsbook also has the press factor, as bettors who are down more than $400 will be likely to bet the board on Sunday in an effort to get under the settlement amount.

As always, be careful when betting on credit, whether it’s through a local bookie or creditwagering.com.

Bettors do have to submit a copy of their driver’s license the first time collecting money, which helps protect creditwagering.com from people having more than one account and betting opposite sides of a game. That’s understandable. But, your license also serves a detriment to collect money and then stiff the company should you lose, as your picture will be put up on the creditwagering.com site under the “Super Stiffs” category, which is a frequent source of amusement for many sports bettors.

Summary

The ultimate question for creditwagering.com, or any relatively new sportsbook, is “Are They Safe?”

There isn’t any easy answer to that, but what I do know is that so far creditwagering.com has been meeting its obligations to winning bettors. This comes from several sports bettors who I correspond with on a regular basis, as well as several bettors I respect on various sports betting forums. I will give creditwagering.com props for paying off bettors during baseball season, which is often the least profitable time of the year for sportsbooks.

As of now, I can neither recommend or tell bettors to stay away from creditwagering.com. I merely wanted to let readers know of its existence and let them decide if it’s a sportsbook they would like to use.

If you do use creditwagering.com, I’d appreciate any feedback on your experience there, either good or bad. If the company continues to pay winning bettors, it should be recognized for that. Not all sportsbooks are good about meeting obligations. If the company ceases to pay winning bettors, that should be brought out into the open, as well.

We’ll keep our eyes open and see what happens in the upcoming months.

UPDATE OF OCTOBER 10, 2008: Credit Wagering established a three times rollover requirement in September for credit only bettors, meaning you must make $3,000 worth of wagers before being allowed to withdraw any money. The requirement appears to pertain to all customers, even those who opened their accounts before the rule was established, although customers who have previously settled a debt or post-up customers are exempt.

The company now also charges $30 to get a debit card, which is its method of paying winning bettors. Customers are allowed one free withdraw per month (from the sportsbook, not from the debit card)and any additional withdraws are $15 each.

The company’s low withdraw charges were one of the things that it had working in its favor. While the new policy puts it in line with the charges of a number of other sportsbooks, and is actually better than a number of others, it is still disappointing to see.

Several payment methods have been added for clients to settle accounts or make post-ups and Credit Wagering is getting ready to debut its regular Stiff Page, which will include photos of non-paying bettors. Previously, the company just posted photos of bettors who collected money then did not pay their losses, while the new page is will be photos of those who never collected, but never paid.

UPDATE OF NOV. 5, 2008: The three times credit limit rollover mentioned in the first update has been removed from the rules page and appears to be no longer in effect.

A new stipulation has been added, which reads “To stop customers from posting up funds to increase their Gambling Line of Credit then withdrawing funds that were just deposited, there is a 5x rollover requirement for the Sportsbook, Racebook or Lottery Room and a 10x rollover requirement for the Casino prior to withdrawing the deposit amount that increased the Gambling Line of Credit (wagers on craps and roulette are excluded from rollover). You can not withdraw the deposit amount or bonus for 30 days, however you can withdraw all winnings. Sportsbook rollover calculation is based on the lesser of the risk amount or the win amount. Wagering on both sides of the same game do not apply to rollover calculation.”

To make it simple, this rule was instituted to keep people from depositing, say $1,000, which would raise the player’s credit limit to $3,000. The player could then bet $300 per game. So a bettor could go 5-3 at $300 per game and show a profit of $510. Players would then withdraw the $510 along with the $1,000. This rule prevents that.

Betting With Credit Wagering

After reading all of the stories claims made regarding CW, it became obvious the only logical thing to do would be to open an account there and see for myself how they operate.

The sign-up process was painless and after sending a copy of my driver’s license, I received a phone call within an hour to verify that it was actually me who signed up for the account.

The betting software is easy to use and I never noticed any slowdown in the system, even shortly before the start of Sunday NFL games.

One of the more impressive aspects is that results are processed in an extremely timely manner, even before I knew some of the games were over. This happened for both wins and losses, so it isn’t simply a case of your losing bets being credit quickly, while your winning bets are processed more slowly.

After dabbling there for a while, I was able to get the account balance up to an amount that could be withdrawn and I put in a withdraw request on Monday morning.

On Thursday, the debit card arrived by carrier and the following day I used the instant messenger feature to get a PIN number. The whole process took less than three minutes, so it’s hard to find any fault with customer service.

Saturday morning, I went by an ATM at a local credit union and was able to withdraw $400 without any problems.

So, from my personal experience, dealing with CW was a painless experience and things went smoothly.

UPDATE: DECEMBER 4, 2008

Once again I was able to request a payout several weeks ago and it went smoothly without any problems. I was able to use the same debit card and same PIN number without problems.

I’ve also noticed a large reduction in the number of Credit Wagering related posts on various sports betting forums.

On an unrelated noted, one of the more common criticisms against the company was that its domain name was set to expire in December, 2008, but a recent check showed the domain name registered through Dec. 21, 2017.

We’ll try to keep abreast of the latest Credit Wagering happenings, although it’s getting difficult to separate the fact from the fiction regarding the sportsbook.

UPDATE: DECEMBER 29, 2008

Just put in for another withdraw, so the funds should be on the debit card by this weekend. Will let you know how that works out.

Credit Wagering is also offering several contests for players. Details can be found at www.creditwagering.net.

UPDATE: JANUARY 6, 2009

It did take a few days longer than expected, most likely due to the New Year’s holiday, but the funds were transferred to the debit card. Several forum posters also mentioned the same delay, but they also received their payouts. The total time from withdraw request to payment received was just nine days, which is nothing to complain about after some of the horror stories you hear about other sportsbooks.

Final Update to this story: Credit wagering went out of business in 2010 or 2011