Latest Online Gambling X Files: TopBet.com Website Looks A Lot Like Defunct BetED.com

A new online sportsbook, TopBet.com, debuted just in time for the 2011 football season, and its website has uncanny similarities to the now defunct BetED.com, a company that shut down and left all its customers screwed. 

One of those customers appearing on the popular Covers.com website raised some eyebrows with his discovery. 

"Took a look at Topbet the other night....the design layout of the site looks a lot like Beted in my opinion. How easy would it be for those guys to open another site, and pimp it here on covers again...just saying

"After a little more investigation Topbet was opened just a short time after Beted took the money and ran.....look into it for yourselves. I am more convinced than ever now.....the sites look incredibly similar."

Then there was this little nugget…

"Go to this link http://www.sportsbookreview.net/topbet-com-review.html take a look at the screenshots of Topbet on the right side. Then type in Beted in the search...click on the beted page link and take a look at their screen shots on the right....no question in my mind now."

The verdict…

Perhaps TopBet.com is utilizing the same software developer that worked on the BetED.com website.  After all, both those companies have ties to the Vancouver, British Columbia area.

But BetED.com’s former software developer was named in a complaint filed by the US Attorney’s Office in Maryland.  He has since hired a prominent gaming industry attorney to defend him.  That airtight Maryland office was able to conduct a two-year sting operation whereby they set up a “fake” payment processor and essentially ran all of BetED’s transactions.  Nobody knew any specific details of this operation until the moment the US Attorney’s Office unsealed its indictment.  There wasn’t one single leak. 

We stress that point following a poker news website’s reporting that the Maryland US Attorney planned to take down another online gambling website in the next three weeks, as if Maryland would really let that cat out of the bag. 

This is, after all, the same office that just prosecuted a United States citizen for selling nukes to Pakistan. 

The idea that someone associated with the US Attorney’s Office in Maryland is providing a poker news site with “classified” information is pretty difficult to comprehend where we sit especially when one considers there was not a single hint they were running such an elaborate sting operation over the last two years.  Let’s hope the Subject:Poker.com “source” doesn’t get wind of another nuke sales investigation and goes spilling the beans to the mainstream media…or even Subject:Poker for that matter.  Just as there are terrorists hell bent on taking down America, there are one or two or three people with a grudge against Merge Gaming (subject of the Subject:Poker article) and, more specifically, one of its skins.  Maybe, just maybe, a disgruntled employee wanted to cause damage to Merge Gaming......just saying.  The conspiracy theorists among us can run with that one. 

Enough of the terrorist/nuke sales/Subject Poker/disgruntled former employees of Merge analogies.  Sure the Maryland office is more than capable of setting up an online gambling website and seizing all players funds.  Nobody would have a clue (except maybe Subject:Poker).  They ran their Linwood Payment Solutions operative flawlessly. 

But why would they open up an online gambling website?  There is no law outside of Washington State that makes it a felony for individuals to gamble online.  Maryland also elected to cease its Linwood Payment Solutions sting operation abruptly following the US Attorney’s Office out of the Southern District of New York indictments of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker executives the month prior.  They could easily have taken in a few million dollars more from online gambling establishments like BetED.com during this football season, or a few million dollars more than what they would end up with by running TopBet.com. 

Furthermore, a well-researched article appearing on the CalvinAyre.com website just prior to TopBet.com’s opening reveals the rather complicated history behind the TopBet website. 

In summary, the people running the show have pretty decent reputations in the industry for the most part, the gentleman who set up TopBet.com, not so much, at least according to the CalvinAyre.com website reporter Ed Drake.  That piece does mention that a former Bodog CEO is heading up TopBet and the author speaks kindly of him, which is important since the CalvinAyre.com website is owned by Bodog founder Calvin Ayre.  Considering how badly the Maryland office was rumored to want Calvin Ayre’s head on a platter, you’d think having one of his former executives running this company might be rather, well, convenient.   

So while it’s true the TopBet.com website could be a reincarnated version of the deadbeat operation BetED.com and maybe it’s even being run by the Maryland US Attorney’s Office, those of us here at Gambling911.com highly doubt it.

Our final verdict:  TopBet.com probably just copied the design the same way they copied another online gambling website’s terms and conditions. 

If it turns out to be something more sinister….stay tuned.

Oh, and while you are at it, stay tuned for future Online Gambling X Files articles where we will offer up more conspiracy theory related content that gels well with the whole Gambling911.com business model. 

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com Editor-in-Chief