The best of the bunch, a la BetCRIS aren't afraid to admit when they are being crushed.  In business offshore since 1985, this is the oldest and most solid of today's online sportsbooks catering to the North American populous.  They can most certainly handle the barrage of gamblers that have been killing them all NFL season long.  In fact, a book the likes of BetCRIS can probably withstand one or two more seasons similar to this one.

A book the likes of fly-by-night Rich Coast Sports, which suddenly closed shop this past week citing a heart attack suffered by the struggling company's owner, simply cannot withstand such an onslaught.  We suspect that many more bookmakers will suffer heart attacks should the post season continue where the regular season left off.

And hence the reason why as the 2006 Super Bowl approaches, Gambling911.com cannot overemphasize the importance of playing only at endorsed sportsbooks (see the list here).

"You simply will not find a Rich Coast Sportsbook advertising here," commented Peyton O'Brien, General Manager of Gambling911.com.  "We won't allow it!  Sportsbooks that advertise at Gambling911 must have at least three years of online gambling experience underneath their belt."

The 2005 NFL regular season has been like no other.  You will be hard pressed to find a bookmaker who has ever come across a worse Sunday than that which was experienced just a few weeks ago.

And Christmas was no kinder to the online sportsbooks either. 

Christmas is the time for giving, and  BetCRIS gave out more than jolly 'ol St. Nick did this holiday season!

In a press release issued earlier this week by the company, BetCRIS stated that the whole week was a grind with some difficult results to overcome. The College football Bowl games were great for the favorite bettors with all 6 favorites winning and three covering the spread and one landing on the number. Those numbers are hard for a bookmaker to recover from, let alone Sunday's Christmas day NFL disaster games!

NBA was one silver lining for the bookmakers, but college basketball turned helped in offsetting the balance this week with the public had a win finally.

"The public's best Bowl win at our expense was California beating out BYU 35-28," commented Shane Catford of BetCRIS.com.  "California by 7 points was the worst result for us as we opened Cal a 6.5 point favorite and closed them higher at 8 points, so we had lots of people buying down to 7 points either way, so a 7 result wasn't good for us."

Despite Green Bay's horrid record this season, the betting public attacked the Bears/Packers game hard, and unfortunately for online sportsbooks like BetCRIS.com, they attacked the Chicago Bears harder.

"The worst result by far I have seen at Betcris for a long, long time. Chicago opened a 3.5 point favorite and received huge money to close up at 7 points. All the Green Bay money we could get was at either +7 or even +7.5 points. We already new that nearly every single Teaser was placed on Chicago aswell, so we really needed a result which was NOT Chicago wining by 7 points, alas we got the worst result. It was nice Christmas present for everyone who bet this game. Result- Chicago 24-17."

But alas the smart online sportsbooks have something to look forward to in the 2006 World Cup.  Soccer traditionally allows for double the profit that is normally achieved through the NFL and college season, which in this case should be something as opposed to nothing.  The World Cup is still a long ways off, however, June to be precise.

This is a waiting period that smaller less established online sportsbooks can ill-afford to deal with, unless things suddenly turn around for the better during the post season.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that Gambling911.com is all over the Web," said O'Brien.  "At this stage in the game one should question why a sportsbook would not be endorsed by Gambling911.  With the exception of the more established European sportsbooks, nine times out of ten it is probably because they haven't been around long enough."

For a full listing of Gambling911.com's ENDORSED ONLINE SPORTSBOOKS GO HERE

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Christopher Costigan, www.gambling911.com

Originally published December 30, 2005 7:36 am EST
 

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