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11/29/03 3:16 AM EST
Rating
the Other Sports Book Watchdog Sites
Christopher Costigan,
Sports911.com
TheRx.com –
This site has improved over the past year, mainly due to the new moderating team
they’ve employed who seem to have cut down on allowing countless number of BS
posts. Sure there are still BS posts (i.e. the Rio Sports nonsense) but the
forum has gotten so busy these days that many of these threads get pushed to the
second page rather quickly. It used to be we would all get stuck reading the
same agenda-ridden thread for weeks at a time. The future of the site is still
in limbo after everybody’s loveable doctor, The Shrink, sold it in early
November. He’ll be involved, but to what extent is not yet known. Many of the
posters here offer valuable insight.
The
main page articles have gotten so boring. Wild Bill, one of the newer writers,
seems to believe that sports book operators will join forces and come up with
some type of an insurance package to assist when players get stiffed. This is
good stuff if he were writing an episode of the Twilight Zone but in the real
world such a thing will never happen. He is prolific though but a website as
big and powerful a presence that theRx.com now has should force its writers to
use real names and not childish handles like Wild Bill. How about Bill Baxter
or William Smith even?
The
Recommended List is useless in my eyes, but so much information can be gotten
from the posting forum, this is such a worthwhile site for anybody serious about
betting offshore. The webmaster have done such a wonderful job over the years
as well. I give it a B+
Offshore Gambling Digest –
Here we have a new website
started by a one time owner of a bowling alley somewhere in a remote region of
Canada. As the story goes, the site’s owner got his unusual name (Peeps) from a
favorite Easter marshmallow bird-shaped candy he enjoys. Peeps are my favorite
candy as well so I suppose we have something in common.
The
owner does not accept advertising, which makes him an unbiased industry
authority I suppose (and perhaps the only one at that), but during a recent
visit I found the website to be overrun with negativity and very coarse
narratives. The owner also seems to have a never ending hard on for Dr. Kenneth
Weitzner of TheRx.com, who once employed him. This is also the first site of
its kind to ever have a sports book go belly up before becoming an advertiser
(Saturn Sports, contest sponsor).
The
concept centers on condensing interesting (and some not so interesting) stories
from various offshore gambling portal sites into an easy to read digest form.
Often Yours Truly is a star of the site. Offshore Gambling Digest makes me feel
more important than I really am so I guess it can’t be all that bad, though some
of the subject matter tends to get stale after a while unless you are really
immersed in the industry, which most of us are not.
There
are lots of funny people who post here, including a cartoonist whose work I
enjoy. Hopefully it will become a profitable venture soon. I try to visit at
least three or four times a week. This site gets a C+
BettorsWorld.com –
This used to be THE site
for offshore gambling information. It’s become more of a monitor handicapping
format now and the forum is no longer a primary focus. I personally enjoy the
Offshore Insider section myself, which is constantly updated by someone very
gung ho about the industry. The site itself recent went through an upgrade and
looks way better than it did a few months back. Jeff and Brian, the owners
don’t seem as involved as they used to be, but the site still has value. Again
it’s leaned more towards the handicapping/monitoring sector and the owners are
still respected among their peers in a low profile sort of way. I give it a
C+
The OSGA.com –
This website used to be the worst looking on the Net, now it is perhaps the
second worst looking (after the Sterling Sports website). So much java scripts,
when using dial up I would find myself getting booted before the damn sit even
loaded a quarter of the way. Make no mistake about it, the OSGA is hugely
popular due to its enormous print presence, hence the reason it has so many
advertisers. But from a website point of view, very difficult to navigate and
terribly neglected.
The
organization itself is still quite helpful and well run. Yes they have close
ties to Millennium (through family relationship) but they’ve been helpful in
getting disputes solved in the past. The average layman might be surprised just
how effective this organization really is, though the site seems to have lost
some of its original luster in the past two years. C
SportsbookReview –
SBR, as it is often
referred to, remains Sports911.com’s stiffest competition. The site appears to
be run by a High School teacher based on his penchant for grading all the sports
books offshore, many unfairly. In that sense he reminds me of an annoying
psychology professor I once had who never graded anything prior to the
semester’s halfway mark. By the time he started handing out grades, it was
already too late to drop out of the class!
There
really is no set criteria offered as to why a book like TheOnlineBet, known for
slow paying people a year, would receive a C+ while a well established beloved
sports book like PlayersOnly.com receives an uncalled for D.
John
Walker, the owner, would make the worst professor I dare say. Can you imagine
getting an F on a term paper when you got all the answers right? This is what
John’s site reminds me of.
While
the site itself doesn’t require much work, it is still enjoyable trying to get
into his head and figure out where he is coming from. SBR claims to not accept
advertising but they are involved in affiliate deals and rake in some serious
coin (nothing wrong with THAT).
Still, despite its many flaws (including the time John disappeared, neglecting
the site for over a month and everyone thought he was dead), SBR has become a
major player in the world of offshore sports book “watchdog” sites. The books
he rates highest are among the better offshore usually, though I’ve seen
them slip to “unpreferred” status in one week’s time before going bust only to
have the owner chime in that he’s never had a Preferred book go under. I guess
there is some validity to that statement. B
JoeWager.com –
What strikes me as odd is this site appears to be a blatant rip off of
SportsbookReview, complete with the same preferred sports books. It certainly
looks nicer than the SBR website and the reviews are well written, if not
terribly biased against any book that is not VIP Sports related (with the
possible exceptions of World Wide Tele Sports, Canbet and Pinnacle). In some
strange way this site reminds me a bit of the OSGA back when it first got off
the ground. This site has potential but I can’t help but think of this as
nothing more than an offshoot of SportsbookReview. C-
TodaysLines.com –
This is my new favorite
site because I like the owner’s work ethic. Hopefully he’ll be able to keep it
up. The guy has written some informative articles in recent weeks and it is
obvious the amount of effort put into the work. We can only hope he will not
give into the greed that has engulfed so many similar sites. It is obvious he
enjoys doing what he does. I wish I could claim this guy as my protégé but I
really don’t know the guy. It is good to see some fresh blood tackling the
world of offshore sports betting information portals. He doesn’t seem like the
type to bring on garbage advertisers either. B
Covers.com –
This is more of a handicapping type website and I’ll admit, I have not read Lou
from Covers in quite some time, but when he would write something, man can he
write something. I’ve always found his articles enjoyable worthwhile
reads. He seems to grow less bitter in recent years and I think is focusing
more on the forums. Covers is not always easy to navigate but certainly the
nicest looking of all similar websites. It also has the most traffic I
believe. They’ve grown slowly and successfully, taking things one step at a
time. The stats are among the best. Again, not really a watchdog site per se
but still packed with valuable information, much of which is stats-related.
A-
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