Opinion

The Best Payment Methods to Use for Sports Betting

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You may think it’s a non-issue how you pay for your sports bets, but those who have been playing at the big books in Las Vegas for a while could give you a tip or two about that. For example, using a players card in that situation can sometimes lower your losses by a percentage point or two, or provide you with some complimentary perks that wouldn’t otherwise be available.

The same is true online, too – if your favorite betting app allows some specific payment methods, you too might be able to gain a little extra advantage over your fellow punters without ever leaving your living room couch. Let’s look at a few of the big players in this space, and see what potential advantages you might be able to glean by using them to pay for your sports betting fun.

Visa, Mastercard, and Maestro

Okay, let’s start with an obvious one – and one that is slightly controversial, too. At the moment it is still entirely legal to pay for your sports bets in the USA using your credit card, and if you are disciplined about doing this then it can be a great option too. Most credit cards give a small amount of cashback, and whilst 0.5%-1.0% doesn’t sound like much, that cashback is eating away at ever unsuccessful bet you place whilst boosting your winnings when things work out the other way. 

If could well be that credit card bets will be prohibited at some point down the line, as they have been in other countries with legalized online gambling; there are certainly some valid reasons to do so. In America, however, things do often work differently – the government leaves it up to the people to decide what they should be able to do with their money, and if you can get a credit marker at a casino, why shouldn’t you also be able to use your credit card to place sports bets too?

Neteller

Neteller was once an American institution, servicing a staggering a 80-90% of all gambling related transactions made within the country. The passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act eventually saw Neteller leave the United States, before eventually becoming acquired by the PaySafe group of companies which also owns Skrill and PaySafeCard. 

One thing that Neteller always had going for it was a heavy focus on sports betting; whilst Skrill seemed to favour courting relationships with online casinos, Neteller was for the sports bettor, and would often offer exclusive bets and perks for players who used their service to deposit at their favorite online sportsbook. This tradition hasn’t changed during the time the operator has been outside of the United States, and it’s a strategy that the company is likely to double-down upon in the near future as it seeks to rebuild its American clientele.

Bank Transfers

Now that interbank wires are almost universally instant, they make a far more suitable option for paying for gambling related transactions than they did in the bad old days of a couple of decades ago. You won’t receive any additional cashback, although some online sportsbooks do offer some perks to players who opt to transfer in and out using bank wires because of the lower processing costs compared to options such as Neteller, Debit, and Credit Cards. 

Instant withdrawals are usually available when using bank wires too, providing your Know Your Customer (KYC) information is fully up to date, and whilst Visa and Mastercard are beginning to offer faster transfers themselves in some parts of the world, this isn’t something that has spread over to the United States just yet. For t hat reason, your best bet could well be as simple as just making a wire to your sportsbook of choice – just be sure to get the receiving information correct, as it can take days if not weeks to get an incorrectly specified transaction straightened out if things go wrong.

Interac E-Transfer

Interac is a Canadian company that has made an early charge to get into the US legalized online gambling industry before the European juggernauts find their American partner companies and monopolise too much of the business. It’s a great system too – it can work with all devices including tablets and smartphones, stores banking information so there is no chance of making any accidental keystroke mistakes, and the movement of funds is both instant and free of fees to the consumer.

Businesses love Interac too, as they offer some of the lowest fees in the game – certainly lower than the major card companies – and there are no chargebacks to worry about either. If you make a lot of online payments, setting up an Interac wallet is simple and straightforward, and can be used for many more things than just sports betting too, giving it an edge on competing services such as Neteller.


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