Pinnacle Gives Up.....
 

Effective Immediately...

After careful consideration, Pinnacle Sports have chosen to voluntarily exit the U.S. market. Accordingly, wagers will no longer be accepted from clients within the U.S. as of Thursday, January 11, 2007.

Those clients who are affected will be required to withdraw their balances using the Cashier of their account. We assure all our clients your balances are available and Pinnacle will continue providing our international clients our same great value.


i withdrew my money......lets see what happens

I just withdrew as well.

Fairly significant news.

Holy crap, that's huge.

Withdrew this morning.

Thanks for ruining my day.

This sucks complete as.s.....What a joke Congress was for passing a bill like this to begin with.

"Fairly significant news" is the understatement of the year! Pinnacle has dominated sportsbook action for the last several years, dwarfing former leaders Olympic and CRIS. This is a huge blow to sports bettors and race bettors. It dramatically changes the betting landscape.

--Dunbar

my life is over

So
 

1) I wouldn't TRUST a single online sportsbook for a while. Others will not be as trustworthy as Pinnacle is being. I would get out NOW of places like 5Dimes, Greek, BetCris. Even though they are probably still accepting wagers, it won't be as easy as Pinnacle is making it to get your money.

2) Dunbar knows ALOT about online companies and online wagering, so he will be the first person to know about an alternative

3) Something had to happen at the WTO as Antiqua was fighting that bill, and for them to immediately pull out like they did, during their biggest gross wagering time of the year, doesn't bode well for the industry, whatsoever.

4) Dunbar, FIND ME A REBATE SHOP......

Scavs is not underestimating this. It is a disaster, especially as a horse player. Getting a book this solid, with no worry on my part, with a rebate will be nearly impossible.

I have a NFL future pending and now I can't hedge it either. 10gs or nothing. That sucks.

Who is it on? Hedge through a guy....

The 'connected' loves this move, Pinnacle was popular enough to get mentioned on the Sopranos

PATS Scavs.

I know a few "guys." Haven't used them in some time and don't like to. Plus we would be talking about a serious hedge if they get to the dance....May take my chances or just cover the principal bet.

This is the start of the Apocalypse as far as I'm concerned.

Look for some of the current operating offshores to start to offer racing rebates. There's a big market out there that's just waiting to be tapped. CRIS is already there but I'd look for WSEX and Bodog to start offering some kind of rebate. I don't see either of those companies giving up anytime soon.

Pinnacle Shuts Down !!!!!!!!!!
 

This place was the best for betting the ponies,bar none.They payed me some big payoffs with no problems.Plus the 7% rebate. Now what next??

move your tack to ?????? i m looking into some others..steve randall have some places i think..for f ball /horses..

I have other outs I've used as well as locals. But for horses, there isn't a good backup as they were reliable as can be. Someone will try and fill the void but tread lightly. Foots season is mostly over at this point. And it is the offseason from the bigger racing days. I'm friends with the horse racing manager of a medium sized book(A rated in SBR) in the caribbean, though I haven't spoken with him since I moved most of my action to Pinny. I'll see what they looking to do to pick up the slack and increase their horse numbers....It will take a little time to sort itself out.

Scavs, you make an excellent point about Pinnacle giving up right before the biggest betting event of the year. I would not be concerned at all about other books if this had happened right after the SuperBowl. The fact that Pinnacle is giving up on that volume of action is hard to understand.

Still, I am not excessively concerned about TheGreek and CRIS. These two books have been solid from before Pinnacle became the dominant market force, and I have to think that in the longrun Pinnacle's departure will help the bottom line of shops like TheGreek and CRIS that do not offer discount vig.

5Dimes has always seemed very well run, but they have never had the reputation of CRIS or TheGreek. I would be very conservative with my balance at 5Dimes over the next few months. I would not hesitate to use them, however.

In the short term, the post-Superbowl period is the shakiest period for sportsbooks EVEN UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES. Therefore, I would advise getting out of everywhere now, and not going back in until a month after the Superbowl. By that time, it will be clear which books have weathered the inevitable storm.

If CRIS and 5Dimes have survived, I would not hesitate to get back into those books at that time.

5Dimes and CRIS are the best alternatives to Pinnacle. 5Dimes's 10% bonus on winning exotic and win bets is better than Pinnacle's 7% rebate, pretty much regardless of how good of a capper you are. HOWEVER, the 5Dimes bonus does not appy to place and show bets, and it only applies to tracks that 5Dimes lists as "major". The most glaring omission from that list of "major" tracks is Oaklawn Park. Another downside of 5Dimes is that they close betting about 2 minutes before post.

CRIS pays rebates in a similar fashion that Pinnacle did. CRIS pays 8% on all exotics and 3% on WPS, but no rebate on place/show payoffs of $2.20 or less. So CRIS was already much better than Pinnacle on exotics at NY tracks, but is not nearly as good as Pinnacle on WPS, especially at non-NY tracks.

--Dunbar

Crisbet?
 

I have been doing some research and Crisbet advertises 8% rebates on exotics & 5% on WPS. Has anybody used them? Any other good rebates out there?

no rebate unless you wrk out a deal but brisbet is fantastic..i has all the tracks /unlike some ..all video feeds..and free video replays..never have a problem fed ext next day on payouts if you need it..

Ubet,brisbet,ok,these are some what ok.With Pinny there was no taxes taken out of your winnings,high limits,no fees,rebates,and best of all horse matchups.All the others just want to nickel and dime you to death.The goverment really appears to be giving out some big words to shut down or esle.God dam,what a country when the goverment stands above you to watch and see what you are doing,while some of them are watching porn on their computer.

JJP,

With Pinnacle closing, how can you essentially trust anyone else in this industry? I doubt you want to happen to you, what happen to Betwwts customers....

I agree that pinny had some great advantages, the rebates the most important to me... YouBet rewards are nice but who needs more electronics.... NYRA offers cash rebates but paltry unless you plowing $500k throught thet windows a month on NYRA only tracks....

Brisbet is good, but no rebates...

Has anybody used CRISBET.com? Curious to know if they are reliable 8% is lofty for exotics

It's 3% on WPS at betCRIS.com. CRIS is top-notch, but see my post in the Paddock.

--Dunbar

I'm not sure you can trust anybody but I do know CRIS has had a pretty good reputation over the years.

The A-rated books will probably survive, but there will definitely be a certain amount of panic in the next few weeks. I don't see any reason to take the small risk.

btw, the WWTS customers got paid, right? They had to sweat for 2 months, but I think they got paid after the accounts were transfered to Bodog.

CRIS and TheGreek (Olympic) would be at the top of most people's list of most secure sportsbooks.

--Dunbar

With Pinnacle bailing, I wouldn't trust a single one of those books. no matter what their rating. Pinnacle was A rating, and SBR had no clue this was coming (at least from the forum). I think Pinnacle is being unbelievable in saying "Listen, process your withdrawals and close us out" instead of doing what Betwwts did. They did get their cash, but it was subject to rollovers and Bodog sucks

Interesting I read that the U.S. market accounted for 60-65% of Pinnacle's revenue.

Ouch.

http://www.eog.com/news/full-article.aspx?id=16428

Yeah, they are screwed. There is all sorts of rumors on Sportsbook review right now regarding what might happen. Fact is that this law blows, and someone sharp is going to have to figure out a way around it.

Greatest idea that I have thought of is to buy a house in Canada and sell people your address, set up an online checking account in Canada, and then wire the money back to your US account.


If you go to the Cashier page, they are only allowing withdrawals. UNBELIEVABLE how quick this is happening

On the bright side of the ledger, no one has to worry about getting paid from Pinny. No one. Every last person will be paid in full.

Pinnacle
 

In the near future you will see the books leaving Costa Rica. Next stop Panama. What a shame about Pinnacle. Leave it to our puritan phony bunch of bums in Congress to ruin it all for us. Also for some reason the Queens DAs office is gung ho to nail bookmakers. They are on a big mission and have been for about 3 years. KP

Kenny,

Pinnacle is and always has been in Curacao. I avoid Costa Rican books.

I don't know how you can say that with such certainty. I agree it's probably true, but I'm not nearly as certain as you are.

Pinnacle is not well-prepared today. I asked for my money over 6 hours ago, and it is not even showing as deducted yet. CRIS and TheGreek meanwhile both paid cashouts to me today in a matter of minutes. (and I'm sure they are getting multiple cashout requests, too.)

--Dunbar

I didnt mean Pinnacle was in Costa, just that you will see the other books pulling out of CR Thanks KP

Dun, they aren't closing shop, just to the U.S.....How many thousands of players are closing out today. Give them a day or two. I'm not the least bit worried. In fact, I'm not in a rush to pull out funds anyway. Have a few futures left. Might as well wait for those and then get one check out rather than 2.

Son of a....


I just withdrew all but a grand out of my account. I'm with Greek so I should be alright.

Now the people at winticket.com need to QUIT this ridiculous deposit $100 get $100 and get into the world of rebates - PLEASE!

It is never painless or free to live amongst Social Conservatives.This is the price we pay for it.Bush has always wanted to outlaw any form of internet wagering on horses.He has always said that the interstate wire act makes it unlawful.If he had his way,he would not even allow you to play horses on the internet with TVG,YOUBET,Brisnet etc. So,I guess you're actually getting off easily.These are the most hypocritical people that there are.Internet gaming is SIMPLY FREE MARKET CAPITALISM.That is what these people claim to love,but their hypocrisy gets in the way(a lot.)

Can anyone recommend a solid sportsbook. Perhaps dunbar, i'd be happy to reference you. I'm not a huge bettor but i push through a decent amount of action every week.

Skip, don't put any money off shore right now, for Pinny to do what they did, something is going on, nobody saw this coming this early. I wouldn't trust any other site IMO

I appreciate the lookout, but there is more to this deal then pinny just dropping us. I think someone very high up has a great deal of property or money in the US and the DOJ is leaning very hard on them to quit or they start seizing. The federal government cannot go after an offshore company. They have no grounds.