Don't Share News Stories From These Gambling Sites
Hopefully, this post provides a resource for people in (or out) of the gambling industry. Five years after the start of sports betting expansion, I still see people sharing news stories from websites that promote offshore sportsbooks and casinos.
It’s easy to get confused and sometimes difficult to spot; the sites often do fairly good aggregation or even original reporting. But that’s the point, to confuse you (and Google), so they can gain authority and legitimacy and turn that into leads for offshore online gambling sites. (I did a Twitter thread that touched on this subject a few months ago that got a fair amount of engagement.)
Doing news coverage of regulated gambling while doing no coverage of the offshore industry (negative or otherwise) and then profiting off the latter is disingenuous at best. So, I will call it out here. My asks of you, the reader and/or industry stakeholder:
Don’t share content from these sites.
Don’t give interviews to writers for these sites or otherwise legitimize them.
If you are an operator, stop working with sites that also send traffic offshore.
If you are a regulator or work with regulators, do what you can to limit these sites’ reach. Discourage regulated operators from working with sites that play both sides (offshore and regulated) or make sure these sites and operators that are working with them are obeying applicable regulations.
This list is not exhaustive, but it’s a list of the sites that I see shared most often. Let me know if there are other examples I should include.
LegalSportsBetting.com. One of my personal favorites because people often associated this with me, as the domain sounds a lot like Legal Sports Report. You only have to look at the front page to see what is going on here. As soon as you see Bovada, BetOnline, BetUS and/or MyBookie — these are all offshore and unregulated in the US — know you are not dealing with a site you should share in your social media feeds.
Like many of these sites, you will see a lot of coverage of legalization or regulation efforts, because there’s a lot of news! For instance, Kentucky is launching online sports betting this month, but where are they sending would-be bettors in Kentucky? Not regulated sites:
GamblingNews.com. Great domain! Sounds pretty safe, right? Nope.
GamblingNews is an example of a site playing both sides. It’s working with regulated operators in states where it is legal, and working with offshore sites more broadly (and in states without regulation.) Here is what you get for sports betting in New Jersey…
…but when you look at best football betting sites you get this with American flag logos telling you that the site is saying these are good to go in the US:
New Jersey specifically doesn’t allow this playing of both sides, so it’s curious to see the likes of FanDuel, BetMGM and others promoted on this site. Gambling News is also using the “risk-free” language that regulated operators decided to get away from months ago, so it’s even more curious.
BasketballInsiders.com. This one I see more in search results than in anyone sharing it, but it still should be called out.
OnlineSportsBetting.net. Another great domain with a news feed that looks legit. My favorite part of the site is the drop-down menu, mostly for states that have not legalized sports betting. And, of course. there is a list of your biggest offshore sites:
Sportsbetting.legal. It has “legal” in the domain, has to be legit! Nope. For added fun, they make sure you know you can bet at the age of 18, when the legal sports betting age is 21 in most states:
BettingNews.com. Nope, next:
UScasinoadvantage.com. Bovada is right there in the masthead!
This is another site that plays both sides; here it’s promoting BetMGM at a sister site:
Anyway, I think the point is made. Not everything is what it seems, and there are far more sites doing this than I just listed. If you are working in the regulated industry or want to see it succeed, you should stop giving oxygen to the sites above and others like them.
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