can anyone name the first 20-30 offshore books?

[RobFunk]

the very first ones? who were they?

I know cris is one for sure. maybe nasa, then after that I am blank. I dont think I got everyones flyer. I just got 1 or 2 different one's to get me in and interested.

 

[Concorde]

1 Pinnacle
2 Pinnacle
3 Pinnacle
4 Pinnacle
5 Pinnacle
6 Pinnacle
7 Pinnacle
8 Pinnacle
9 Pinnacle
10 Pinnacle

11 ???

​

 

[oldmanTED]

Rob:

The very first books were not located either in the Islands or in Central America. Gambling has been legal and accessible in places like England long before the explosion of the books we see today. For the record, Pinnacle is just a puppy in years compared to some of the oldtimers.

 

[Rainbow]

1 Cris
2 Mickey Wheels
3 Grande
4 WWTS
5 ABC Island
you caught me off guard.

 

[RobFunk]

concorde, I am almost sure pinny wasnt around back then. i dont know how they would have done CS entirely with email in the early 1990's considering 28.8 modem speed was a luxury

 

[Tico]

Oldest ones I can remember...

SDB GLOBAL, NOW SBG I BELIEVE
RIO
OLYMPIC- THE GREEK
JAZZ
CRIS
TRADEWINDS?

 

[Dubpoet]

The Heritage, Dail a Bet were early and RIP

 

[Rainbow]

Oldest ones I can remember...

SDB GLOBAL, NOW SBG I BELIEVE
RIO
OLYMPIC- THE GREEK
JAZZ
CRIS
TRADEWINDS?

Olympic 8-years only.

 

[JayC]

CRIS, and whatever its predecessor was called, Caribi???
Grande
Rich's Superbook, now gone
ESB, I won't even go into
Sports International, stiffed customers and gone
Dial-a-bet, stiffed and gone
Easybets or EZ bets, could never tell them apart
Top Turf, gone
SOS
Olympic
WWTS
Carib Sports
Paradise, busted for operating out of US after they left Antigua in the middle of the night without paying their bills
Post Time, bought by WWTS

There are others

NASA/BetonSports didn't open until the 1997 football season despite what they claim

Pinnacle opened up in 1999

 

[JayC]

SBG/SDB can't have it both ways.

Either they were the old SDB which closed in March of 1998 never to reopen again. And SBG is some new book that opened in April 1998.

Or they are the same book which they agreed to close as part of their plea agreement.

 

[Concorde]

concorde, I am almost sure pinny wasnt around back then. i dont know how they would have done CS entirely with email in the early 1990's considering 28.8 modem speed was a luxury

I was joking Rob but for me they really are the top but there are many great around. If you love customer service i cant say Pinny is the best obviously.

 

[RobFunk]

thanks for sharing Jay, you really know your stuff

concorde whole point is just kind of trying to dig up history on things. i know you like pinny, almost everyone does. but thats not history.

 

[Rainbow]

Cris
Grande
ABC Island
WWTS
Delmar
Olympic
Rio

 

[RobFunk]

did sports international operate out of antigua?!

 

[JayC]

Sports International left Antigua in 1996 when Antigua started requiring operations to become licensed and pass due diligence.

They moved to Grenada and went belly up within 18 months.

They were really more of a stock scam than a sportsbook. They were listed on the NASDAQ, had their headquarters in Pennsylvania, and would issue stock as an incentive to almost any employee instead of cash.

Interesting piece of history. Tony Coelho was on their Board of Directors. Before taht he was the House Minority Whip for the Democratic party. He later went on to become Al Gore's national campaign chairman during the 2000 election.

 

[RobFunk]

thats it jay. thats the first place i played at. they took money by moneygram sent to antigua and had a 50 dollar minimum phone bet. its no wonder they took a little over 4 weeks to pay me 650 bucks after what you just told me.


and those are definatly some interesting tidbits about nasdaq and gore

thanks a lot

 

[G.MONEY]

Jay C,

I Think I Was With Sports Book Internationl...when They Went Belly Up....there Was A Guy There By The Name Of Ramano Schrieber (sp)..who Was Working Or Running It And Was Brought Back To The Us For Credit Card Fraud...and Then The Wheels Really Came Of..do You Know That Name ?

 

[RobFunk]

they were pretty agressive in their marketing, I can say that from a consumer stand point

 

[joel2002]

bowmans

 

[JayC]

Doesn't sound familiar to me.

The two big names were Lou Mayo and Michael Simone.

I think it came out that Mayo was involved in some earlier pump and dumps, I am pretty sure Simone's background was with some crooked S and L that went under.

Simone was eventually charged in Missouri for the Sports International business, I'm pretty sure he plead out to a misdemeanor.