can anyone name the first 20-30 offshore books?

[JayC]

Pleas don't tell me this is the same Michael Simone who is now a regulator with the Office of Thrift Supervision.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:...OGRAM.pdf+"michael+simone"+savings+bank&hl=en

 

[JayC]

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:...volume2/2JSTL07.PDF+"lou+mayo"+gambling&hl=en

Look at t his Oscar Goodman quote below:

Kerry Rogers’s WagerNet, currently based in Nevada, and still in the testing phase, hopes to be in operation for the 1996 American football season.

104

The WagerNet advertisement on the Web promises to “provide sports fans with a legal way to bet on sporting events from anywhere in the world . . . 24 Hours a Day!�

105

At the bottom of the advertisement, WagerNet warns gamblers to “PLEASE CONSULT YOUR LOCAL, COUNTY, AND STATE AUTHORITIES REGARDING RESTRICTIONS ON OFF-SHORE SPORTS BETTING VIA TELEPHONE.�

106

Under section 8.2 of its Terms and Conditions Agreement, WagerNet cites federal anti- gambling law,

107

claiming that it applies only to individuals “engaged in the business of betting or wagering,�

108

and that the subscribers warrant they “are using the WagerNet system for [their] own personal use.�

109

Oscar Goodman, an attorney for WagerNet, explains that section 1084’s “business of betting� language does not apply to WagerNet, because WagerNet is a brokerage service.

110

None of the three off-shore sites, however, ban or block participation from the United States

 

[MillenniumSportsbook]

You all forgot Island SuperBook (Founded on Antigua 1995) and changed its name in 1998 to Gibraltar Sports. Company was purchased by the Millennium Group in the fall of 2001 and still trades as such in the Mall San Pedro in Costa Rica till this day

 

[MillenniumSportsbook]

Sorry.....that was the Island of St. Kitts

 

[IDENTITY]

Betmaker, Vipsports, Gamblers Palace, Abetz

 

[billpapa]

Earliest offshore books

the very first ones? who were they?

Some of the english ones like Ladbroke, I suppose

 

[Birdman]

Itops

 

[kermit16]

I opened an account with Carib over 10 years ago and I felt they were the first on the internet. Big
Book goes way back as does Royal but Royal wasn't on the Internet then

 

[FatTony]

Wasn't WSEX.com the first to make news??

 

[kiwiway]

Don't know if you classify Centrebet as off-shore but it was one of the pioneers of internet sports betting .

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR bgColor=#edf4f9><TD width="100%" colSpan=2><TABLE width="100%" summary=""><TBODY><TR><TD align=left width=*>Centrebet - Australia's Leading Online Sports Bookmaker

</TD><TD align=right width=*><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><NOBR>Back to top</NOBR></TD><TD>

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#dae9f2 colSpan=2><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=12 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>

Centrebet Pty Ltd was founded in 1992. In 1996, and in true pioneering style, Centrebet was the first licensed bookmaker in the Southern Hemisphere to offer online sports betting. From humble beginnings, Centrebet has grown to offer up to 4,000 events per week covering a wide range of international sports and gaming.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

[picasso]

Bowmans has been around for over 10 years. I started with them in February of '95 when they were known as Sports Action International.

 

[beetman]

Haven't Intertops been around for a long time?

 

[krackman]

Picasso you are correct! Gary used to grade the parlay cards himself back then.

I opened with intertops around 1996 also. What a joke they are now.

 

[5teamparlay]

THE FIRST OFFSHORE SPORTSBOOKS were before the internet. You would send money away then do it all by phone, even before the internet was invented by AL GORE.

my first bet was with grand prix, then the bigbook, both long gone but i liked the software.

 

[THE SHRINK]

WSEX, CARIB, INTERTOPS, SOS, & WWTS were all amongst the PIONEERS in this industry...

I remember hearing stories about how the heads of WWTS, SOS, and CARIB used to kid about the "geek" from WSEX, until he made a lot of sense, and someone said they should listen to that "geek!"

That GEEK happened to be Jay Cohen!!!

THE SHRINK

 

[Megacapper]

Way back I opened accounts with Island, Intertops, Tradewinds, GSC, Carib and Real Sportsbook.

 

[PO69]

sportsbook.com and playersonly.com have been around sicne before 1993



Hence the reason why they own the best URL name of sportsbook.com


Even to this day, sportsbook.com gets the most square action of ANY BOOK on the universe. It is because people new to internet betting will naturally put sportsbook.com into their browser and BINGO!

 

[JayC]

Actually, the URL sportsbook.com was owned by CBS, the television network. They had some kind of deal where they leased it to sportsbook.com. Then when that embarrassing fact became public, CBS somehow got their name off of it. It wouldn't surprise me if CBS somehow still gets a cut.

BigBook and Grand Prix opened in late 1998. I am pretty sure they were connected to BoDog which opened at the same time. They used to preach their "eBanx" system where your money was safer because it was in the bank, not them. I think most people believed that they were ebanx./

 

[HuckFinn]

intertops has been around since at least 1992. i was still in high school when i saw their ad in daily racing form....HF

 

[1cheater]

The History of Offshore Sports Betting

Christopher Costigan, www.sports911.com


I am constantly approached in regard to how long a particular sportsbook has been in existence and it all leads up to this: some books lie just a little; some books lie a lot; some books are actually truthful while still others don's say much at all. But in the whole scheme of things, bookmakers tend to take into account how long they've been in business both legally and illegally while others add on years based on the parent company's existence, and a few others use the "Multiple owner equation" - you know the one - 100 years of bookmaking experience between us. Okay, we all know offshore bookmaking aimed at North American bettors did not start at the turn of the century. Nevertheless, bookmaking itself is the second oldest profession after prostitution. Both are still around and will be long after we're all dead.

For the sake of this piece we will only examine how long a sportsbook has been in operation offshore. It is important to note that many of today's offshore shops got their start booking illegally on street corners of the U.S. New York, California, Texas and Florida seem to have produced the most number of transplanted bookies, for whatever the reason.

The oldest existing sportsbook offshore, to some people's surprise, is not BetCRIS (also known as Costa Rica International Sports). Grande takes that honor. Established in 1986 in the Dominican Republic, Grande has operated a healthy call center business for nearly two decades.

BetCRIS started some time thereafter. Its controversial founder, Ronald "Cigar" Sacco, has appeared on 60 Minutes. Long time bookmaker, Monty, became the first ever transgender bookmaker. This same bookmaker once stiffed a bunch of South Asian gang members in his home town of Queens, New York, whereby his well-to-do family had to be placed under protective watch by local police. Some say this is when Monty first took on the appearance of a woman in order to delude his enemies.

When we talk about the first offshore bookmakers, we're not taking into account the Victor Chandlers, William Hills and Intertops. These bookmakers really are around since the early part of the century.

Caribbean Sports (not to be confused with Carib) was founded by a man who fathered 20 plus kids and is still going strong at age 80 without the use of Viagra. The colorful Frank Masterana will always figure into the offshore sports betting landscape.

Masterana, one of the country's biggest illegal bookmakers until a 1988 conviction banished him from his base in Las Vegas, eventually relocated to sunny but impoverished Dominican Republic. Masterana, 71, a salty character with a long gray ponytail, is identified by the Nevada Gaming Commission as an organized-crime associate (whatever that means) and listed in its Black Book, which bans him from any casino in the state.

Like BetCRIS, he would later move his operation to Costa Rica, though we're really not sure where he is right now. Home will probably always be the Dominican Republic since the United States is no longer kind to him.

The next real emergence of offshore bookmakers took place between the years 1992 and 1994, though the public in general really had no idea of its existence.

BetWWTS (parent company of WageronSports.com) began operations in St. Marten in 1992. The company's founder, Mr. Bill Scott, still resides in St. Marten but had to move his sportsbook to the island of Antigua in 1994. Like Sacco, Scott is widely considered among the most respected of the "old schoolers" offshore today.

Carib Sports and Sports International were among the first sportsbooks in Antigua, though WWTS got a jump on both of them in the Caribbean.

The infamous Sports International, however, would reign as the new face of offshore betting during these wayward years when bookies often chose who got paid and when....and who didn't get paid.

"The owners initially set up Sports International to be a scam," claimed one long time bookmaker who wished not to be identified. "But the book generated so much money they ended up turning it into a legitimate business."

Many an early sportsbook personality worked at Sports International and later its offspring, English Sports Betting, including the founder of Rich's International and the co-founders of one time popular sportsbook, Post Time Sports (which was later absorbed by WWTS). Most of the first offshore bettors played at Sports International and found themselves screwed years later.

The founders of English Sports Betting were originally to partner up with the principals of Sports International in Antigua but that relationship ended up a complete disaster with lawsuits later filed.

By 1995 a few other betting shops emerged onto the scene in places like Antigua and Margarita Island. Visions of setting up shop in Costa Rica and the Netherlands Antilles were also about to become reality.

Those sportsbooks already in the process of forming in 1995 include BetCBS (Casablanca and now utilizing the name WagerWeb), Margarita Island, ABC Island, Rich's International, SBD Global, Tradewinds and a handful of others, most of which already had some bookmaking connections back in the States. Unlike today, the early offshore bookmakers honed their crafts at a young age behind closed doors back in the U.S. Casablanca had its roots in Philadelphia, ABC Island in Pittsburgh, SBD Global in New York and Florida. Both WWTS and Carib Sports owners hailed from Ohio.

Casablanca operated a walk-up book in the Aruba Wyndham Hotel for a bit before they were chased out for whatever reason in the middle of the night. They all boarded a small propeller plane, which had a tough time getting off the ground with all the bookie flesh on board (all 1000 pounds of it). After a very brief stint in the Dominican Republic, Casablanca ultimately ended up in Costa Rica where they've prospered ever since.

Aruba may not have been all that hospitable to offshore sportsbook ventures but the Dominican Republic was no cake walk either on certain notable occasions, just ask Dennis Humphreys, founder of EZ Bets (not to be confused with Irish-based Easy Bets). That is, if you can find him.

Humphreys, like so many other bookmakers of his time, operated from a nice sized home on the island. Rooms were converted into make shift call centers (Sports Off Shore in Antigua is one of the few sportsbooks that still operate from an actual home, a very nice home at that).

In the middle of the night, Humphreys was abruptly awaken by the local policia who demanded their "take" from the operation. He was locked up, later released, and escaped the Dominican Republic by boat with only his customer list in hand. He later washed ashore in Margarita Island. Margarita International, a large office back then, accommodated him briefly, took his customer list, and kicked him to the curb. Humphreys may still be a bookmaker somewhere but his whereabouts remain a tightly kept secret to this day....at least to us.



1996 was the big boom for offshore sportsbooks as we know them today without a doubt. While a few of the companies mentioned here were in the works already during the year 1995, full operation really began in 1996. This was also the year that ushered in online wagering.
Sports Market (the now infamous Aces Gold) started in 1996 on the island of Curacao in the Dutch Antilles, the same year English Sports Betting and Sports International were reportedly chased out of Antigua (though this process also likely started in 1995).

Sports Market, as we now know, became only the second major offshore sportsbook to fold unceremoniously over a five year time frame. Before this time, only Sports International had closed shop without paying players back in 1997 (claiming U.S. government intervention, which has some validity, though they opened twice afterwards and stiffed players on both occasions).

Players forget that only three major sportsbooks have folded and stiffed their clients in the process over the last ten years. Not a bad record for an industry that seems ripe for unsavory individuals. During this time there have been many "fly by nights" and books that barely got by two seasons while catering to the same clientele through email marketing, mailings and targeted web site ventures.

Two extreme opposite sides of the spectrum tend to find themselves burnt by these little established "fly-by-night" operations: the professional sports bettor searching for every bit of value he or she can find, and the novice. Those in between usually end up at heavily advertised books like BetonSports, Bodog.com or Sportsbook.com and there is little exposure to the Dunes, Camelots, Alladins Golds, Bet Megas, Action Sports, Gamblers Palaces and Caribis (again, not to be confused with Carib Sports out of Belize). The list goes on and on.

BetPanAm was heralded as a behemoth in the offshore sports wagering industry when in reality they only survived about four months. Most everyone, including Sports911.com, believed in this shop....and still believe all players might eventually be taken care of since there were good (but helpless) people involved here. Yet BetPanAm does not meet the definition of an "established" sportsbook....or anything even close to significant.

The only major sportsbooks to have shut down stiffing all players over the past ten years are Sports International (1997), Aces Gold/Sports Market (2002) and Blue Marlin (2003), though the later maintained a much dwindled down player base from its years as a "walk up" at San Jose, Costa Rica's Hotel Del Rey.

Blue Marlin, like Sports Market and Curacao, was widely considered one of the original sportsbooks to set up in its jurisdiction of Costa Rica. The Central American nation would later become the Mecca of offshore sports betting operations.

It too formed in 1996 but some of the original founders moved on prior to 2003 when the remaining principal, Reggie, held on to the name and teamed up with a credit shop. Unbeknownst to anybody else, including Sports911.com, much of the financial stability apparently left with the other two partners. Most of us learned the hard way that "long established" does not always translate into "financial stability".

We would learn the same lesson when an original partner in Skybook, now owned by Rio Sports International, set up shop as New Age Bets. That book only lasted a few months before stiffing clients. The original Skybook was one of the first to set up shop in Margarita Island (pre Hugo Chavez).

As tales would have it (and some of these tales might be exaggerated a bit), when Sportsbook.com founder, Patrick Callahan, first arrived on the island of Margarita some time in 1996, the tall red head was not exactly greeted with open arms. Nobody would ever look at Callahan and have him pegged as a "bookie". The envious "old-schoolers", perhaps sensing this guy encompassed some master plan, considered beating him to a pulp and sending him back to Canada in a suit case but Callahan was a true entrepreneur and marketing genius who would later open up a bar in Margarita Island. That was enough to appease those barbaric savages.

Thinking back on Margarita Island, who could've thought that one of the most prominent sports betting firms of our time, Sportsbook.com, would have its roots there in the same company of heroin fiends turned informants (a partner in Margarita International) and gun-toting street bookies (the founders of Skybook International, who are no longer involved in today's solidly financed corporate run enterprise, Skybook.com)?

In 1996 we also witnessed the emergence of a little bookmaking operation called Olympic Sports. Its founder, Spiros, now finds himself in a similar situation he did back in 1996 when the government of Jamaica really showed no interest in accommodating him there. This pressure from government authorities was brought on mostly by the offshore sportsbook kingpin of that time, English Sports Betting. Olympic would later win out and remain steadfast on the island of Jamaica. English Sports Betting at the time was a gigantic phone betting operation (one of the biggest along with Bowmans, WWTS and a few others). Olympic would eventually pass them by.

Spiros was one of many sportsbook operators at the time, including Dennis Atiyeh of English Sports Betting, who used their real name proudly in association with the company they ran. Most of those operating sportsbooks in 1996 on the island of Antigua did the same. Jay Cohen, along with Steve Schillinger, formed World Sports Exchange in 1996. They also recruited a somewhat undisciplined, young but intelligent beer-guzzling go-getter by the name of Hayden Ware.

Hayden, not considered the most serious of the WSEX clan, found himself assuming a more active role in the organization in 1998 after he and 20 of his colleagues were indicted for violation of an obscure 1964 "Wire Act" prohibiting the acceptance of bets via telecommunication lines (i.e. wires). Cohen chose to fight the U.S. government and lost, ending up serving an 18 month prison sentence. Ware filled the void left by Cohen, a former nuclear physicist. He and Schillinger (also indicted) remained fugitives in paradise. The World Sports Exchange story was later profiled by 60 Minutes.

The U.S. government at the time wanted its "citizen" bookmakers to pay the piper. Cohen's decision to fight such charges in some ways put a serious dent in attempts to make examples out of others. Among those believed to be next in line for indictments: the founders of Betmaker.com (then Global Sports Connection), Carib Sports, English Sports Betting and Post Time Sports. I fact the owners of Post Time Sports were widely documented throughout Cohen's trial for their role in providing "800" numbers to other bookies.

Cohen seemingly stopped the third wave of indictments while everyone else offshore swiftly placed their companies in the hands of "local" Antiguan, Costa Rican and Dutch ownership. He never quite accepted the idea that "once a United States citizen, always a United States citizen....no matter where in the world you might end up".

Olympic Sports owner may have been concerned but he was after all The Greek who attended college and lived in the United States but wasn't necessarily property of America. English Sports Betting's founder enjoyed dual Syrian and United States citizenship, which might explain his more public persona even in a post 1998 age. VIP Sports, another sportsbook born in 1996, featured an Englishman at its helm, Alistair Assheton. Intertops was an Australian company with an Englishman, the soon-to-be-married Simon Noble, at the helm.

Being a non-American gave some operators a major advantage. VIP Sports, with some American influences, was predominantly fronted by the British Assheton. Fledgling The Big Book, which would later shed all of its "nonessential" components to sow the first seeds of a super hybrid organization now known as Bodog.com, enjoyed both Canadian and Russian lineage. Sportsbook.com was a Canadian company. Intertops and Bowmans could proudly proclaim themselves as Austrian and British, respectively.

BetonSports (then North American Sports Association), which sprang up on the island of Antigua in 1996 after a brief stint in Aruba, learned years later the power of having a Brit as spokesman for the company, especially a seasoned veteran of United Kingdom bookmaking. It took a while, but shedding the "Brooklyn bred" company image would eventually land BetonSports on the London Stock Exchange.

A large portion of the Class of 1996 remains intact (or at least partially intact) today.

World Sports Exchange, Post Time Sports (now part of WWTS), Sports Off Shore, Intertops offshore division (started by British born Simon Noble), Island Casino (sister book to Sportbet), ABC Island (now part of Jazz Sports in name only while BetMill.com inherited much of the original components and grew stronger through its affiliation with BetonSports), VIP Sports, Royal Sports (once Galaxy), Olympic (TheGreek.com), BetonSports (always claiming to be 10 years old and they finally are), Legendz Sports (a quiet "no name" mostly credit operation that ran in a back room of the BoS office).

Tradewinds and SBD Global were among the first to set up shop in Costa Rica though their existence predated 1996. SBD Global would eventually close down due to the indictments of 1998, only to reopen under new ownership. SBD paid all of its customers after shutting down the first time (the only book to do so which closed its doors as a result of the indictments). Tradewinds is still going strong with some of its original founders manning the ship. Both companies rank as two of the more successful offshore sports betting entities today, though they appear to be losing some ground in pivotal market share (specifically the internet) due to the innovations of competitors Sportsbook.com, Bodog.com and the once troubled GC Sports Group, which today is an industry powerhouse with brands like MyBookie.com and Sportsbook911.com, both of which are now endorsed by Sports911.com. We often wonder where they came up with the name Sportsbook911. Hmmmm

Being born in 1997 still means something in the world of offshore sports betting. 7 years in this industry is a lifetime and some of the best emerged during this time frame as well. Players Only (Sportsbook.com), Rio International (Skybook.com) and a little known book on the island of Dominica called Wager.dm. Easybets and Sports Interaction also first appeared as two of the original online sportsbooks during this year. The Big Book (a predecessor to Bodog.com) came about with only slight fanfare, sharing an office with Tradewinds.

Somewhere during this time period we also witnessed what would eventually turned into the makings of an industry juggernaut, Pinnacle Sports, and another respectable operator, Heritage Sports. The two companies are actually a result of what was once the original Heritage Sports. A partnership rift resulted in two separate companies with much of the talent emerging at Pinnacle (not to take anything away from Heritage which is financed in part by Tradewinds).

And partnership rifts have long wreaked havoc on this industry...or made it stronger, depending on how one looks at things.

When North American Sports Association (NASA) moved from Antigua to Costa Rica in late 1998 and turned into "The Two NASAs", it was made obvious very early on who deserved the rights to the title of "Big NASA". Greg Champion (now known as "G", neither of which are his real names) decided to separate himself from the other two partners (blood brothers) by quickly venturing out into uncharted territory. He set up an opulent office on two floors of a mall, which featured among other things a nursery, gym, triple the size call center, and who could forget the indoor shooting range with its ricochet walls and ceiling (above which was the nursery)?

"Little NASA" as they called it back then was still "big" compared to industry standards, but what is now BetUs.com never quite matched the enormous marketing power of G's BetonSports empire.

Bodog.com is yet another example of partnerships where talent appears lopsided. For years, the folks behind Bodog.com helped manage bland sportsbooks the likes of Mayan, Grand Prix and The Big Book through the tech and customer service end of things until they finally realized they could do a better job themselves running what is now a vast enterprise and one of the top five most profitable North American marketed sports wagering companies today.

Sportsbook owners who dared to place their toes in the water prior to 2000 enjoy a great advantage over those who have entered the scene since. These companies amassed an impressive customer list that virtually ensures them some portion of a still untapped market.

Of the remaining sportsbooks represented on Sports911.com, all emerged prior to 2001 (the "baby" of the bunch being BestLine Sports). BLS came onto the offshore scene in the later days of 2000 though it enjoys long established roots back in the States. Junior, an owner in BestLine Sports could barely move in is original 5' x 9' office space. Some of us have bigger walk-in closets!

MVP Sportsbook and Players Super Book (both part of the VO-Group): we still remember from back behind the black door on the 8th floor of BetonSports business in 1998. It was always said they were filming porn flicks in there....turned out to be just another urban legend even if owner Dalton Wagner every so often popped out a bit disheveled. VO-Group would eventually move across the street, taking over two stories of a one-time bank.

BetGameDay.com, a newcomer to the Sports911.com family, arrived on the scene in 1999, early enough to take advantage of what would amount to a gold rush of sorts.

MyBookie.com (formerly Grand Central Sports) enjoyed a humble 1998/1999 beginning on the island of Margarita. While Sportsbook911.com has evolved as one of the GC Sports brands, the company was in fact founded by online casino folks, Winward Casino to be more specific, and they predate even GC Sports. Sportsbook911.com's owner is widely believed to be among the most wealthiest men in the industry. He owns 9 automobiles and 12 homes.

The industry as a whole has enjoyed a long and colorful history that simply cannot be summarized on a few pages of this web site. Might a television series be in the works? You will all have to just wait and see.

Originally published on August 17, 2004