Jay C said:
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.
Jay C you have ONLY half facts, which is not a good thing when talking about people/history and reputations,
So here ARE the facts, When Antigua decided to licensed books, and at that time, there was no discussing with the books, it was this is what it is and pay.
Just around that time, Antigua, after many years, received their first stints with hurricanes, the one that passed close/hit antigua had the operation out for about a week, (no phones, etc) of course there rose concerns for both client and shop, what happened was (Sports International) sought ways to put things in place in the event of such a dilema again. They looked at the Dominican Republic, came close but no cookie, for many reasons, and then there was Grenada, which welcomed the Company and offered much better incentives. Sports International decided to have A SECOND OFFICE, for the above mentioned reasons. And when they were approximately 60-70 percent finished setting up the "second office" there came the license thing in Antigua. They decided hey, Antiguas asking 75K and 100K, and Grenada was not asking anything that close.
Now remember, Sports International was one of the pioneers with ONLINE WAGERING, so, they in turn would have to PAY for TWO LICENSES, now they figuered, Antigua was'nt negotiating right with them, being they had casino and sportsbook, what the heck, we're almost done on Grenada, lets go to Grenada, and thats why they ended up there. Not what you're projecting JAY C
The other facts are ..
They started out as a SPORTS BOOK, and back then, there was nothing like today, it was a SPORTSBOOK, not a snotty nose 20 something college kid operation, it was a Real Sportsbook.
Eventually, the business grew, and things changed, but they had bookies there before. and ty didnt work out too well after the company went into a real international business operation mode, the old school way of things didnt mesh woth the NEW corporate image, (actually before the move to grenada)
IT grew and grew, now the bad thing was that Mr. Simone felt that if Vegas etc could have a "Corparate Office" in the USA, why not him, plus, its in my home town, I can have my cake and eat it too, (have the offshore in grenada and corporate office in the USA)
AS you know, the US didnt like that, they raided the office and took computers, saying that the servers were in the US, (of course they were not, but in grenanda) but the news came out, so, guess what happened then,
You guessed it, the clients got scared, reports went out that the FBI had lists of address and names etc, so people were in panic and started calling for withdrawals, and slowed down maybe 85-90 percent with deposits,
remember now, this was back in the day, they used their money(SI) to develop the software(online) and had to represent the CEO(Simone) and then the FBI thing, so, there was much more unexpected expense and little to no income, so the payments became slow, and with more bad publicity etc teh deposits got even slower, (please remember, this was back in the day)
So to get out of teh bad rap and rep, the company was sold to a canadian guy, (and this was a note) not cash, only a bit, he took the company to t cleaners and the founders ended up with the bad "last" name for Sports International.
Jay C and others mirrowed some or all of their IDEAS from this shop, there would not have been any of these guys around who have soooo much to say, if it was'nt for these books, including the RX, which thrives from these initial books who had the idea, balls and guts to start this OFFShore biz.
From website, handling of deposits to marketing, in 95,96 to 97, you saw the stealing of ideas rampant.
Oh, WWTS was helped out by SI, when they came to antigua, they openly told them about the runnings, including arranging office space and computers through SI friends in the Biz community, and when they needed a little help didnt help the guys out.
Sports International went out of business because
1. The C.E.O was dumb enough to put his Corporate Office in the USA. and thats when the dominoes started to fall.
If that was not the case, my, my, my not one of the Sports Books today could ever, ever, ever, be in the ranking with them, (service,cleints, bank roll)
And Jay C, yes they issued stock to employees and not cash because they had a vision and it "looked likedd it was coming through, until the corporate office thing)
heres the take on the stock not cash thing,
one word,,,,,,MICROSOFT, their staff who are millionaires now were issued stock not cash, tell them they should have gotten cash.
Jay C because the pioneer (work) that was done by these guys, you're thriving now,
"Dont bite the hand that FED you"
