Howdy,
It is our site that indeed notes that if a book is giving away money that it could be a sign of trouble.
I'd be concerned if they were doing 100% bonuses for $1000 or more. A $200 for $200 deal is a hook to get you in the door. It also may be a match play, which is really a 50% bonus because once you wager the risk/lay amount disappears and only the win gets credited to your real cash acct.
What you need to get confirmation on is if they offer reduced juice -105 betting with that bonus. I do not believe that they allow the combination of both. It's one or the other.
I would also assume that they'd be ok with giving away a 100% bonus on a reup, as long as you have LOST your initial deposit.
They may be acting super aggressive because they got absolutely F'd when the season started and when most players signed up at the sportsbooks. You are probably not aware, but some russian outfit was producing ddos attacks (hitting a site oodles of hits at a time which creates a server overload and causes a site to time out or not show up at all) at the start of the season.
I spoke to people in the industry that I respect and they assured me that BetPhoenix is run by a group with a good name in the biz. I havent had any compaints yet either.
On a sidenote and to protect the integrity of our advertising, we secured an up front amount from them JUST IN CASE they crapped out. This would in turn allow us to throw a few bucks back to a handful of deposits should they have crapped out.
I'm probably putting my foot in my mouth, but if I were you I'd stay at 5dimes and forget about bonuses. At 5Dimes, you're playing with what is probably a top 3 book on the net in terms of the combination of security, options, and fast payouts. (Others I'd say that about
: Pinnacle, TheGreek even though we don't advertise them, Bookmaker/DSI)
I personally am not a big fan of bonuses. Im a big fan of reduced vig, fast payouts and solid track record which is something that can only be built by years of operating with big integrity.
I personally think bonuses are for recreational guys who are looking to get some decent bang for their buck. Smaller players per se.
If you get a fat bonus and win big, some books will treat you like **** and try to get you to leave. This can include coming up with **** excuses to rescind bonuses (no ****, some fine print says if a book deems you a pro, they can snatch your bonus up without notice) and cut your limits down to as little as 25 bucks.
You noted that you win long term and 5dimes won't give you any reups. Your profile is one that if I were you, I'd skip bonuses and stick to books who are top rated.
Just my opinion.
On another note, I highly recommend ALWAYS reading the fine print at these places. We don't advertise any ****ty places that dupe players but it happens. Things change and there's no way we can keep up with being in the know. We try, but there's just so much going on it's hard to keep up.
To those others who are reading this, always feel free to ask questions. The only dumb questions is the one you didn't ask.
We can be emailed at
predictem@hotmail.com as well.
- Kevin