Bookmaker is one of the oldest gambling sites in the world. The history of the company goes back to 1985 (its first betting site opened in 1997), and nowadays www.bookmaker.eu is known as one of the most legitimate U.S.-friendly gambling operations.
Bookmaker is best-known for its sportsbook. but the site also features an online casino (powered by Digital Gaming Solutions) and an online poker room (runs on the second most popular US poker network called Winning Poker).
Sites We’d Recommend Instead of Bookmaker
What’s Good
Early Lines
Bookmaker’s tagline is “Where the Line Originates” and for a good reason: they’re generally the first site to post betting lines for baseball, basketball, football and other American sports. (Bookmaker’s biggest competitor, Bovada, is known for being one of the slowest sites to post lines.)
Track Record
As mentioned above, the roots of this betting site go back around 30 years, and they’ve been online for almost 20 years. They’ve gone through multiple changes in ownership and customers have been directed from one domain to another, yet they’ve never had significant delays in payout times or such. Bookmaker’s customers have always been able to rely on getting paid.
Professionals Are Welcome
The second major difference between Bookmaker and Bovada is their stances regarding professional bettors (or those who take betting more seriously and actively look for +EV opportunities). Bookmaker welcomes all types of players from recreational bettors to professionals, while Bovada favours recreational players and actually shows different betting lines for educated bettors (they may also lower maximum betting limits for skilled bettors to something like $1 or $10).
High Maximum Betting Limits
Bookmaker not only gives every customer a chance to bet the same amount of money regardless of their level of skill, but their maximum betting limits are high to begin with.
What’s Bad
Slow(ish) Payouts
While Bookmaker.com has a strong history of delivering payouts, the time it takes for them to deliver payouts is longer than their biggest competitors, like Bovada and BetOnline (these two sites deliver check payouts in around a week; it takes around a month for Bookmaker to do the same).
Payout Fees
While Bovada allows one free check payout per month, Bookmaker charges $50 per check payout. If you’re dealing with amounts of less than thousands of dollars, this charge takes a relatively big chunk out of your withdrawal amount. (You can use BetPoints to purchase free payouts, but then again that doesn’t equal free since the points can also be converted to cash and merchandise.)
Sharp Lines
While Bookmaker.eu is known for posting lines early, they’re rarely the best lines you’ll be able to bet on. So while Bookmaker doesn’t shy away from professional bettors and the like, they can afford not to due to offering sharp lines.
Banking
Deposits
Bookmaker charges zero fees for processing deposits unlike some other top US gambling sites like BetOnline (6% per deposit) and Bovada (4.9% per deposit).
You’ll find all Bookmaker.eu’s U.S. eligible deposit options below along with minimum and maximum deposit limits for each deposit method:
Payouts
Bookmaker offers a double-edged sword for its U.S. customers: a long, strong history of delivering payouts on-time, but on the other hand, relatively slow check payout times (around 3 weeks) and a $50 fee for check payouts.
Money transfer cashouts (Western Union and Moneygram) are offered with similar payout times and fees as what other U.S. sites offer.
You’ll find Bookmaker.eu’s U.S. eligible payout options below along with information on minimum and maximum withdrawals limits and fees. In addition to these methods, Bookmaker also allows debit card withdrawals for regulars (contact their customer support to find out more):
Bonuses
Deposit Bonus
First-time depositors get a 50% bonus up to $300 (in other words, you get the maximum bonus by depositing $600). Wagering requirements are 10x for sports betting and 40x for casino players.
All deposit methods except for Neteller qualify for the Bookmaker.eu bonus.
To qualify for the deposit bonus, you must enter the bonus code found here when making the deposit. If you’d rather not use the bonus offer (and therefore avoid having to complete any wagering requirements in order to withdraw your winnings), just leave the bonus code field empty when depositing.
VIP Program
Bookmaker’s VIP/Rewards Program is called BetPoints Rewards. The more you play, the more BetPoints you accumulate and the higher you place in the VIP system. The higher your VIP level, the higher the rate you accumulate BetPoints with.
You can use BetPoints to:
- Convert them into cash.
- Purchase gift cards, frequent flyer points or merchandise.
- Initiate free cashouts.
By depositing $300+, you automatically qualify for the Gold level, and by depositing $900+, you automatically qualify for the Platinum level. To get to the Diamond level, you need to earn 300,000 BetPoints in a 12-month period, which then gives you an access to VIP customer service, 2 free debit payouts per month and the highest rate of accumulation for BetPoints.
Sportsbook
Bookmaker is known for publishing betting lines early (a positive thing) but it’s also known for offering sharp lines (a negative thing). You’ll likely find betting lines for whatever games you want to bet on earlier at Bookmaker than at any other site, but then again, the odds are likely worse than what some other sites are going to offer a few days later.
High-stakes bettors can go to town at Bookmaker, considering their Thursday-to-Sunday betting limits for NFL sides ($50,000), totals ($20,000) and moneylines ($20,000). NBA has smaller limits ($10,000 and $5,000), as well as NHL ($5,000). The minimum betting limits for all sports and leagues is $1.
To my knowledge, Bookmaker.eu has the highest betting limits out of all US-friendly gambling sites. All of the limits can likely be negotiated even higher by contacting their customer support.
Bookmaker provides a strong selection of games and betting options for its US customers. Football, basketball, baseball, hockey, tennis and golf markets are all heavily covered.
They cover soccer to a decent extent as well with betting lines for 13 soccer leagues around the world:
As mentioned, this site is heavily focused on American betting markets, which is one of the reasons I recommend other options for customers outside of the US). I recommend 5Dimes for US customers looking to bet on foreign markets.
Still, I consider Bookmaker.eu a top-5 sportsbook for Americans.
Casino
Bookmaker’s casino software is powered by Digital Gaming Solutions. It features all the usual games you’ll find on any casino (blackjack, roulette, craps, video poker, etc.) and a decent range of slot machines.
Certified Fair Gambling audits the casino software on a monthly basis. You can find monthly reports of the audits at www.bookmaker.eu which include payout percentages. They look good – on the surface, at least – but as I attempted to research on Certified Fair Gambling, their website was offline.
You can play at Bookmaker Casino with mobile devices as well, although the selection of mobile casino games is much smaller. Still, it features all the “classics” – blackjack, roulette, slots and the like – and is likely a sufficient option for most mobile gamblers.
Poker
Bookmaker Poker is a part of the second most popular U.S. poker network (Winning Poker, formerly known as Yatahay Poker) and therefore offers plenty of games for Americans. As mentioned, this site has a long history of servicing its US customers with respect, so just based on player traffic and reliability (the most important factors for Americans), Bookmaker is a top-3 US poker site.
For players outside of the US, here are the best sites.
They feature the common poker game variations like Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo and 7-Card Stud. They also have a decent amount of tournament action, so you’ll likely find a decent selection of games to play unless you’re into more obscure poker games only.
According to their website, Bookmaker Poker’s rake is at 5% (with a maximum rake cap of $3), and apparently this goes for all stakes (usually poker sites have different rake structures for different stakes). A 5% rake across the board is high, but there are only a limited amount of US-friendly poker rooms available, and all of the top US poker sites have high rake structures relative to poker sites only accepting players from outside of the U.S.
Customer Service
You can contact Bookmaker.eu via phone (their sportsbook has a toll-free number for USA and Canada), e-mail or live chat.
But the real question you and I want an answer for is: is the customer service any good? Are they helpful? Are they friendly? Are they reliable?
I’ll go with “yes” to all of those questions.
Based on my experiences – and based on the impression I’ve gotten from online forums – Bookmaker’s customer support is helpful and does its best to help you, especially with deposits and cashouts (US customers often have problems with moving money to and from gambling sites).
Conclusion
Bookmaker is a top-5 recommendation for Americans. It’s rare to find gambling sites that accept US customers and have strong track records. In fact, it can be argued that Bookmaker.eu has the strongest track record in the U.S., however, slow(ish) payouts, sharp lines and a $50 check payout fee lowers their grade.