An Honest Review of WagerWeb.com (CROOKS!)
WagerWeb.com can now be found on dozens of sports betting review and watch dog sites, heavily touted as a best choice for online sports bettors. Accepting US players, offering good bonuses, convenient banking options and a well-designed website on a decent domain name, all appears legit to the naked eye. However, we at Sports Betting Sites are warning you, if you care about your bankroll – do not play with this toxic company operating at wagerweb.com. This company has a long history of cheating their players and outright theft and should not be trusted. This is a scam many websites ranking in Google are knowingly promoting in order to make a buck, with you as the potential victim.
Wager Web History
Wager Web is an old school online sportsbook that originally operated using the URL www.betCBS.com, and the company name Casablanca. After losing their domain due to legal action filed by CBS Corp, in November 2004 they rebranded to WagerWeb using the URL www.wagerweb.com. The problems with this group began immediately. One of their policies was to go after punters who were betting too many props. They made a rule forcing anyone winning at props to wager 5 times the amount they wager on props on straight bet and parlays in the same day or their account would be closed. This is a little goofy, but at least no theft had occurred.
WagerWeb – Flat Out Bonus Theft
By mid-2005, the Wager Web flat out thefts got started. What they did was any punter who was winning too much (and too much wasn’t a lot *couple grand in most cases*) had their bonus retroactively removed from their account and was then banned from using the site. Banning or limit collaring players was somewhat common in these days – but stealing from them was not. For example: WagerWeb might have offered a player a 30% up to $300 free play bonus. A player deposits $500, gets $150 free, makes wagers and goes bust. WagerWeb then offers them a 50% up to $200 sign up bonus. So here they deposit $400 more another $200 free play. This time they run their balance up to $2000.00 and decide to cash out. WagerWeb tells them they took bonuses they were not allowed to take because the rules clearly state these bonuses are for recreational punters only. So Wager Web deducts the $150+$200 bonus and pays the player $1,650 instead of $2,000 and tells him he’s no longer welcome on their site.
In the opinion of WagerWeb it would appear anyone who wins must be a professional, not a recreation player, as all recreational players are losers. So, in short, so long as you bust your full balance you’ll get these bonuses, but if you decided to cash out, you run the risk your bonus will be confiscated and you’ll be banned from using their site again. Seriously, this is how this company operated for quite some time.
Wager Web Makes 100% Sure Players Lose
In early 2006, WagerWeb ran a promotion where players were given a 20% sign up bonus with a 50x rollover. The terms clearly stated the winnings could be cashed out anytime but the bonus plus deposit amount would need to stay in the account until the rollover was met. The fact that winnings could be cashed out led many players to take this bonus, as otherwise many would not agree to 50x rollover. Well when players went to cash out they were told the policy had changed and they’d now need to finish the rollover in full before they were allowed to cash out. Emails along the lines of “The total amount you must wager is $150,000 and as per today your wagered amount is $3,320. If you wish to proceed with your payout you will lose the bonus.” were sent.
A chat log from back then is as follows:
Player: I requested a payout and I got a response that the new policy is you have to complete the rollover prior to withdrawing winnings.
WagerWeb: Hello, yes
Player: I am confused. The terms stated 50x rollover but I could withdrawal winnings at any time. How can you change the rules midstream?
Wager Web: Management’s decision
Player: This doesn’t make sense. We already agreed to the terms. How can the terms be changed?
Wager Web: Management’s decision
Theft, Theft and More Theft
Wager Web continued to steal from punters stating they made correlated parlays, didn’t like their wagering patterns, or accused them of being a beard. In some cases these guys just flat out made sh*t up. Here’s an example. Wager Web once stole over $2,000 from a players account, claiming they were pyramiding. Funny is at the time their rules did say that accounts would be reviewed and any pyramiding would result in loss of the bonus, but nowhere did it define what this meant. Basically, what this meant is if a player was betting in such a way it appeared they were trying to bust their balance, the bonus and any winnings would be removed. A person might attempt to bust their balance, because they’re betting the other side at a different site in hopes of making quick money. There is nothing shady about this and more times than not the book offering a bonus with a 10x rollover will come out ahead as result. In any case to our knowledge this was never resolved, and the player was flat out stolen from due to some strange and vague rule.
Another common scam was to accuse players of having multiple accounts. One punter had his near $12,000 cash out voided and confiscated in May 2007, because they claimed partnership activity was going on. The player admitted he had a friend he’d call to place his bets logging into his account, but nothing sinister took place, nor was wagerweb.com affected by this.
In December 2007 there was another example of “making sh*t up!” Here a player had won $37,000 over 70 football wagers. WagerWeb stole his entire balance claiming he stalled clerks over the telephone long enough to see the beginning portion of the game. His wager history did in fact reveal that one wager was placed 6 minutes (not game minutes but 6 true minutes) after the scheduled start, but most all his wagers were placed just before kickoff. This was combing through to finding something they could make up to steal from the player.
Proof of Theft
For much of 2008 and 2009 the thefts continued. There were many reports of bonuses being confiscated and other made-up excuses to steal from punters. The source of a quite a bit of what I’ve covered about WagerWeb is this SBR page on WagerWeb thefts. To show an example of how this site fails to listen to reason, and just STEALS, CHEATS and THIEVES check this one out from the same article:
In December 2009 WagerWeb stole $9578.60 stating correlated parlay abuse. SBR accessed the player’s accounts and wager logs and did a full audit. What they determined is that over a 2-month period the player placed multiple wagers most of them consisting of correlated parlays. He however started off by losing and at and one point was down over $11,000 but Wager Web continued to let him bet these parlays they claimed were not allowed. Upon further review the player didn’t even have a positive win record until the date WagerWeb suspended his account (he was a losing bettor for 2-months) and then went positive for a net $3752 and correlated parlays accounted for a net win of $4302.
SBR pointed out that if they confiscated just $4302 it would have been unjust as their software is set up to block parlays they feel are too heavily correlated. However, confiscating the full balance they’ve stolen $5276.60 more than what was won in the manner they’re using to justify this theft. Wager Web then decided that this player was a beard (wagering for a known professional) and this was their new made-up reason for stealing the remainder of cash from him.
Be Careful of Affiliate Sites
I could go on and here with WagerWeb complaints as they are a mile long – but the bottom line NO ONE PLAYS HERE ANYMORE! This was a dead sportsbook that was failing to pick up new victims for quite some time now. We’ll they’re back! I know this sounds appalling to any sane human being and even some of the most cold-hearted and selfish people in the world wouldn’t attempt such a scam but gambling affiliating is different. You see the typical gambling 
affiliate has a sense of entitlement, feeling because they rank well in Google, they should be paid millions of dollars. Some of the most heartless, soulless, kill a man for his boots type people work in this niche, and many do a great job appearing to be a legitimate player oriented portal (it’s a scam!).
Wager Web is now paying higher affiliate commissions than the competitors, and as a result dozens of portals are jumping on board ready to send them new victims in exchange for a buck. If you care about your bankroll, do not click a single link on any gambling portal that is marketing Wager Web (in fact, x-out immediately when seeing their ads, because these sites are ran by people similar to those who commented in this Wager Web is Crooks – but I don’t care PAY ME! Thread).
Help Others Avoid the WagerWeb Scam
Finally, if you care about innocent people that might get scammed, please help by linking to this post – be that facebook, forums, or whatever – because no doubt with the money WagerWeb is now spending victim hunting, and the affiliates willing to aid them in their scam, it’s going to take a lot of work to help fellow innocent punters avoid the scam.