With Sportsbooks Hurting Financially, Are Your Bets Safe?

Sportsbooks have been accumulating losses in profits due to the Coronavirus and professional sports being suspended worldwide.
Each operator protects the funds of their customers differently and sports bettors should know if their money is being protected if these businesses cannot make it through the hiatus.

PHILADELPHIA – With leagues worldwide suspended because of the Coronavirus outbreak, what effect is it having on sportsbooks?

Are the most popular legal sports betting sites safe to weather the storm or should members withdraw their money out now before operators go under?

It all depends on how much money a company has stored to take these losses from the hiatus on sporting events and the rules they have implemented in case the worst happens.

Sportsbook Rules To Cover Lack Of Business

In 2017, the Horseracing Bettors Forum (HBF) came up with various levels of protection for the consumer that sports betting operators fall into.

There are three separate levels that make up the categories by HBF. To find out where each sportsbook lies, the answer can be found within the terms and conditions page on each company’s website.

The three levels of protection in the HBF are:

Not Protected – Sportsbooks that are not protected mean that all funds (which includes money in members’ accounts) are available to be used by the company should they need it to cover their expenses from lack of business.

Medium – These operators are insured to allow for their members to be paid the money in their accounts should their companies go out of business.

High – Customer and company money is put into separate accounts, including money that would be required for payouts so that players are completely protected should sportsbooks go bankrupt.

Protections By US And Overseas Sportsbooks

When it comes to protecting their customers, sports betting operators in the United States are highly protected in comparison to overseas sportsbooks. New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, as well as other states with legal sports betting nationwide all follow a similar format.

Companies are required to have different accounts for company money and customer money. They also need to have a third account where they can match the amount of money in combined member accounts and have enough to cover payouts on all bets currently in play.

On top of that, states like New Jersey need to provide monthly statements to the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) verifying that all of these bases have been covered.

However, the sports betting operations in the UK are not as strict with customer protections. UK sportsbooks are not required to follow such rules. They have concluded needing so many different accounts for businesses would prove to be an added expense which makes it optional rather than a requirement with their sportsbooks.

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) stands by their decision for their lax approach to protecting their sports bettors stating:

“We ensure customers can decide for themselves whether to risk their money with an operator that offers low or no protection, or whether they wish to incur the potentially higher costs of gambling with an operator that offers higher levels of protection.”

Sportsbooks And Their Level Of Protection

Every sportsbook has a different level of protection. As previously stated, U.S. sports betting platforms are protected.

Other operations fall into their own categories and it’s best to know which categories those are should sports bettors be members with providers that are unprotected.

At this time, professional sports may not resume until August, which makes knowing the risks of certain sports betting operations crucial.

Highly protected to medium protected companies (meaning members would not lose the money in their accounts) are operators like FanDuel, DraftKings, FoxBet, Bet365, and William Hill.

Meanwhile, Betfred has zero protections in place for its members. PointsBet, GVC, Stars Group, Flutter, William Hill and Kambi and their affiliated sportsbooks all expect to make it through till sports resumes in the late Summer to early Fall with the funds they currently have plus strategies like pay cuts for employees that they will be enforcing until then.

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Christina Monroe

Christina has been writing for as long as she can remember and does dedicated research on the newly regulated sports betting market. She comes from a family of sports lovers that engage in friendly bets from time to time. During the winter months, you can find Christina baking cookies and beating the entire staff at Mario Kart…the N64 version of course.