For better or worse, online betting has been increasingly in the headlines recently. Its growing popularity in Europe and North America highlights an appetite for punters to gamify their sports viewing. Top UK sports betting sites show that betting has never been more popular, but just how safe is it?
The security of websites
At a fundamental, before we look at the industry or platforms in question, we need to ensure that the websites themselves are safe. And fortunately, this process is no different for sports betting companies than any other marketplace, online store, or general site. We can check just to the left of the URL of any given site to see if there’s a padlock – this shows that it is secured with SSL (encryption that is required for safe financial transactions). So if the padlock exists, it’s a good start).
Regulation and licensing
Regulations and licensing are distributed by certain bodies; governmental or otherwise. The way to understand whether you’re being protected by a credible body is to firstly see if the betting platform is licensed and regulated. Secondly, see if this body is credible and reliable – if it’s based in a country you have hardly heard of, it may not be all that reliable.
This is mostly what will prevent a company from outright lying to you, disappearing with your money, and so on.
Scams
There are certainly many scams online pretending to be a legitimate betting companies when they are not. One way to notice a scam is by being astute at noticing phishing emails – unwarranted cold interactions that you didn’t ask for. If you want to use a betting site, make it on your terms. For example, perform your own searches, read reviews, and proactively visit their site as opposed to clicking links in emails.
Furthermore, crypto is not fully supported by most mainstream regulating bodies. Therefore, a site operating with crypto is likely operating in a grey area legally, which means you’re even more vulnerable. Plus, crypto scams are rife regardless.
Your money that is in a betting account
One common scare is that your account balance may freeze because of a suspension or the company may fold and never pay you back. Generally, this risk is a lot higher when using companies that are regulated by obscure, less-than-credible overseas regulators.
When it comes to reliable companies regulated by reliable bodies, your money should be safe. However, it is not protected by the FSCS protection (i.e. banking deposit insurance), so it may be wise to split your money across various betting companies. If they do fold, they will pay deposits during liquidation, but keeping the deposits smaller and split across companies helps diversify and minimize this risk.
Final word
Gambling is seen as a high-risk industry by lenders and payment processes, much the same way as the adult industry is. But, it’s very unfair and a somewhat outdated astigmatism. As betting becomes more and more in the mainstream, the act of sports betting has become normalised to a degree where people are realising that it is a secure industry. Whilst there are many overseas scam sites, the same can be said about e-commerce and other industries.
