Stay far away from sportfanatik

marc · Dec 3, 2003

Sportfanatik is run by a bunch of thieves liars and just plain idiots. I don't understand the financial relationship between EFS< sportsbook.com and all of the sister sites in sportingbet plc's family. All I know is that I have an account at sportsbook.com, playersonly, wallstreet, and about a half a dozen others. Over the past eightenn months I have made credit cards deposits to to theses sites in excess of $100,000. And they have wired me back in excess of $100,000. I have never had any probles with these guys whatsoever. I only have one account at each sister site. I'm not using multiple accounts or multiple names to scam them on bonuses or to exceed their online wagering limits. I just love using these guys because they are the only ones who seem able to take my credit card.

So last month I open an account at sportfanatik, thinking that they should be just as trustworthy as all the rest. That was a mistake. Last week I asked for a withdrawal of $2000. When I didn't hear from them by TUesday, i sent an email asking where my money was. They responded that my account was under an audit because the information I gave to them didn't macth the information on my credit card and/or bank account. Now understand at the same time I requested money from the I also requested money from 2 other books in the sportsbook.com family. They all have the same info, I used the same credit card and the same bank account. FOr some reason the other sites sent me the moeny right away. SPortfanatik, not only didn't send me my money, but they only told me there was a problem AFTER I asked them where my money was. Then they told me I need to send them the front and back of my drivers license and credit card, and a copy of my credit card statement. SO I fax it over to them. WHihc is a joke, becasue if they check their files they would see that all of this information is already on file. Then 10 hours later they send me an email saying that my fax didn't go thru and could I please send the fax again. So I send it again, I call an hour later to confirm that the fax was recieved, and I'm told it was. Then Tonight I recieve another email. This one telling me that they they need me to rresend a copy of my credit card statement , because the one I sent sisn't have my address on the statement. So I call to find out whats going on. AFterall my they now have the front and back of my credit card, they can see my address on my drivers license. SO I call. Now the guy tells me that not only do they need a copy of my credit card statement but they also need copies of my bank statement. So I ask the guy why he needs all of this, when the inof is already on file with my other accounts. And why is it that EFS has been able to wire me over $100,000 without a problem, and now suddenly they need me to keep faxing over documentation just to get $2,000. So the guy tells me that my best bet is to just send the info they asked for and eventually the audit should be cleared up. SO I fax over the documents. Call to confrim they recieved it. They did. So I ask if they need anything else, and the guy in the audit departmnet, says he can't tell me that, it's up to the verfication department. SO I ask to speak to someone there. ANd I'm told that the verification people won't speak to the customers. I just need to wait unitl I hear back from them. But hopefully if all goes well I'll get my money sometime next week.

Lucky for me, all my transactions were done by credit card. SO if they try to screw me on this $2,000, I can just do a chargeback. I don't know if I've ever issued a warning before, but these guys are the absolute worst. Either they are lying to me, trying to stall me, or just plain idionts, I don't know. But my advice is STAY FAR AWAY FROM SPORTSFANATIK

marc · Dec 3, 2003

duped the post by accident

Halifax · Dec 3, 2003

It's often a pain in the ass getting a payout from the Starnet books.

I'm on my 7th day waiting for a Neteller payout from SportingBetUSA. Frustrating as hell. I already sent them my documentation / ID six months ago - no doubt they'll want me to send it again.

I didn't mind the 5-7 day wait for a payout by bank wire, but 1 week and counting for a Neteller payout is unacceptable, considering Neteller was my method of depositing this time.

Halifax · Dec 4, 2003

Quite frankly, I've never been able to figure out why certain payments from Starnet books are delayed, and why other ones are processed seemlessly. I have been on the receiving end of both types of situations, and my documentation / ID that they (EFS) have on file has always remained the same.

I don't know if these delays are caused at the EFS level, or if the individual books (SportFanatik, SportingBetUSA, etc.) are the cause of the delays.

Maybe Jay Leno or someone else who knows can comment on this.

Chadster · Dec 4, 2003

halifax and marc

send me account information to general and he will pass it along to me

Chadster · Dec 4, 2003

every case is new and old information is shredded i believe for your protection.

to speed this on i suggest sending all the required docs.

oldmantime · Dec 4, 2003

It's all a stall tactic. At first, I was not sure about it. All looked good. Then I realized what the heck was a "v-chip"? The most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of. Ok, but one step further. I don't know about sportsfanatic or which one you are talking. But they have SO MANY NUMBERS to keep track of--another game of "slowdown the clock". NC used to call it 4 corners in basketball, before the shot clock. Ok--Here we go. When you join you have a user name/number and a password. No problem so far. THEN, quickly you find out a third number (long number ) is used for payout information . Something else to keep track of. I can't recall now if that is used before or after the "v-chip" exchange. Some of the books are undoubtly solid and good. But, why, why why all the numbers and conversation to a term called v-chips? Is it just me or do people enjoy keeping up with ALL the numbers and soforth.

Buzzsaw · Dec 4, 2003

I have some stories about this crap book but I've already used up my legal retainer for this year.

Ninja · Dec 4, 2003

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by marc:
Last week I asked for a withdrawal of $2000. When I didn't hear from them by Tuesday, i sent an email asking where my money was. They responded that my account was under an audit because the information I gave to them didn't match the information on my credit card and/or bank account. Now understand at the same time I requested money from them I also requested money from 2 other books in the sportsbook.com family. They all have the same info, I used the same credit card and the same bank account. For some reason the other sites sent me the money right away. Sportfanatik, not only didn't send me my money, but they only told me there was a problem AFTER I asked them where my money was. Then they told me I need to send them the front and back of my drivers license and credit card, and a copy of my credit card statement. So I fax it over to them. Which is a joke, because if they check their files they would see that all of this information is already on file. Then 10 hours later they send me an email saying that my fax didn't go thru and could I please send the fax again. So I send it again, I call an hour later to confirm that the fax was recieved, and I'm told it was. Then tonight I receive another email. This one telling me that they they need me to resend a copy of my credit card statement, because the one I sent doesn't have my address on the statement. So I call to find out whats going on. After all this they now have the front and back of my credit card, they can see my address on my drivers license. So I call. Now the guy tells me that not only do they need a copy of my credit card statement but they also need copies of my bank statement. So I ask the guy why he needs all of this, when the info is already on file with my other accounts. And why is it that EFS has been able to wire me over $100,000 without a problem, and now suddenly they need me to keep faxing over documentation just to get $2,000. So the guy tells me that my best bet is to just send the info they asked for and eventually the audit should be cleared up. So I fax over the documents. Call to confrim they received it. They did. So I ask if they need anything else, and the guy in the audit departmnet, says he can't tell me that, it's up to the verfication department. So I ask to speak to someone there. I'm told that the verification people won't speak to the customers. I just need to wait unitl I hear back from them.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I had a friend of mine tell me a story so similar to yours that it's scary. The only difference was that it was another book in the sb.com family. Here is what he told me.

1. He requested a check and a couple days later they said it had been processed and would go out in the next day or two, but no check ever showed up.

2. When he called to find out where his check was, they said his account was under audit. They never bothered to contact him to tell him what was going on. He was told that his addresses didn't match his credit card address. According to him, this was a complete lie. He asked them to check their info again, but they refused and insisted that he provide them with front and back of all credit cards, copies of drivers license, bank statements and even credit card statements before they would do anything.

3. After going back and forth for many days, and never being able to deal with a supervisor, he was forced to fax them everything. They said that if he didn't that his account would remain under audit indefinitely.

4. After he faxed the documents they started making excuses like one is too dark, send it again. This was several days after they said they had received everything just fine. Then they later came back with we still don't have copies of your ID, even though they had already said they received everything.

5. They managed to stall this simple payment request for about 6 weeks if I remember right. They never did apologize for the delay even though it was proven that all his addresses did match and that they had just wasted an incredible amount of his time.

These stories are way too similar for this not to be a policy for the sb.com books. I would stay FAR away from any book in this family of books until they stop lying to their customers and stalling payment requests.

player250 · Dec 4, 2003

I went through an almost identical situation at sports.com.

Your problem?

You have multiple accounts and they will eventually accuse you of scamming bonuses from their sister books.

Jay Leno was nice enough to help me get paid, when he worked there, without his help I'm confident I wouldn't have received a red cent.

Wonder how many of their tens of thousands of customers get the same run around?

I've since gone to Olympic and Pinnacle and wish I would've started out there in the first place.

How many complaints can you find on these boards about Pinnacle or Olympic slow paying or stalling? Do a search and see what you come up with for the sister sites of sportsbook.com

Alejocruz+ · Dec 4, 2003

What are the sportbook.com famiily books exactly?

Chadster · Dec 4, 2003

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by player250:
I went through an almost identical situation at sports.com.

Your problem?

You have multiple accounts and they will eventually accuse you of scamming bonuses from their sister books.

Jay Leno was nice enough to help me get paid, when he worked there, without his help I'm confident I wouldn't have received a red cent.

Wonder how many of their tens of thousands of customers get the same run around?

I've since gone to Olympic and Pinnacle and wish I would've started out there in the first place.

How many complaints can you find on these boards about Pinnacle or Olympic slow paying or stalling? Do a search and see what you come up with for the sister sites of sportsbook.com<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Multiple accounts at multiple books receiving bonuses at each one is scamming no matter the way you cut it.

I remember helping one guy crying here on the board. He had 38 accounts with them! But. He says we were stalling and it was bullshit we were holding his money. whatever

I am nice enough to help anyone get paid wether I still work there or not. Thats the way i am paycheck or not. you would have been paid regardless of my intervention or not as long as you provided documents etc that they asked for.

Tens of thousands of customers get the same run around? no. They only people that get the run around are the same assholes that have multiple accounts at mulitple books with different addresses on the card versus the account. As well as the random audits.

Olympic and Pinnacle are very fine choices. However they do not even begin to struggle with the volume of fraud that sportsbook does. sportsbook has over 200 employees in one building, less than half are clerks. the rest are for fraud, a grading department, an it department, graphics, financials, accounting, marketing and others i am missing off the top of my head.

Complaints on the sportsbook.com and sister books versus pinnacle and oly.....maybe they aren't catching the fraud and sb is.

Chadster · Dec 4, 2003

Chadster · Dec 4, 2003

If they can't read or make out the fax how are they stalling?

Chadster · Dec 4, 2003

if you don't like the vchip then don't use any worldgaming book.

stalling - bullshit it's not stalling. It's a protocol that is followed.

Chadster · Dec 4, 2003

i still have no info from either one of you.

Ninja · Dec 4, 2003

Nice try there Jay, but my friend's (and marc's) stall job had nothing to do with fraud, credit cards, bonuses, or wrong addresses. He said they flat out lied to him and made up phony excuses time and again to avoid sending him his money.

It's becoming obvious that this group of books has started to intentionally lie to their customers in order to delay payments.

Either that, or they would have to be the most bumbling, incompetent bunch of morons to ever work in the offshore sportsbook world. It's not very likely, but I guess that could be a possibility too.

Ninja · Dec 4, 2003

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Jay Leno:
If they can't read or make out the fax how are they stalling?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
They said everything was fine when he faxed everything over, and then a few days later after he asked why his check hadn't gone out, they come back and say it's too hard to read.

It was just one of many excuses they gave him on a six week stall. Apparently they were not very good liars.

5teamparlay · Dec 4, 2003

by
oldman
When you join you have a user name/number and a password. No problem so far. THEN, quickly you find out a third number (long number ) is used for payout information . Something else to keep track of. I can't recall now if that is used before or after the "v-chip" exchange.

in addition to a user name and password you have along account #, THEN YOU FORGOT ABOUT THE PIN # ALSO. 4 things to remember, ridiculous.

YOU MUST OWN A FAX MACHINE TO DEAL WITH THESE CLOWNS. Kinkos is like 9 bucks a fax.

Halifax · Dec 4, 2003

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Jay Leno:
i still have no info from either one of you.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I talked to them today - some kind of (supposedly) random audit, and that I should get the green light tomorrow.

If tomorrow passes and still nothing, I'll E-Mail my info to The General.