Russian sports book

[alec]

Hi!
I would like to offer for your consideration the only betting firm from the former Soviet Union that accepts bets online.
The url is www.fonbet.com/index_e.htm.
They have been working for over 6 years and started to accept bets online about a year ago.
What may be interesting for you there?
First of all, fonbet.com claims that it starts to accept bets on american sports earlier than anybody else in the world, i.e. about 6:00 a.m. EST. You can decide if it is really the earliest time by yourself, I don't know this, since i don't bet on american sports.
They have 1.8 line on basketball with total for every match.
If you bet on soccer, you may find it interesting that fonbet.com offers totals for each soccer match in the line, 1.8 line as well. They accept bets on most European national championships and several lower divisions.
If your sport is tennis, fonbet.com is one of the very few, in fact I don't know any, online sportsbooks that offer bets on all ATP and WTA tournments. They accept bets on all singles matches.
Fonbet.com accepts singles for all bets and there is no tax.
So, please, check them out.
Several words about myself. I am from Ukraine and used to work in the betting firm there. I never worked or bet in fonbet.com, which is located in Moscow. Friend of mine who is currently working as an odds maker there asked me to write about them in several betting forums. So this information is in no way official.
If you have any questions about fonbet.com or sports betting in the former Soviet Union in general, I will be happy to answer.
If you want to contact official representative of fonbet.com, please email admin@fonbet.com
Thank you for your patience.

[tim]

Sorry, I still don't trust the Ruskies!!

[AussieVamp2]

apart from the fact all those odds are terrible........

only attraction there would seem to be the WTA

[Hamhog]

Surely Boomer has collected 13.6 dimes from this outfit by now.

[Cons]

Their intentions might be very good, and some of the options seems quite decent, but 1.80 totals are pretty bad. Very bad to be honest. You can now get them at 1.90, so why anyone would want to pay twice as much juice is beyond me...

[alec]

About terrible odds.
In comparison with Australian books they are really terrible, I would rather say that Australian odds are impressive.
In comparison with Austrian books fonbet's odds are in general better.
Anyway, you are to decide.
P.S. Please forgive my ignorance, but what do you mean by one dime? $1000? $10000?

[Jeff K]

Nickel = $500
Dime = $1000

[alec]

Thanks Jeff K.
To keep conversation alive I would like to say something about odds in general. If it is obvious for the most of the members, I apologize in advance.
Regardless of fonbet’s odds, is the juice the most important thing about the odds?
I don’t think so.
Suppose one book has 1.9 line for tennis and the other has 1.8 line. If, for example, for some match the first offers 1.9-1.9 line and the second 1.6-2.0 line and if such situation occurs frequently enough, I believe it is clear that one wants to have accounts with both books.
To give you a specific example, let’s consider Interwetten.com.
Thei r tennis line in terms of juice is awful (1.7 line). But if you make some research, you will see that odds on favorites are rarely less and very frequently higher then everywhere else. Their last Davis Cup line (Spain @1.55, for instance) was incredible.
This may apply to AussieVamp2 and Cons comments.
And a question to Cons. You should know better but is it really possible to bet with 1.9 line on totals of all soccer leagues from fonbet.com’s line?
I hope to hear your comments.

[Boomer]

Hey Hamhog,

I'm still laughing about that one. I was thinking about going in but I heard stuff about rubles being hard to convert to dollars and visa versa.

I am interested in Interwetten. Any of you guys been in there. I haven't been in any European books yet. Is it the equivalent of -110 and might their lines be off. That's the only reason I'd go in.

[Boomer]

By the way, I only play American sports. It's only those lines that I'm inetrested in.

[AussieVamp2]

Boomer, Interwetten is 1.80

you can occasionally find off lines

the Super Bowl, for instance, was -5.5 there, and you can get some money line differentials sometimes

and a place to shop for soccer odds and hockey odds of course

[AussieVamp2]

somewhere like Interwetten won't have college stuff though, as no one is interested

[AYCE]

Since you want to keep the conversation continue, I do have some questions for you, Alec.

You operate out of Republic de Panama but did you have a legal license?

Why will you want your customer send you the money to a bank account at Lativia then?

Why can't you accept WU for deposit but you can do it for withdraw? Besides the cost reason?

$10 bonus is NOTHING as compared with those offshores nowadays, and your customers need to pick up all cost of transactions?

50 cents vig isn't the worst among the Euro books and you did have a tons of options, BUT I gurantee 50 vig on American sports will NOT get you any regular customers in the long run.

Why should I play at your place when I can get AT LEAST 20 cents lines at EVERY OFFSHORES, some even have 10 cents or vig free?

Just for sometimes that some lines will be off by couple pts?

You are giving a bad example on the tennis odds.

Some places (like yours and Interwetten) have a better odds for some favors (and normally those are over -400 favors) in tennis doesn't really mean they are a good place to play. You give out that extra 0.05 to 0.10 but take a huge cut on the underdogs, even an idiot can figure out thats only a good bargain to the house.

Given that your limit (or Interwetten) on Tennis is only about $300 to $500, how much will that extra 0.05 to 0.10 means to you, or to the bettors?

$15 to $50? If I am a serious player on tennis, will I call that value?

If I am just a small bettor, how much better will I be with that 0.10 on my 5 or 7 team parlay?

Not mean to knock you down hard, but please trust me, unless you can go with 20 cents lines on American Sports, you will get nothing from this market.

BTW, coming from Russia is another question...

Unless you are well prepared for this market like Itops and WH, etc, and you are willing to "learn" from the "pain", I suggest you concentrate on international sports.

Just ask B&W about it.

On the same token, you think offshores didn't want to share a pie of the huge soccer betting market?

You think they didn't try it?

Think about my advices.

[alec]

AYCE, thank you for the comment.

Let me repeat once more: I never worked nor even bet in fonbet.com. I used to work in a betting shop in Ukraine but it is a different story. So fonbet is not and never was "my place". That's why I am not able to answer your questions about legal and financial issues. I just don't know. I hope that some fonbet's representative will answer them.

But I can talk about the line.
If you regular bet is $1000, fonbet is not for you. It is clear.

Let's consider the other case.

American sports.
It is out of question that fonbet offers not the best odds in terms of juice. Nevertheless, if fonbet is the first book that offers american sports line ( I would like to ask you if it is true) the difference from offshore books lines must be great in some cases. So I think this makes fonbet's line worth to consider.

Odds in general.
I totally disagree with what you have said about tennis odds and my example.
Considering your example, if you bet 5-7 parlay and can get all favorites at 0.1 better, the difference is huge. For example 7-parlay with all 1.2 odds is 3.58, while with 1.3 odds is 6.85.
If I got you wrong, I am sorry.

I don't think that fonbet.com is well prepared or prepared at all specifically for American market. For this purpose your reaction is worthless.
Once again thank you for the comment.

And a question for everybody. Is the fonbet's statement that they have the earliest American sports line (about 6:00 a.m. EST) true?

[AYCE]

Well, lets keep the conversation alive.

a) 6:00am EST? There are some many offshores have OVERNIGHT lines out there everyday with MUCH, MUCH BETTER VIG and MUCH, MUCH HIGHER LIMITS. Well, maybe Fonbet is the earliest in Russia and I'm not going to argue with you on this.

b) Let me say again, 1.80 (-125) on both sides for a NBA game is huge ripoff. Euro bettors may want to play those odds but it will never work here. Like I mentioned earlier, EVEN I will find a game or two with couple pts off, with that extra 15 cents I paid on the odds, that means I am just forced to buy those pts, in long run, thats the bettors nightmare.

c) 1.80 on soccer total? Hey, ask Chris from VC, they offer guys from BW for 1.91 on soccer totals.

d) Tennis? Great, Fobet offers both ATP and WTA. But again, both with ripoff odds. 1.80 for pick'em games. For ATP tours, I can find several other places out there with better odds than you like DAS or Itops (lately), for WTA, well you are true about that not many places offering those games. Very true.

Why?

1) Most of those games are one-sided heavy favored with under 1.20 (-500) odds, or you will have some other matches that like a coin toss (very difficult to find some reliable info to make the bets).

2) Since the limits is low (like you have mentioned), how much action those books will attract on WTA with those games of 1.20 favors?

e) For small bettors? Geez, what is one of the most important factor that a small bettor needed to consider when they choose a book?

Cost of transaction! Got it?

f) About that tennis odds example, you have got me wrong totally. What I am saying is,

when you have a game or 2 in tennis with odds of 1.20 (which probably they are 1.15 or 1.10 at other places), if I add it to my 5-7 team parlay (which should pay 10-1 for exmple), I will get the odds of 12-1 as compared with 10.5-1 or 11-1 at other places.

If a small bettor bet average about $10 or $20 on those parlay, how better off they will be by "take advantage" of that "better favor odds"?

$5? $20?

Finally, if you are not from Fonbet but still want to keep this conversation alive, now please tell me whats the 10 different sports that you will like to bet.

I will give you 10 books that you will be much happier to play at.