Venmo Sports Betting

To use Venmo for sports betting at sites like Bovada, you can’t employ the service directly. That is, Bovada and other books cannot accept Venmo transfers as such. Instead, you must purchase Bovada Voucher codes (or other sportsbook voucher codes) from fellow sportsbook members using Venmo. Most pen-and-paper Super Bowl bets are illegal — federal law prohibits full-scale sports betting in all states other than Nevada — and people are explicitly prohibited from using Venmo for gambling. (Social gambling is legal in some states, which sometimes but not always includes wagers like office betting. When placing the first deposit for sports betting with Venmo USA, most sportsbooks will award you with a welcome offer. For many US Sportsbooks that accept Venmo, this will be in the form of a free bet.

Top Amsterdam Casinos: See reviews and photos of casinos & gambling attractions in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on Tripadvisor. An advantage of sports betting with Venmo in the USA is the extra geolocation service. Strict laws govern each state when it comes to online gambling. The Venmo requirements aid most sports books that only allow American citizens to gamble. These requirements ensure any player using a sportsbook that takes Venmo.

When the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots reached the halfway point of Super Bowl LI on Feb. 5, 2017, the Falcons were in possession of a 21–3 lead over New England.

Mark*, an Ithaca College student, was feeling confident. His homegrown sports book, which he started with a friend, had received an overwhelming number of bets on the Patriots, who were three-point favorites to win the NFL Championship. For Mark’s clients to win their bets, the Patriots had to win by more than three points, so while the Falcons were sporting an 18-point lead, Mark was up by 21 points. An Atlanta win would allow him and his partner to hold on to approximately $3,500 in bets.

Before becoming a bookie himself, Mark and his friends had a bookie who they would bet on sporting events with through a website, and one day, they realized one of their favorite hobbies could become their new source of income. A bookie takes bets and manages payouts for a sports book, an organization that creates betting odds. Mark estimates that he and his partner made between $8,000 and $10,000 during their first 10 months as bookies.

“We were like, ‘This guy is just robbing us blind and making all of this money off of nothing,” Mark said. “How can we do this?’’’

Mark and his friend decided they would start their own sports book. Clients would send them betting odds from sports-betting websites, along with the desired amount of money they wanted to gamble through Venmo, an app that lets people send money to one another electronically. If the client won a bet, one of the bookies would send the winnings back through Venmo. If the client lost, Mark and his partner would keep the money. A traditional sports book, such as the legal ones in Las Vegas, makes its own odds, which are specifically calculated to create the most even betting line possible.

“It got to the point where we were moving more money than Venmo would allow us to,” Mark said. “Venmo only allows you to send like $3,000 a week, and we were sending $3,000 every couple of days.”

Sports

With eight minutes and 31 seconds left in the third quarter, the Falcons scored the first points of the second half, extending their lead to 28–3. This is the last time Atlanta would score in this game; as the Patriots would score 31 unanswered points to win the game in overtime 34–28.

“Just from that one game, we lost $3,500,” Mark said. “Once we lost that, we could not physically pay out all of the people. We had to tell people that they were going to have to wait a few weeks for their payout.”

The $3,500 Mark had to pay his clients is just 0.00000074 percent of the $4.7 billion the American Gaming Association estimates was bet on Super Bowl LI. The AMA estimates that 97 percent of all bets made on the game were made illegally, as many people from across the United States have gained an interest in betting on sports despite being from states where it is illegal.

Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon are the only states that have legalized sports betting, so residents of the remaining 46 states must turn to other methods to suffice their gambling desires. The ways to gamble illegally include underground local bookies, similar to Mark’s operation, or apps and websites that are run internationally, such as Bovada, Betway, bet365 and the website Mark bets through, which is not named due to its illegality, in countries where sports betting is legal.

Research from the University of Nevada–Las Vegas shows the revenue of Nevada sports books increased from $136.38 million in 2009 to $231.79 million in 2015. While there is no way to track data behind illegal sports betting in the U.S., illegal betting is likely growing in a similar manner, experts believe.

Michelle Minton, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the increase in illegal sports betting stems from its legal growth in popularity overseas.

“Everyone has access to the internet now, and that gives people access to betting in other countries,” Minton said. “As betting continues to grow, it gets more coverage from the media, so while it may not be legal, it’s still being talked about.”

Venmo Sports Betting

The AGA estimates that $150 billion is illegally bet on sports annually, while some estimates reach as high as $400 billion.

Charlie*, an Ithaca College senior and client of Mark’s, said he enjoys betting because it adds another element to games he was already interested in and can create interest in games he would not care about.

“If you like watching football but there are no games on with teams you like, you can throw a few bucks on a game just to give yourself a reason,” Charlie said. “I’m always wary of the risk I’m taking, but I’ve definitely made more money than I’ve lost, and the site doesn’t allow you to bet more than $25 at once, so I don’t think I can lose too
much money.”

The future of sports betting is currently up in the air as a pending Supreme Court verdict could alter the laws in a number of ways. The case, Murphy vs. NCAA, is taking a look at New Jersey’s in-state prohibition on sports gambling, along with the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which prohibits sports betting in all but the four states where it is legal. If PASPA is determined to be constitutional, nothing changes. If it is deemed unconstitutional, states will be able to regulate legal sports betting at their own discretion.

Matt Netti ’18, host of “The Weekend Winners,” a podcast about sports betting, said the only risks he worries about when betting are financial, not legal.

“My biggest worry is losing too much money,” Netti said. “I know what I’m doing is illegal, but those punishments don’t really worry me.”

Minton said the increase in sports betting by younger people, college students specifically, is the product of younger people’s greater willingness to take chances.

“Younger people are less averse to risks than older people,” Minton said. “Betting is also something that happens socially, so if someone you know is betting, it might influence you.”

Netti said he thinks the rise in the popularity of betting stems from how accessible sports are in the digital age.

“All of the games are at your fingertips now,” Netti said. “You have the lines on your phone, you can check the scores on your phone, and you can bet on a game you’re not even watching.”

Mark has continued to work for a betting website but is no longer a full-time bookie after his Venmo account was shut down.He said betting on sports gives meaning to otherwise meaningless sporting events.

“The appeal of betting is that it turns sports games that you would not normally watch into games that you care about more than your life,” Mark said. “You could throw a $10 bet on a Bills-Browns game, two bad teams you have no interest in, and it turns that game into the Super Bowl. My friends and I put $10 on every underdog in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and it made every game so much fun to watch.”

*Names in this story have been changed to protect anonymity, as sports betting is illegal.

If you live in the United States, you can legally bet on sports online.

And best of all, you can do so whether or not your state has actually legalized domestic online sports betting!

While there are two exceptions (the states of Connecticut and Washington have laws against all forms of online gambling, though these are historically unenforced), residents in 48 of 50 states can lawfully bet real money on sports over the Internet.

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The only caveat is that if there are no local options, they must use legal online sports betting sites that operate outside of US jurisdiction and hold legitimate licenses in their own home countries.

Nevertheless, there is usually one particular roadblock that prevents many USA gamblers from signing up with these operators, and that’s the online sports betting banking methods they support.

Due to the UIGEA gambling law that disallows domestic American banks from knowingly processing payments to and from non-US-regulated gambling outlets, credit and debit card deposits are sometimes declined.

While a declined payment does not mean you’ve committed any crime or that your card has been flagged or disabled, it’s an inconvenience that no sports bettor wants to face – especially when the day’s game kicks off in a few minutes and you need your account funded ASAP.

Many bettors think that an easy way to get their bankrolls topped off in a hurry would be to use P2P money transfer services like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle Pay.

However, in part due to the UIGEA and other restrictions, these companies do not allow such international transactions.

In the case of Venmo and Zelle Pay, these service are USA-only, which means there’s no way to use either to send or receive money to or from your offshore betting site of choice.

In the case of PayPal and Cash App, the former can be used for international transfers that are not gambling related, while the latter – though available in many countries – can only be used by parties physically inside those individual countries. International Cash App transfers are not allowed.

As these services are by far the most popular vehicles for person-to-person transactions, and since tens of millions of Americans use these services every day, international betting sites open to USA gamblers are at a decided disadvantage in not being able to process such payments.

However, that is no longer a problem!

At Bovada, the most popular online betting site in the United States, there is a brand-new deposit option that allows bettors to use PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle to make rapid sportsbook deposits.

So, how is this possible, given the international limitations outlined above?

Because Bovada – as is their wont as an industry leader – now supports the new MatchPay betting deposit service, which makes it possible for US-based online gambling enthusiasts to finally deposit with the aforementioned P2P services.

What is MatchPay?

MatchPay is a third-party money transfer service that works in a unique and ingenious way.

Https Betonline Ag Sportsbook

Essentially, MatchPay allows members at online retailers and merchants to sell their account balances – in part or in full – to other members at those same Internet storefronts.

While businesses must choose to participate in MatchPay’s program, the following is how MatchPay works for those that do. And since Bovada is the first online gambling site to support the platform, we’ll use Bovada MatchPay for our example below.

How MatchPay Works

Let’s say you want to sign up at Bovada but your credit or debit card has been declined, and you don’t want to make a Bitcoin gambling deposit because you’re not into the whole cryptocurrency scene.

Venmo Sports Betting App

However, you do have a PayPal account, and you’d prefer to make a PayPal betting deposit to fund your online wagers.

Venmo Sports Betting Rules

Normally, you’d be out of luck. SOL, even.

But with MatchPay, you can now use PayPal to transfer money to another Bovada member who has elected to put a portion of their account balance up on the MatchPay Trader service.

Once this player receives your PayPal payment (or other supported P2P payment) – which is overseen and guaranteed by both Bovada and MatchPay – your account will then be credited with the amount you’ve sent.

Venmo Sports Betting Games

In short, MatchPay allows Bovada players to make easy account transfers using the world’s most popular payment platforms.

How To Deposit With MatchPay

While this is covered in detail at our MatchPay page linked above, the basics for how to deposit with MatchPay are simple to understand.

First off, of course, you will need an account at Bovada, as Bovada Sportsbook is the only legal online betting site that currently offers support for the platform.

Once you’re a member at Bovada, simply log in, go to the deposit section of your account portal, and select the MatchPay option. (Alternatively, new members can select this deposit method during the sign-up process itself.)

There, you’ll be asked to enter your MatchPay Trader ID, and you’ll be able to use the site’s plug-in to sign up for MatchPay if haven’t already. The service is free, and joining takes about two minutes.

Then, simply enter the amount of money you’d like to add to your account via the MatchPay service.

Next, MatchPay automatically pairs you with a Bovada member who is also a MatchPay Trader, to whom you can send the requisite funds by using any of the following P2P services:

Can You Use Venmo For Gambling

  • PayPal
  • Venmo
  • Cash App
  • Zelle Pay

Once your funds clear and the Bovada member receives your money, Bovada will transfer the appropriate account balance from their sportsbook account to your sportsbook account, and you’ll be ready to wager.

The entire process to deposit with MatchPay takes 10-15 minutes, and these deposits come with the standard sportsbook bonuses and membership perks you expect.

Venmo sports betting game

Ultimately, MatchPay is a true gamechanger in a market where those are few and far between. Kind of like Patrick Mahomes.

And though we still think that crypto deposits (Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, etc.) are the way to go long-term, there are potentially millions of sports betting fans out there who will benefit from MatchPay allowing them to make PayPal sportsbook deposits, Venmo sportsbook deposits, Cash App sportsbook deposits, and Zelle sportsbook deposits.

Further, because MatchPay opens the door to a whole new class of clientele that wasn’t able to deposit and bet before, it’s only a matter of time before the entire industry adopts MatchPay or similar services for their customers.

If you ever wanted to bet on sports with PayPal or another popular P2P instant-pay app, now you finally can!

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