When bookmakers see people making money from bets – these people are essentially just pros doing the best they can – the attitude is “let’s just close or restrict the accounts more”. making it hard for pros to make money.
There are two main symptoms bookmakers are looking for when deciding whether to restrict a bettor.
The first thing they look for is to find people who are looking only for well-priced selections. Whether that be from Tipsters, their own information or somewhere else.
The second thing they look for is something called “arbing”. This is essentially just looking to make a profit from trading markets.
The betting companies can sometimes tell within two or three bets whether they’re dealing with a non-profitable bettor. Those few initial bets could be three losers but they can still provide enough information for the account to be closed. The bookies are very efficient at detecting these people. So the trick as a bettor is to look after your account and acknowledge that prevention is your responsibility and you are in charge of making sure your account does not get closed!
But don’t get disheartened if you do get your account closed, every successful bettor will experience bookmaker restrictions at some point in their betting career. And on average this can happen 2 – 3 times per person. That’s why it’s important to learn how to prevent your accounts from getting restricted, as there is nothing as frustrating as being on a winning streak and then having your funds frozen, or account restricted/closed!
Why do Bookies restrict accounts?
- Arbing or Arbitrage Betting: is a way of exploiting bookmakers’ different odds in order to make a profit on sports betting. Bookmakers hate this and have systems in place to detect suspicious behaviour and patterns where your trade activity suggests you are arbing.
- Following Tipsters: Some Bookmakers don’t like popular Twitter tipsters as if everyone is betting on the same thing it gives them with a large hole in their pocket if the tipster is right. Bookmakers like balanced bets so that they can guarantee a profit whatever the outcome, Tipsters with large influences can outweigh the opposing backing and so should Bookmakers see a high influx of betting patterns on your account similar of that to the most popular Tipsters they might restrict your account.
- You’re Winning: This is pretty common and if you’re making consistent and large profits over time on your account, you are an unprofitable customer and so your account could be frozen, restricted or closed regardless of if you were exploiting their system or not.
- Trading & User Behaviour: Bookmakers have systems that log your user activity, if you’re someone who simply logs in, places a bet and logs out without watching the live matches and moves onto the next bookmaker your account may be flagged and inspected for further suspicious behaviour.
Isn’t it illegal for Bookmakers to close your account?
The short answer is no it isn’t. They are private companies that are profit-driven after all and in their T&C’s they may have a line that says they can close your account at any point which you agree to when you open an account with them.
The Gambling Sector is regulated by several organisations however their goals are more focused is to adjudicate on bets that have already been placed and not on account restrictions and closures that are often flagged for arbitrary.
Don’t religiously bet at the very best odds consecutively
Laying your bets only at the utmost very best odds makes it very hard for bookmakers to win, therefore a wise thing to do as a successful bettor is to let the bookie win sometimes, not a huge amount of course, but it can stop your account being flagged by their systems. As a successful bettor, you need to do what you can to keep your accounts unrestricted, otherwise you are at risk of being forced off the platform you’re doing so well on! Sure there are other bookies, but one less bookie to choose from and you may struggle to get the best value odds available.
Whilst consistently taking advantage of any bookmaker offers could flag your accounting, varying your bets so they aren’t all at the best available odds on the selection may help keep your account alive.
Placing bets on higher turnover markets
Have small bets around different sports, and markets and keep your bets variant. If you regularly make money from betting, maybe spending some of it on games you have no clue about to help keep your accounts and not stick out like a sore thumb as one of the bookie’s best bettors might be a tactical approach. Although, who likes losing money?
Round-Up Your Bets
As we have said before, you want to make sure your account is not flagged by a bookmakers system, there are various ways you could get restricted, but one way is by betting in suspicious amounts, we recommend rounding up your bets, why? Because especially now, with technology continuously growing, automatic programmes are everywhere and similar to the stock market they are a problem on bookie sites. If you are betting specific amounts or continuous decimals, it can look like you are an automatic bot who is placing bets or using some tactical strategy or system in order to exploit bookies.
Want to make a large bet? Perhaps spread the bet across various platforms
If you want to do a large bet and you’ve won before, it might be worth spreading it across a few of your favourite bookies in order to not stick out like a sore thumb and prolong your betting accounts. If you keep winning large bets and the bookies are having to continuously payout to you, you could end up getting your account frozen.
Avoid being tagged as a bonus abuser
Bonus abuse is very popular in the UK. Bonus abusing is when people don’t want a betting account with a particular bookmaker but open an account up purely for the bonus, sometimes only betting once and then not placing any more bets and then using a different number/phone to get the bonus again!
We recommend not doing this as your IP Address can be tracked and they can find out if you’re creating duplicate accounts or only using their platform for bonuses. You can avoid being tagged as a bonus abuser by depositing a fair sum of cash, placing stakes now and again and not just getting your initial free bet, it’s not worth exploiting a platform for a single free bet when you can make a lot more return on their platform!
Limit Withdrawals
We recommend not making withdrawals too often, it can make you stick out like a sore thumb if you’re withdrawing daily to take your small profits and can have you flagged as a suspicious account or a nuisance in general, instead its best to let your balance build up a bit and withdraw once or twice a month at most.
Summary
Things that you should consider in order to prevent your betting account from getting restricted or closed by your favourite bookmaker
- Avoid being tagged as a bonus abuser
- Use round numbers on your stakes
- Don’t withdraw frequently, keep it once or twice a month.
- Don’t always choose the best odds you can, whilst you should definitely be doing so, from now and again you don’t want to look like you’re taking advantage or exploiting their system.
- On a Win Streak? Feeling immortal? That’s when the bookies will get you. Lose now and again!
Whilst our advice isn’t always facts and of course, has speculation to it as no one can truly know how each bookie operates, we know that bookies are continuously looking for suspicious activity with automatic systems and so if you want a successful and long betting career, it’s always best to try and prevent yourself from being restricted or getting your account closed.
