When new betting options become available for US-based players, it’s good news. This is especially true when the online betting platform has so much going for it—and so much potential to get even better. MyBookie.ag is a privately owned gaming site with licenses in Curacao and Costa Rica that offers a full menu of betting options. The sportsbook looks to be the focal point, but there’s also a very impressive casino with various slots, video poker, and table games. In addition, there’s also a live casino available for players that enjoy ‘human interaction’. The racebook isn’t as flashy as the rest of the site but is designed for easy use and offers various tracks from North America, Australia and Europe.
MyBookie.ag gets off on the right foot with a very impressive and well-designed website. It looks great, though it doesn’t place ‘form over function’. The site loads quickly, is intuitively designed for quick and accurate betting, and generally has some of the best graphics of any online gaming site—particularly those that accept US based players. The sports offerings are typical of a US facing site but there is a good variety of bets within each sport.
Banking is always a major issue for US players evaluating sportsbooks and MyBookie is as good as any sportsbook in the industry. MyBookie provides American players with a decent compliment of deposit options. Obviously, all sports books have limited banking options for US clients due to circumstances beyond their control. That being said, MyBookie has as many deposit options for US players as you’ll find anywhere. They accept Visa and Mastercard, bank wires, ACH transfers and telephone transfers as well as two kinds of person to person transfers. Most impressively, they offer deposits via Bitcoin which is now one of the fastest and easiest ways to fund offshore wagering accounts. The site could stand to modernize their banking interface but otherwise they score well in this area. Plus if you need assistance customer support is available 24/7 via telephone and email.
Bonuses & Promotions
MyBookie offers a 50% free play bonus for new players. The bonus requires a minimum deposit of $50 and is paid up to $3000.
Also offered: a 25% reload bonus up to $500, a 100% referral bonus up to $100, a 7% rebate for horseplayers, and a 100% bonus up to $300 for new casino players.
There’s also an assortment of promotional bets of different types, many themed around specific sports.
Design & Interface
Visually, MyBookie is impressive. So impressive that the initial visual impression it provides is unlike few others in the industry. Their web design and coding team deserves a lot of credit as they’ve found a great balance between state-of-the-art graphics and features and the site’s functionality. My first concern when I see a site with a strong visual component is speed—having a graphically impressive website is great, but not if it slows things down for players. MyBookie’s speed is as good or better as any US facing website even with the visual complexity.
The strong design element doesn’t adversely impact betting functionality. The betting interface itself minimizes the graphics and provides access to games and lines in an easy, intuitive fashion. The layout of the wagering screen is typical of offshore sportsbook websites—the sports and bet type menu is on the left side of the page, with the games, lines, and other relevant information in the center of the page. One change that I would welcome—the ability to change between moneyline, fractional and decimal odds. The priority of MyBookie is the American market but there’s no reason not to accommodate business from other markets.
Another liability that I mentioned above is the banking interface. It’s clunky and in stark contrast to the modernity of the rest of the website. Actually, the deposit interface is fine, but the withdrawal interface instructs players that all requests must be made with customer service via telephone. Understandably, they want to verify the legitimacy of payout requests, but there’s a lot they could do to automate the process further without compromising security.
Live Betting
It’s very solid for a US-facing sportsbook. Live odds are offered for all major nationally televised sporting events such as NFL, College Football, NBA, MLB, NHL, Tennis, and national and international Soccer. The live betting interface is also well-designed and easy to use. Live betting—particularly the variety of games and sports offered—is often lacking at US-facing books. It is great to see another good live betting option for US-based players.