Possibility of acquiring Bet911

Acquisition of another sportsbook…..

Recently, I had read about the troubles of a particular book, Bet911 on EOG and in other forums and they were and are looking for a buyer. Apparently, the problems at Bet911 are a result of lack of liquidity and the book no longer has funds to pay its’ existing customer accounts.

I do not know how they arrived at that point or what business decisions or mistakes were made. If reading the internet forums provides any guidance it would be that perhaps they offered too high of bonuses and were being used by bonus whores more than anything else.

I contacted Robert at Bet911 and asked about possibly assisting or purchasing Bet911 and dealing with the customer balances. Robert responded and was very cordial and provided some financial information about players balances and some suggestions about what sort of terms might work.

I spent several hours reviewing the financial information and trying to devise some way that would be mutually beneficial for both Parlaymakers and the customers of Bet911. The main issue is how do you devise a mechanism that gives the players a chance to at least receive part or all of their balances at Bet911 and still have the proposition be profitable for Parlaymakers. One key question is what is the likelihood that any customer coming over from Bet911 will continue playing at Parlaymakers after they have completed their rollover?

Reviewing the financials and player information gave us some insight into what to expect. First, I reasoned that most European players are not going to stick around as they have more options and are more likely to be with Bet911 only for the bonuses they were offering.  Second, I looked for small recreational players that would fit well within Parlaymakers. While Bet911 does have some recreational players it is a fairly small percentage.

Finally, what is the public relations benefit of becoming involved and assisting in this type of situation? At first glance it might seem the positive PR upside should be a significant factor. However, taking all of the players from a financial stand point didn’t make sense and any other offer would have to be sufficiently tough enough on the remaining players that we quite likely might be accused of trying to take advantage of the situation and that our offer was insufficient.

In conclusion you have an uncertain positive return while running the real risk of being portrayed as the vulture or worse on the internet forums. In the end the negatives and potential negatives outweighed any of the uncertain positives for us.

I contacted Robert and told him that I couldn’t find a solution that I thought would be mutually beneficial and wished him and his players the best of luck. Perhaps some other sportsbook owner will see the situation differently and find a way to make it work.

Next week…some exciting new types of contests for our June Baseball Contest……