Intertops Review

Intertops is the common ancestor of all online sportsbooks and casinos. Though the company has been in business since the early 1980s – opening the world's first offshore international sportsbook at that time – they didn't go live on the Internet until 1996. Intertops still considers itself "the first" online betting service, though naturally that title is claimed by any number of old-school bookmakers and casino sites.

Intertops' firsts don't stop there. They launched a fully-mobile site in the year 2000, becoming the first sportsbook to do so. They also opened the first "all-in-one" casino, sportsbook, and poker site in 2003. Both of those features this site created have taken off to the point that not having a mobile site or a casino and poker room attached to your sportsbook is a little odd.

Let's be honest, though – a lot of that is ancient history in an industry where some of the big players weren't even conceived of in 2003. What is Intertops like these days, now that they're approaching the first twenty-year anniversary in the online betting industry?

I want to start with some positive comments on what I think Intertops is doing right:

Intertops earns high marks for credibility and longevity – and accepts US customers.

It's hard not to trust the world's oldest betting website. Intertops is listed as an accredited site at influential industry review site Casinomeister.com. That alone gives me a good feeling about the company's policies, as it's difficult for a rogue site to escape the guys at Casinomeister. As for their willingness to do business with Americans, the site has partnered with the Kahnawake jurisdiction to open a special section of their site made for people from the USA. It's tough for Americans to find online gambling opportunities, so Intertops' willingness to do business with Americans is a big deal. Note: Residents of the US state of Kentucky will still be barred from opening an account at Intertops.

The site has earned high marks from major review sites.

As a casino and sportsbook reviewer, I'm used to discussing the merits of sites that may or may not be totally above-board. Intertops is not one of those sites. All my favorite reviewers have mostly positive things to say about the site. CasinoListings makes special note of their fast withdrawal times and solid reputation. I agree with both of those points. All user complaints at AskGamblers have been resolved, and reading through the reviews at the bottom of their review, you'll find mostly positive things with a few quibbles about the cost of withdrawals.

The site seems tailor-made for budget bettors, who don't have much else of a place to play.

If your bankroll is limited, you'll feel right at home at Intertops, because limitations on betting make this anything but an ideal spot for high rollers. I say this because of a combination of low limits on the sportsbook, limitations on bonuses and promotions, and limited participation in the sportsbook.

And now for a few negative things, those areas where Intertops needs to improve:

Casino licensure comes from the jurisdiction of Kahnawake.

Intertops' Classic Casino and Red Casino feature RTG games licensed by the authority of Kahnawake. While the rest of the site is licensed from the more –legitimate jurisdiction of Antigua & Barbuda, Intertops looked to Kahnawake to allow them to access the lucrative US market. Kahnawake is not one of the tougher gambling jurisdictions to get a license from. Kahnawake is a tiny plot of land occupied by native people, and as far as I can tell, the "nation" was organized primarily to provide gaming licenses to online casino and sportsbooks. It's not a very legitimate license, but I'm willing to let it go for the time being. After all – some legitimate operations are licensed by Kahnawake. It'd be nice, though, if Intertops could license all their games from a single source.

The casino library was designed entirely by Realtime Gaming.

I don't hide the fact that I'm not a fan of RTG's games. Sure, some people don't mind playing their games, but I think the library is so ubiquitous that I get bored easily when I play at a new RTG-powered site. Worst of all is the slot collection, a ton of repetitive Real Series games that don't hold my attention for more than a couple of minutes with very little variation thrown in. The mobile site, like most RTG-powered mobile sites, is not good-looking at all, identical to all the other mobile casinos RTG designs, and has too few games for any real replay value. I wish the site would mix up their game suite with titles from other designers.

Most of the site's bonuses come with hefty wagering requirements.

I'm not trying to say that the promotional offers at the site are unreasonable – they aren't, but they're well behind the most player-friendly sites in the industry. I understand - games like blackjack and video poker that give the house a smaller advantage don't count as much toward clearing bonuses as games like slots and keno that favor the house more. That's standard practice and it makes good sense. But this is still a black mark on Intertops' reputation for me, because basically every bonus is out of reach of the common customer.

Before I give details on Intertops' bonus offers, I want to let you know that you should check the site's Promotions page to see which offers are currently available. Sites tend to change the specifics of offers every few months, so the offers below may or may not be valid at the time of your visit.

$100 Sportsbook Sign-Up Bonus - First-time depositors to the sportsbook are eligible for a 25% deposit match bonus worth up to $100. The rollover requirement is 8x the deposit-plus-bonus amount, which is a little higher than other online sportsbook bonus requirements that I've covered. Take note that bets on any "no juice" games do not count toward clearing this bonus.

$20 Free Bet for Sportsbook Customers - Sportsbook customers who don't want to chase the $100 sign-up bonus can elect to earn $20 in free betting cash just for signing up. Sign up, make a deposit of $20 or more, make a bet of $20 or more, then email the customer support staff to let them now you want your free bet token. You have to place $320 in bets to clear any winnings from that initial $20.

Casino Welcome Bonus - First-time depositors who intend to play mostly casino games are eligible for a 100% deposit match bonus worth up to $100. The rollover requirement is 30x deposit plus bonus. Only bets on this list of games are eligible for bonus clearing:

• Bingo
• European slot poker
• Keno
• Scratch Cards
• Slots

This offer is essentially a souped-up slots bonus, but it is valid at either the Red Casino or the Classic Casino, so it's a little bit flexible.

Poker Welcome Bonus - Intertops' largest bonus offer is made to poker players. They can earn a 200% deposit match worth up to $1,000 on their first deposit. The bonus is clear not with a playthrough requirement but based on accumulating Frequent Player Points. Bettors can exchange 84 of these points for $5 of bonus cash. One FPP requires $1 of rake, so clearing a $1,000 bonus requires $16,800 in rake. If all that's a little confusing, read Intertops' explanation here.

Poker Rake Race Giveaway - Intertops' Rake Race is exactly what it sounds like – a competition between poker players. The site's top 100 rake-paying poker players split a cash prize of $5,000 each month.

Refer-a-Friend - You can earn 10% of the first deposit of any friends you refer to the site, provided the friend's triggering deposit is worth $20 or more. This reward is capped at $20 per friend, and requires a 6x rollover requirement before the funds are cleared.

This table of Intertops deposit options makes all the important details available in a single location:

And now for the same table about Intertops' withdrawal methods:

Intertops was started by bookmakers as an online sports betting venue. Long before you could play blackjack, bet on the horses, or chase a big poker prize pool, Intertops customers were placing wagers on sports.

It should be no surprise, then, that the site is still heavily geared towards sportsbook customers and their desires.

Here's the complete list of markets covered by Intertops at the time of this review:

• American Football
• Baseball
• Basketball
• Boxing/UFC
• Cricket
• Cycling
• Golf
• Ice Hockey
• Motor Sports
• Lottery / Financials
• Politics
• Soccer
• Stock Market
• Tennis
• Halftime Betting

I miss some of the more obscure markets available at Intertops' competitors – where are virtual sports, eSports, surfing, Aussie rules football, and futures bets? I'm used to those options because they're something of an industry standard – even though I may never bet on virtual sports, it's unusual not to find it at a major sports betting operation.

Sports bettors can place a variety of wagers at Intertops – all the standards are represented, like straight, parlay, teaser, and a whole series of if-win and prop bets.

Intertops has live in-play betting, but at the time of my visit, the stream was slow and jerky, and the coverage was extremely limited. The collection of sports events covered by the site's live betting section varies by sports season, but on the day I visited, with major soccer and pro baseball matches all over the world, I had very few options for in-play bets.

Intertops' Poker section is now part of the Revolution Gaming Network, after changing hands several times in the past decade. Revolution is not one of the better-known networks, and in fact currently only includes two legitimate skins – Intertops and Juicy Stakes. According to PokerScout, the entire network is averaging just 85 cash players online at any given time in the past week.

It's hard to say anything general about a player pool that's around one percent the size of the larger networks. Some reviews claim that the competition is fishy, and make the same arguments you'll always read about "all-in-one" sites like this one – that competition is weakened by sportsbook and casino customers. I'm not sure that's true, because I don't have a ton of experience playing at this site and no other experience on the Revolution network. I noticed that the majority of players seemed to hover below the $1/$2 mark.

Here's the complete list of games available at Intertops as of this review:

• Texas Hold'em
• Omaha
• Omaha hi/lo
• 7 card stud
• 7 card stud hi/lo

As for tournaments – check this page for a list of upcoming poker tournament events at Intertops. It's updated daily. The site is known for hosting a large number of tournaments in a variety of game styles. On the day I wrote this review, I counted 100 events from midnight to midnight. All tournaments tend to be small prize pool affairs – I chalk that up to the small pool of regular players on this network.

The site offers a special $1,000 Depositor Freeroll tournament each month. Every player who makes a minimum deposit of $25 and plays poker at the site earns a spot in the monthly tournament. Other special tournament events are made known to members, including freerolls and qualifiers for larger events later in the year.

The total number of games available at Intertops Casino on my last visit was 121.

The game library is broken up into six categories: Real Series, Slots, Video Poker, Table Games, Specialty Games, and Progressives.

Real Series

Collected here are the site's 78 Real Series slot titles. This is one of Realtime Gaming's weakest areas, in terms of design. I'm a big slots fan, and I'm just not partial to Real Series titles, and RTG sure produces a ton of them. The games look and behave so similarly that switching titles basically means switching symbols. There's little replay value.

Take note that RTG allows casinos to set their own payout percentages on slot games, so I can't tell you which of Intertops' Real Series games gives you the best return. This is common among online slot designers, so no big deal here.

Slots

The thirteen slots here are further broken up into three categories: Video Slots, Bonus 3-Reel, and 3-Reel Classics. Intertops basically stuck all their RTG titles that AREN'T from the Real Series line under this heading. The thing is, I actually enjoy these games a lot more.

Sure, the 3-reel titles are a little simple. But Video Slots like Jazz Time actually kept me interested, even in pretend-money mode, and offer some unique gameplay.

Video Poker

Thirteen RTG video poker titles are available at Intertops. Of course this includes the classics like Jacks or Better, but it also includes less-familiar entries like All-American Poker. Every video poker game is available in multi-hand formats, though the number of hands varies from title to title.

The site has just one 9/6 title – classic Jacks or Better in single-hand format only. This 9/6 format gives the player the best advantage against the house. In the case of RTG's classic J or B single-hand game, the casino's edge is just 0.46%, according to Wizard of Odds. I wish more 9/6 games were available, but at least the site has one, which is more than I can say of other American-facing RTG casinos.

Table Games

Here's the complete list of games available under Intertops "Table Games" header:

• Baccarat
• Tri-Card Poker
• Blackjack
• Match Play 21
• Pai Gow Poker
• Perfect Pairs
• Red Dog
• Face-Up 21
• Texas Holdem Bonus Poker
• Vegas Three-Card Rummy

As I often find at RTG-powered sites, most of their table games are variations on the classic game of 21. The remaining games on the list are card-based gambles, most with long odds for players.

Specialty Games

I think the games collected under the "Specialty" heading is downright weird. Here's the full list:

• Craps
• European Roulette
• American Roulette
• Bonus Bingo
• Sic Bo
• Keno
• European Slot Poker
• Scratch Cards

What's so weird about it? It's a blend of games with decent odds (European roulette and craps) with oddball games with extremely long odds like scratch cards and Sic Bo.

The scratch card games produced by RTG have absolutely no odds information made available anywhere, so wagers placed on these virtual lotto tickets are probably among the longest odds available at the site.

Progressives

The games gathered here aren't parts of a unique group; instead, Intertops has collected all their games with progressive jackpots in a single location. I imagine this is a convenient choice if you're the type of player that chases progressive top prizes.

At my last visit, ten progressive games are hosted at the site, three of which were based on side wagers for casino-style poker games collected in the Table Games heading. It's a pretty small selection compared to some of the world's better gaming sites.

Both download and instant play games are available in Casino Classic.

The site's "Red Casino" is identical to Casino Classic, but with games and licenses that allow most Americans to access them. For details on this category's games, see the above Casino Classic section.

Both download and instant play games are available in the Red Casino.

Intertops lists a number of ways to contact the site for all customer services issues.

A variety of toll-free numbers are listed on the site's Contact page:

Toll-free numbers

• 1-800-819-0919
• 1-866-546-0406
• 1-888-5-366-366

Payout hotlines

• 1-866-546-0406
• 1-888-5-366-366

Fax

• 1-268-484-3112

The site lists four dedicated email addresses for four different categories of questions:

• General information and all sportsbook questions: [email protected]
• Poker-related questions: [email protected]
• Casino-related questions: [email protected]
• All payment queries: [email protected]

Live chat is available 24/7.

You can also contact the site via Skype – their ID is intertops_english_support.

As is the case with the rest of the site, customer support is available in German and English only.