RealBet Review for 2016

What's my opinion about Realbet.eu? Let's start with a list of some things I like about the site. Think of these as reasons you may want to open an account and make a cash deposit.

They accept bets from Americans. This is still a big deal, at least for players in the US. I'm an American, and I know plenty of bettors who prefer to play blackjack, poker, or roulette on the Internet – and they make a big deal out of every new US-facing site. The fact that Realbet is pretty much designed to do business with US players makes it an attractive spot for a huge segment of the betting population.

Solid sports and market coverage. At this early point in Realbet's life, the sportsbook is by far the better of their two products. Read the Sportsbook section below for more details on the site's user interface, market coverage, and betting options.

Now for some negative features – some reasons you may reconsider opening an account at Realbet.eu.

Poor deposit and withdrawal options. First, let's acknowledge (again) that the site has just one method each for deposit and withdrawal. It's nice that the site tries to accept credit and debit card deposits from Americans, but if you don't provide any other funding method, you're just behind the times. I get, also, that Americans are used to restricted deposit method lists. But that could also be seen as an opportunity for the site to create some space between their services and those of their competitors. Realbet.eu doesn't rise to the occasion at all.

The site's withdrawal policies are also draconian – all withdrawals under $250 cost $50 – you don't even get one free withdrawal per month, as is often the case at other betting sites. Realbet also enforces a maximum of $2,000 per withdrawal check, saying that further checks will be delivered "one per week" until the payout is complete. That could be a big hassle if you win the site's $25,000 maximum payout per week and have to wait three or four months to withdraw the funds.

Bonuses have unclear terms. All the bonuses listed in the Bonus Offers section above are subject to either a 5x or 25x (deposit + bonus) wagering requirement before all funds are released; sportsbook bets are rolled over at 5x, and bets on casino games are rolled over at 25x.

But I ran into some problems trying to translate the site's T&C's into plain language – the main one being that this information is either incomplete or just plain missing from the site.

The site states clearly that not all games and bets are eligible for fulfilling wagering requirements, though the site is never specific about which games do or do not count. This makes clearing bonus cash problematic.

According to the site's T&C page, guests curious about the terms of the bonuses below should "… visit the Help section of the website." Well, I AM curious, so I did go look. Here's what I found in the Help section regarding rollover requirements: "Please refer to the terms and conditions of your bonus for all details regarding rollover and redemption."

I was starting to feel like I was getting the run-around, so I dug around for any bonus-specific pages or lists of terms. I found a single page dedicated to a bonus – the refer-a-friend terms and conditions page here. You'll notice it says nothing about the bonus beyond the same tagline you can find on the front page of the site. Basically – Realbet.eu doesn't spell out the terms and conditions for these offers really clearly, and that's problematic.

No live chat customer service feature. This is a pretty big oversight, considering that live chat is the easiest way to get in touch with customer service, and its presence is pretty much expected at online gambling sites. You can chalk this one up to Realbet not having the staff to maintain a live chat service, but that inability is itself a bad sign. Here's hoping (for the sake of their customers) that Realbet.eu opens a live contact feature sometime soon.

Mediocre licensure from Curacao. The tiny island of Curacao has been granting gaming licenses since 1996, longer than almost any other licensing body in the world. One of the reasons Curacao has garnered so much attention in the betting industry is their supposed connection to the government of The Netherlands. That relationship is tenuous at best, the Dutch not being all that well-suited to imperialism.

In fact, Curacao makes all of its own gaming laws and controls gambling operations all on its own, with no Dutch input at all. That's left up to CIGA, the Curacao Internet Gaming Association, the group that regulates online gambling in Curacao. They're not exactly a picture of reliability. For starters, they don't maintain a website. You can find contact information for CIGA by digging around on Google for a while, but that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. According to one review, CIGA's advice to a customer who felt they'd been wronged was: "Sort it out yourself with the casino."

If that anecdote is true, it doesn"t bode well for the legitimacy of any license from Curacao. This isn't a big enough deal to scare me away completely from a casino, but it's something to consider before you decide to open a Realbet account.

• Sign-Up Bonus - First-time depositors are eligible for a 100% deposit match bonus, worth as much as $500.
• Refer-a-Friend Bonus - For each friend referred, you can earn a 25% match of their deposit as a bonus, capped at $200.
• Reload Bonus - Every deposit at Realbet is eligible for a reload bonus, a 10% deposit match worth up to $100.

Because Realbet has just launched, it should be no surprise that some of their features aren't fully fleshed-out. The site offers one deposit method and one withdrawal method. For now, you can make a deposit via credit card and receive a check delivered via courier, and that's where your options end.

At this time, the site only accepts deposits via VISA/MasterCard-brand credit and debit cards. As far as I can tell, the site is not set up to accept deposits via gift card at this time. The site appears to be planning an expansion of their deposit system, since the window where you choose your deposit method contains four obvious blank spaces where future deposit methods will appear.

Deposits are limited to between $50 and $1,000. If you're an American player, you may run into some difficulty depositing using a branded credit or debit card, thanks to the UIGEA bill. Realbet encourages Americans to attempt up to three times per card, with twenty-four hours between each group of three attempts. This is annoying, but it does work. Plenty of US-based players have commented in forums and at review sites about their ability to make a deposit. According to Realbet, your credit/debit card deposit will be available instantly.

If you're ready to make a withdrawal, know that the only method available is a paper check delivered by courier. The site uses DHL or FedEx for all couriered check deliveries. According to the cashier department, checks are processed and delivered within "7-10 business days," but take note that this doesn't include time in transit. The site hasn't been in business long enough to judge the relative speed of their payouts – more on that later.

All payouts of $249 or less require that the customer pays a $50 processing fee. Any payout of $250 or more beyond one also requires a $50 fee. The site also mentions in the fine print that you have to verify your credit or debit card used to make a deposit before your withdrawal can be paid out, and yes, Realbet will need you to fill out an identity verification form before your first withdrawal.

Now let's look in detail at each of the site's gaming categories:

Let's start with a list of markets available at Realbet.eu:

• Football
• Baseball
• Golf
• Basketball
• Tennis
• NASCAR
• International Soccer
• UEFA Soccer
• Boxing
• Hockey
• Entertainment
• Rugby Union

The only complain I could level against the site's list of markets is that it doesn't include a lot of niche markets that are becoming common at other sites. I'm talking specifically about futures bets, wagers on political events, entertainment, and virtual gaming. I'm also a bit surprised that no horse or greyhound racing bets are available, as they're becoming common at even the lowliest US-facing book.

Here's information on the range of available bets in various markets at Realbet's sportsbook:

MLB spreads: $5 - $500

MLB overnight: $5 - $200

MLB props: $5 - $300

NFL spreads: $5 - $2,000

NFL overnight: $5 - $200

NFL props: $5 - $100

NBA spreads: $5 - $1,000

NBA overnight: $5 - $200

NBA props: $5 - $100

Realbet.eu states plainly in their Help section that all of the betting ranges listed above are "subject to change at any time for any player at the discretion of Realbet.eu."

Twenty-seven AceGaming slot titles are housed in this section. I'm not a fan of AceGaming – I don't know if anyone is. Besides TopBet, I can't think of a property that hosts their titles, and I review an awful lot of betting sites. The problem with AceGaming slots is the same problem the company has with all their titles – the games are ugly. They look like something you'd play in a seedy nightclub in the Nevada desert. But I'm not just complaining about the quality of the games – the variety leaves something to be desire, too. A collection of twenty-seven slots is sure to disappoint most slot players, used to hundreds of titles available at other casinos, land-based or Web-based.

Look at the full list of slots available at Realbet:

That list is a blend of simple single-line classic slots, more complex "video slots," and even some "243 Ways" games. The variety in terms of slot styles is nice, but again, the total selection is so limited that the average slot bettor would get bored within about an hour.

The game of blackjack gets its own category at Realbet.eu – which is not unusual for sites powered by AceGaming. Just four blackjack games are housed in this category, which is a small number, even by online casino standards. The fact that two of their blackjack variants are just VIP versions of the other two makes the collection even less impressive.

Here's a look at each of Realbet's four available blackjack variants:

Blackjack is the site's traditional Vegas-style blackjack game. You can play in either single-deck, six-deck, or eight-deck arrangements, with different betting requirements, but otherwise no visible difference. You can play between one and five hands at a time. The game's rules are actually pretty traditional, allowing bettors to split once per hand and paying the standard 3:2 odds for a natural blackjack.

Blackjack VIP is the exact same game as Realbet's Blackjack title, except that it offers higher betting limits. The maximum wager available on Blackjack VIP is $2,000 per hand. Sure, the design is different, and some aspects of the game look better during animation scenes, but otherwise, this is the same game.

Sidebet Blackjack includes the option to place any of five available side wagers, each of which has its own payout rate. The most valuable side bet is the Mega Match, which can earn you a 2,000:1 payout if both player and the dealer's first two cards are any suited King and Queen. None of the side bets offer anything more competitive than the standard blackjack house edge, so for a lot of players this game and its wacky side bets are a waste of time. Still, it's a fun diversion from traditional blackjack play.

Sidebet Blackjack VIP is identical to Sidebet Blackjack but provides a larger range of available wagers and prettier graphics.

Twelve games are currently collected under the "Table Games" section at Realbet.eu:

• Caribbean Poker
• Pai Gow Poker
• Lucky 8's Pai Gow Poker
• War
• Red Dog
• Triple Ride Poker
• Triple Card Poker
• American Roulette
• European Roulette
• Baccarat
• Mini Baccarat
• Craps

Okay, so it's a short list but it does hit all the classics and offers a couple of cool casino poker variants for variety's sake. And it's hard to complain about a site that offers both single-zero and double-zero (American and Euro) roulette alongside classic versions of craps and two baccarat games.

In my opinion, video poker play is all about variety. That's the one feature that these games share with slot machines – video poker players want to scan banks of games looking for the perfect title or the full-pay machine. I love video poker, but I tend to have my favorite variants and I stick to them. Even so, I like to bounce around a little if I get bored or hit a losing streak.

So imagine my shock when I saw that Realbet offers just four video poker games. I shouldn't have been surprised - AceGaming is not known as a top provider of any type of games, video poker or otherwise.

Here is a quick guide to each of the site's four video poker variants:

Jacks or Better is the traditional video poker variant, and in AceGaming's hands, it is a stripped down and boring distraction. The only thing that this version of Jacks or Better has that stands out is the option to take a double-up wager after all winning rounds. Otherwise, the graphics are dull, animations are choppy, and the game is pretty dull overall.

Deuces Wild is another video poker standard that AceGaming has managed to make mediocre. There are no additional wager options like on the company's Jacks or Better game, so you could say that this one's even more boring than that droll classic.

Double Barrel Bonus was a new variant to me. This game provides a range of payouts for five different four-of-a-kind hands. That means it is definitely a title for folks with big bankrolls, thanks to variance. AceGaming did include an optional double-up bonus game after winning rounds, which makes me wonder why Deuces Wild doesn't include it.

Wild Joker is AceGaming's version of the classic Jokers Wild. The addition of an optional double-or-nothing bet on all winning hands makes it special – I've played Jokers Wild games with this option before, but not often online.

All the video poker games listed above are available in multi-hand versions, allowing up to fifty hands at a time per round.

Realbet only provides two methods for contacting customer support:

• [email protected]
• Telephone – 1 866-839-5255

English is currently the only language spoken by the site's customer service staff.

I didn't find anything particularly egregious while researching Realbet – they haven't been accused of slow-paying withdrawals or seizing player funds or anything like that. But take another look through the Cons section above – this site is too young, with too little experience, and not enough going for it to earn my recommendation.

But there's a caveat - since the site accepts American customers, I recommend the site to anyone in America looking for a place to wager on sports and do some casino gambling on the side. But I can't recommend Realbet.eu to anyone that doesn't live in the United States. If you live in Europe, for example, there's no reason you should play here rather than at any of the hundreds of better sites you have access to. If you do live in the USA and are considering giving Realbet a shot, just be aware that their licensure is a bit suspect, their bonus terms are incredibly unclear, and their cashier department offers a seriously limited range of options, even compared to other US-facing sportsbook and casino combo sites.