Pointsbet Bookie Review

PointsBet was launched in early 2017 and as best we know, is the only licensed spread betting operator in Australia. Join Here

Spread betting differs dramatically from the typical fixed win betting most of the corporate bookies offer.

With fixed win betting, all that is at risk is the amount staked. Spread betting contains the extra element of risk that a bet gone sour can result in a loss greater than the original stake.

A close analogy would be to compare spread betting to stock speculating on the ASX. If you tip a stock to rise in value and buy it, the amount required will be deducted from your account until the completion of the transaction. If the stock goes down, your loss will continue to accumulate until the price either reverses and goes in your favour, or you call time on the trade. If your stock tipped to rise does gain value, your profit will accumulate until the price either reverses or you decide to collect your profit.

The odds for a Pies win in the head-to-head market ranged from 3.70 at Betfair, down to 3.35 at CrownBet and Sportsbet. Those two agencies, however, offered the best dividend, 1.33, to anyone wanting to back the Swans.

The stockbroker deducts a commission fee from a winning transaction. The stockbroker adds the same commission fee to a losing transaction.

PointsBet’s fee is based on the difference between two lines offered. This gap is called the “spread.” A wide spread returns a greater profit to the bookie, while a tight spread will equate to a smaller profit.

An outcome, for example an AFL game, where the final score falls between the spread means that everyone who bet loses.

Pointsbet NZ Details

Spread betting is considerably more risky than fixed win betting.

PointsBet goes so far as to permit punters to cap losses and they even call the procedure for doing so by the same name the stock market uses, which is “Stop loss.” Please note that in the words of PointsBet, the stop loss feature is only available for certain markets.

In short, to engage in spread betting, you have to know your codes at an expert level and a bit of luck would not hurt.

PointsBet is licensed in Australia by the Northern Territory government. We assume that they operate under other licenses around the world where spread betting is permitted, because they have an operation licensed by the state of New Jersey in the U.S. Online betting is open to all U.S. residents, but they can only wager by being physically present in New Jersey.

Wagering Platform

PointsBet has a well-designed website, even if the dark grey and black backgrounds and white text are slightly ominous looking.

They have extensive explanations of how the different scenarios work.

The one we enjoyed and found most useful was for an AFL match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Carlton Blues.

The example bet on offer was for Collingwood to win by 15 points that used a $10 stake backing Collingwood for the calculations. There is a handy slider that permits you to slide the potential scores back and forth.

If Collingwood wins by 35 points, which is 20 points over the line, the $10 bet would return $200. If Collingwood wins by 15 points, your stake is gone. If Collingwood were to somehow lose by 15 points, the loss would be $300, unless this market had a stop loss feature and you had set the stop loss at 10 points, if which case the loss would be $250.

The use of a stop loss will reduce your winnings in the event your wager comes home.

PointsBet clearly disclose the maximum win or loss levels displayed on the bet slip at the time of bet placement.

There are other ways to bet with PointsBet.

One of these is time markets.

For example, a wager can be placed an on AFL game for such markets as time of first goal. This proposition would involve, for example, a wager that Collingwood will kick its first goal in under 10 minutes, or over 10 minutes. Similar markets exist for behinds, or the time it requires a team to go beyond some number of points, such as 10 or 20.

Then, there are player statistical wagers, with some exotic offerings that include how many fantasy points an AFL player earns for a certain game, or the total number of actual points or disposals.

Finally, there are Multiplier Markets. In the stock market world, a multiplicative factor such as that described on the PointsBet website equates to additional leverage, another stock market term. Multiplier bets can be extremely risky, almost making the usual PointsBet markets seem like a bet on Winx.

Regardless of how a bet is configured, PointsBet will set aside an amount of your wagering account that is typically higher than your stake.

One example of this with a maximum win level of 250x stake and a 150x loss level would set aside $300 of your wagering account for a $10 stake. For a $100 stake, we are assuming it would require at least $3,000.

Mobile

PointsBet has Android and Apple mobile apps. We assume these are functional. We visited the website using our mobiles and found it entirely satisfactory.

Promotions

At the time of our visit, there were some early payout promotions for the NBA, NRL and AFL, so we can say with confidence that if promotions are important to you, PointsBet will keep it interesting depending of the time of year.

Banking

PointsBet accepts Visa, MasterCard and POLi. There does not seem to be a minimum deposit amount, but it is up to you to ensure that you have enough in your wagering account to cover the set aside PointsBet will specify.

Withdrawal options at this time seem to be by bank transfer only.

Customer Service

Our chat request received a response in less than a minute and the question we posed was answered clearly and quickly. Email and phone contact is also an option.

Conclusion

Should you try PointsBet for spread betting?

That is up to you. We ourselves sometimes speculate on stock futures and we always use a stop loss. We could not determine if stop losses function identically with PointsBet, but we suspect they do.

What that means is that if your stop loss is touched during the course of an event, your punt is over at that point, regardless of the eventual outcome. We tried mightily to ascertain this factor, but the chat people had left for the day and we could not find a definitive answer in the PointsBet terms and conditions.

Other than the extra risk, we saw nothing that would indicate to us that PointsBet is not a totally legitimate operation.

Be prepared to spend extensive time on the website learning how spread betting functions if you have never tried it. Be prepared to spend extensive time researching your market before placing a bet. Develop an area of expertise and focus on that area, such as AFL.

Spread betting is work and you can do everything right and still lose money, because sports and racing often produce the unexpected.