BetUs is one of the sharpest looking sportsbooks on the internet but sometimes looks can be deceiving.

Their website in sexy, current and intellectually built. Even the utility of it is very intuitive and unlike many sportsbooks, their site actually improves your betting experience whereas many other sportsbook websites drag it down.

Even so, the general consensus on this book is that it is not a trusted one. While they do everything else right, this one important aspect is where they fail to earn a good reputation. They’ve had some payout problems (hassles and delays) and everything they do is guided towards attracting the bettor who is more likely to lose opposed to the sharps who might win and withdraw big amounts.

1. Who Bets Here

BetUs is completely a public shop as they are all about the casual players. From the experience to the design, this book is made for the casual gambler just looking for a good time.

Depositing
Moneygram (fee covered for deposits over $300)
Western Union (fee covered for deposits over $300)
Credit Cards
Bank Wire (minimum $10,000)

Withdrawing
Moneygram ($800 max per day)
Courier Cheque ($40 fee)
Bank Wire ($25-$50 fee)

2. Customer Service

BetUs has very competent customer service reps either over the phone, e-mail or live chat but there is one thing that is consistent with this book: they are a tad more aggressive than your typical team.

If you’re shopping around or haven’t re-upped in a while, they’ll encourage you with a phone call and a friendly bonus. And this sportsbook loves their old school mail whether it is brochures, magazines or gifts.

On one hand, it might be annoying but on the other, they are a company and they run a business. It’s understandable and some people might even appreciate the efforts to show that they know you exist.

Aside from that, their reps are competent and most of them speak clean English, which is sometimes hard to find with an offshore sportsbooks. That’s a nice perk if you’re an over-the-phone bettor.

BetUs also uses a lot of familiar faces to make the customer comfortable. Their video section has familiar faces like Tim Brown and Christian Laettner, and if you’re put on hold when you call them, you’ll hear Bob Costas’ voice. These are touches that improve the experience a little bit and really make the sportsbook unique.

Methods of Contact
Phone
E-mail
Live chat

3. Placing A Bet

Placing a bet at BetUs is a very intuitive process. They have been around for a while so they do have an old school base of customers, which are used to the old checkbox betting system where you click-click-confirm.

While their new betting engine (Sportsbook 2.1) is sleek with some new-wave features, like a betting ticket that pops up on the same page (instead of changing pages), they still give you the option to switch back to their Classic Sportsbook (old engine) at any point.

Regardless of which system you are comfortable with, you have the option to use both. To our knowledge, they are the only sportsbook around that gives you that option.

Another insightful feature is a small box with simple instructions. New customers or players using the new engine for the first time may not fully understand how it functions right off the bat so it’s resourceful to have the three easy steps laid out for you.

The one thing that resonates is that the people creating this sportsbook were smart about it. It isn’t something that was just thrown together, this was designed by marketing brains who have the knowledge of what bettors want.

Methods of Betting
Phone
Internet

4. Variety

BetUs has a very good variety of lines. They have all of the major sports covered well, meaning that they have the regular sides, totals and props at relatively early times and they also have a healthy amount of good props. If you’re living the wacky lifestyle, you’ll be content here as BetUs is known for their off-the-wall props. At one point, you could bet on if the world was going to end prior to the year 2000. Now you can bet on where snow will fall on Christmas Day.

There’s lot of variety here and it keeps the casual gamblers happy.

Limits
NFL Games: $3,000
NBA Games: $3,000
NHL Games: $3,000
MLB Games: $3,000

5. VIP Program/Loyalty Program

BetUs has a loyalty program but their system is really bound by a set of rules. It’s more tailored to each bettor specifically but to find out the details, you would speak to your own personal account manager.

6. Bonus & Rebate Program

BetUs has a very good bonus program that takes you down three avenues with each deposit: you get a deposit bonus for sports betting, you get a deposit bonus for the casino and you also get bettors insurance.

For every deposit you make, 10% goes into your casino account (whether you play the casino games or not). The casino rollover is 20 times. For the sportsbook, the breakdown is as follows:

$100-$299, 10% bonus with a two-times rollover.
$299-$499, 15% with a three-times rollver.
$500-$999, 20% with a four-times rollover.
$1000-$1999, 30% with a six-times rollover.
$2000-$4999, 35% with a seven-times rollover.
$5000-$9999, 40% bonus with an eight-times rollover.
$10,000+ , 50% bonus with a 10-times rollover.

The 10,000 and up range is unusual, so they deserve some credit for it. Keep in mind that all of these bonuses are free plays.

Lastly, every account gets 10% bettors insurance, which means they’ll pay you back 10% on your losses twice a year.

There are a couple of things to note with this bonus program. First of all, this is free play not cash, so don’t get too excited. Secondly, you have to jump through hoola hoops to actually make the rollover. For example, all of your bets have to be on lines that are between -200 or +140, which really limits your chances to hit any big rollovers since you’re betting on coin flips each time. And they have another weird rule that on baseball bets, only 50% of your action is applied to the rollover.

The bonus is kind of a microcosm of the sportsbook: looks good on the outside but isn’t so hot once you get to know it.

7. Website & Usability

The BetUs website is the leader in the industry.

As far as design goes, you’d be hard pressed to find a site that looks or functions better than BetUs.

As far as content goes, they are always up to date with their images and are on-point with upcoming events.

One of the main features of the BetUs website is the vast amount of content that they do provide. Whether you are looking for NFL picks or cricket betting insight, BetUs has tons of articles with picks, stats and analysis in their Locker Room. Beyond that, they have an entire video section where famous faces like Tim Brown, Christian Laettner and Gary Payton. One’s your done with the betting, go check out the BetUs girls for some more – ahem – analysis.

This site is well done and while some detractors might ask why all the content for someone who just wants to bet, the answer is that it is there to supplement the experience. If you don’t need it, you move along.

8. Reputation

BetUs deserves high grades for everything except their reputation. They do everything just about as well as you would like a sportsbook to do except for pay out.

They’ve known to hassle players on rollover requirements (even when met), they delay payouts or stiffing players completely. Unfortunately, this is a very important element where they fail and that has dropped their reputation.