Pinnacle Sports Review
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Pinnacle Sports is at the top of our list of top betting sites outside of the U.S. for good reasons: they’ve often got the best betting lines, have been operating since 1996 with a great reputation, and are in general a top-class operation.
Pinnacle Sports welcome bonus and review Updated 18th June 2020 Important Announcement: We do NOT recommend playing at Pinnacle anymore, based on our player reviews. The following three operators are proven to be highly safe & trusted: 888Sport, Bwin and Pin-up.Bet. The highest rating a sportsbook can achieve is an A+ from SBR. A sports betting site must excel across a wide range of criteria in order to achieve that coveted rating, including security.
Think of them as the Sam Walton or Henry Ford of online bookmakers, willing to sacrifice big profit margins for volume.
Even though Pinnacle Sports is a major operation (some industry experts estimate more than a billion dollars a year in revenue), the company operates in a low-key manner. They rarely advertise anywhere and have strayed away from big, extravagant promotions and such. Instead, they provide betting lines that are better than their competitors’ in countries, sports and leagues around the world.
Pinnacle is licensed in Netherland Antilles and located in the island of Curacao. Customers from the U.S., the U.K. and Spain are prohibited.
Why Pinnacle Sports Has Better Betting Lines
Most sports betting sites attract customers by offering sign-up bonuses (either cash bonuses or free bets). Instead of offering the same bonuses as everyone else, Pinnacle Sports offers you better betting lines without sign-up bonuses.
Nobody’s against getting great bonuses but skilled bettors generally look for the best lines to bet on (also, since online betting bonuses keep getting worse, they’re rarely useful anymore). The idea is to sacrifice profit margins (profit per bet) and focus on volume (more bets with smaller margins).
These lower margin bets are known as ”reduced juice bets.” The less ”juice” a betting line has, the smaller the cut the sportsbook takes. Sportsbooks create their betting lines based on their estimations of the outcome of the game, add their profit margin and a safety buffer (in case their estimates are wrong). The bigger the profit margin and the safety buffer, the more you have to pay; the smaller the profit margin or the safety buffer, the less you have to pay.
At Pinnacle Sports, you have to pay less.
Normally, betting sites offer you -110 ($1.91) odds on point spreads. If the betting site is exactly right with its predictions on average, you will have bet $110 for every $100 you’ve gotten back. (If there were no profit margins or safety buffers, you’d simply bet $100 to win $100, right?)
Reduced juice bets mean that you bet $105 or $104 and get $100 back – suggesting the sportsbook is right. The sportsbook still makes profit in the long run if it’s right often enough, but more importantly, you get a better deal.
Even the smallest of improvements in the quality of a betting line makes a big difference to a skilled bettor. Even the best sports bettors have an edge of not more than a few percentages so finding the absolutely best betting line is a huge deal. (Two other sportsbooks that also offer reduced juice bets are 5Dimes.eu and HeritageSports.com – unlike Pinnacle Sports, they both accept customers from the U.S.)
Now, you might be thinking that Pinnacle probably enforces smaller betting limits on these games? Nope – in fact, it’s the opposite. Since Pinnacle posts betting lines early with small maximum betting limits, they have lots of time refine their lines based on the way people are betting on that particular line. The result? Pinnacle usually has the highest maximum betting limits in the online betting industry.
Pinnacle Sports Lines
Banking
Pinnacle Sports has customers from all over the world. One of the reasons they’re able to do this is offering a selection of convenient betting lines to customers from countries where it’s sometimes to difficult to find one. For example, for its Asian customers, you can both deposit and withdraw via Entropay, Webmoney, ChinaBanking, and Chinese debit cards: for Australian customers, there’s Poli; for Polish customers, there’s Przelewy24.
Obviously Pinnacle has all the standard deposit and withdrawal options as well, such as Visa and Mastercard, Neteller and Skrill, and different types of pre-paid cards and online banking solutions. Neteller and Skrill have a 12€ withdrawal fee but all Pinnacle Sports customers get one free withdrawal per month.
Sportsbook
Ironically, even though players from the U.S. are prohibited, Pinnacle offers some of the best betting lines for American sports. Compare theirs with any other bookmaker’s betting lines on American sports and you’ll see the better line at Pinnacle at least seven times out of ten. The other form of betting that Pinnacle is often praised for is Asian Handicap bets on soccer games (if you bet on soccer, you should absolutely place those bets at this site). The quality of betting lines outweighs the lack of a sign-up bonus (by far!).
Pinnacle Sports has some of the highest betting limits in the industry and won’t shy away from professional bettors (they welcome customers of all skill-levels).
eSports betting has become a big deal at Pinnacle – it now belongs in the top-10 of their biggest betting markets. They reached their one millionth eSports bet back in December 2014 (the eSports section was launched in 2010) and it’s reasonable to assume that they’ve already exceeded or are getting close to two million eSports bets by now.
Casino
The sportsbook is easily Pinnacle Sports’ strongest area. They have an online casino too, though, with games provided by Multislot and Global Gaming Labs (GGL). Multislot provides all the standard casino games while GGL provides the live dealer games.
Pinnacle Sports Nfl
Up until January 2015, you could find reports of game payout audits at PinnacleSports.com but they’ve quit uploading those for some reason. The reports include the actual payout percentage for each game (not the theoretical payout but what was actually paid out) – therefore if you look at the reports, you’ll see that some games have paid out more than 100%. Pinnacle Casino’s auditor is GLI Test Labs Canada ULC.
Pinnacle Casino has no bonus promotions much like the sportsbook. They give you a 0.3% cashback for each wager, though, although this seems kind of silly (why not just set the payout percentages at 0.3% higher?).
Customer Service
You can contact Pinnacle’s customer service via e-mail only. On the surface, this seems like they invest less into serving their customers than the bookmakers that have phone support and live chat support. Offering e-mail support only is Pinnacle’s way of driving the costs down, though, and therefore being able to offer low-margin betting lines.
Every time I’ve contacted their customer support (and I’ve had little reason to do so over the years), they’ve been fast, helpful and friendly. It would be better if you could call them or chat with them (since that usually gets the job done more efficiently) but I’m satisfied with the quality of the e-mail support.
Conclusion
I’ve said a lot of nice things about Pinnacle throughout this review but they deserve it. It’s difficult to find sites that handle so many parts of their business masterfully.
Instead of focusing on promoting all-but-impossible-to-clear bonuses, posting expensive betting lines and closing customer accounts due to identifying the customer as a skilled bettor, Pinnacle focuses on what every other online bookmaker should focus on: offering competitive betting lines in a wide variety of betting markets and providing great service. That’s it.
This review was made by: LegitGamblingSites.com Rating: 3.9 out of 5
Pinnacle Sports is one the largest sports betting sites in the world, and is best known for their industry leading odds, highest betting limits, and fastest payouts. This is not marketing hype but rather is the truth. If you compare odds for any football match on the 3-way Home/Draw/Visitor market nine times out ten you’ll find Pinnacle has better Best Online Betting Odds at Pinnacle Sports odds for at least one selection than you’ll find anywhere else on the net. The same is true regarding their betting odds for cricket, rugby, golf, hockey and American sports. There’s also no tennis betting sites that come close to matching their odds and betting limits. If you understand the importance of getting the best odds, you’ll certainly want to open an account at www.pinnaclesports.com.
The only two countries Pinnacle Sports restricts are the United States and France. If you live in either of these two countries you’ll want to consider www.5dimes.eu for reduced juice sports betting. For players living anywhere else, no doubt Pinnacle is the best site to use. Their website is available in many languages including English, 简体中文 (Chinese S.), 繁體中文 (Chinese T.), Suomi (Finnish), Français (French), Deutsch (German), עברית (Hebrew), Italiano (Italian),日本語 (Japanese), Norsk (Norwegian), Polski (Polish), Português (Portuguese), Русский (Russian), Español (Spanish), Svenska (Swedish) and ภาษาไทย (Thai). The currencies in which a Pinnacle account can be opened are AUD, MYR, CAD, NOK, RMB, NZD, CZK, PLN, DKK, SGD, EUR, SEK, GBP, THB, HKD, TWD, JPY, USD.
If you live in China, Malaysia, Hong Kong or anywhere else that gambling deposits are a bit difficult, you’ll be at happy to know Pinnacle makes banking convenient. Here you can deposit and withdrawal with either Webmoney or EntroPay. For those living in the UK or other parts of Europe where gambling deposits are much easier, you’ll pleased to find all the usual banking options including Credit Card, Neteller, Moneybookers, Cheque and bank transfer are available options. For more details of banking options by currency refer to the Pinnacle Sports website.
Football Betting
The football coverage at Pinnacle is quite impressive. Of course you’ll find World Cup, Champions League, Asian Cup, Europa League, English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga and MLS, but you’ll find Argentina Primera Division, Australian A-League, Austria’s Bundesliga & Erste Liga, Belgium Pro League, Brazil Serie A, Croatia 1. NHL, Czech 1. Liga, Danish Superligaen, Finnish Veikkausliiga, French Ligue, Greek Super League, Holland Eredivisie, Hungarian NB 1, Irish Premier League, Mexican Primera Division, Norwegian Eliteserien, Polish Ekstraklasa, Portuguese Primeira Liga, Romanian 1st League, Russian Premier League, Scotland Premier, Swiss Challenge League, Swedish Allsvenskan & Superettan, and Turkey’s Super League. As illustrated – there is no shortage of football matches available for wagering at Pinnacle Sports.
Keep in mind Pinnacle operates on the lowest margins in the sports betting industry. For football you’ll find the ability to wager on Handicap, 1X2, and total goals, all available at industry leading prices. To give an example, an upcoming Liverpool versus Manchester United match has the total goals set at 2.5. At most betting sites you can wager either option at 1.91 odds. At Pinnacle you can wager over 2.5 1.971 or under 2.5 at 1.935. Obviously Pinnacle is offering far better value than their competitors. Now to make sure this is clear let me explain it in other odds formats.
In Hong Kong odds, this is wager is available at the other bookmakers at over 2.5 goals .910 / under 2.5 goals 0.910, where at Pinnacle the odds are over 2.5 at 0.971 and under 2.5 at 0.935.
In American Odds, this wager is available at other sportsbooks for over 2.5 goals -110 / under 2.5 -110, where at Pinnacle Sports it is available at over 2.5 goals -103 / under 2.5 goals -107.
Pinnacle is a truly an international site, offering odds formats, and matches of interests for all players around the globe.
Cricket Wagering
Pinnacle doesn’t get much marketing presence in India, but serious punters who enjoy wagering IPL know Pinnacle is one of the best websites for this. Here Indians can deposit and withdrawal using EntroPay, Moneybookers or Neteller. Although Indian Rupee is not a currency choice as it as at www.bet365.com the odds are so good you’ll save handsomely.
Also cricket is quite popular in Australia, and Australians know it’s becoming more and difficult to find a legitimate bookmaker offering favorable odds. I’m sorry but the high juice charged by Tab, Sportsbet, Sporting Bet and Centrebet really doesn’t cut it, and many other sites have left the Australian market. Well, you Aussie guys will happy to know Pinnacle still accept Australian punters and offers cricket wagering on Ashes Tests Series and other competitions.
Of course cricket is also popular in the UK, but most UK residents are sharp and obviously already have accounts at the top three sites Pinnacle, Betfair and Bet365. So in summary, Pinnacle is a great option for countries where cricket betting is most popular.
Hockey Wagering
You like to bet hockey eh? Seriously, Pinnacle is hands down the best Canadian betting site. They offer NHL Hockey and CFL football at the lowest margins in the sports bookmaker business. It’s not uncommon to find a true nickel line here. What I mean by this is over 5 -103 / under 5 -102. Their margins are so slim in hockey you’ll frequently find arbs against other betting sites. Of course there is no shortage of Canadian banking options either, you can use Moneybookers, Credit Card, Instadebit, or any other number of options that can be found in the Pinnacle Sports Cashier. Seriously eh? Stop getting ripped off by Proline or Sport Select, and check out www.pinnaclesports.com where you’ll get far better odds.
#1 for American Sports
I won’t harp on it in this review, but where Pinnacle really excels is American sports including football, baseball and basketball. Their margins are the lowest in the industry and their wagering limits are massive. For NFL football the maximum bet is $30,000 and punters can place unlimited max bets, so long as the line has moved or 4-hours has passed. Unfortunately though, Pinnacle does not offer betting services to US residents. If you live outside the US and follow American sports, this is for sure the place to bet. For American punters looking to bet NFL, no doubt the best site is www.5dimes.eu.
Is Pinnacle Sports Legit
Absolutely! If you check our sportsbook rating guide you’ll see they are one of just four companies holding our top A+ Rating. They are also top rated by our competitors – Bookmakers Review has them as one of just two sites with a 5.0 out of 5.0 rating, and SBR has them as one of just seven sites with an A+ rating. To understand just how legitimate Pinnacle Sports is, allow me to cover a little bit about their history.
Up until March 1998, most phone based bookies targeting the United States worked out of Margarita Island Venezuela which was formerly a bookmaker safe haven. Well in early 1998, the Chavez uprising was just getting started and one objective both sides could agree with was a plan to rid the country of bookmakers. Guys like Sportsbook’s founder Patrick C. and dozens of others, upped, changed countries and began operating with a new name, having never cashed anyone out. One of the very exceptions to this was Heritage Sports – who sent all clients a FexEd package which included an apology and thank you letter as well as a check for their full balance. You see Heritage was founded by actual gamblers, who knew the meaning of trust – these guys were members of the most successful gambling syndicate of the 1980’s and didn’t have in their blood to ever skip out on a gambling debt. Well 6 months later, much of the Heritage management and staff landed in Curacao where they started a new sportsbook called Planet Pinnacle – which became Pinnacle Sports in early 2003.
The majority of Pinnacle Sports marketing focus from day one was on player trust. More than 10 years ago then marketing director Matt Keats posted a meaningful statement at Bettors World which said “Pinnacle Sports has worked hard to establish a solid name in this industry. We are well known for fast payouts, competitive lines, taking large bets and never, never closing accounts.” Pinnacle has no doubt lived up to this reputation. These guys lowered and kept lowering their vig (bookmaker advantage) in order to give players better odds, and each time increased their maximum wagering limit. When you cash out at Pinnacle Sports the payment comes in about 5 minutes to an e-wallet. The entire company works absolutely amazing on complete computerized automation. However if you need customer support, send an email and a clear, precise well written response will follow in minutes.
Quite honestly it doesn’t matter what sport you wager, or what your preferred banking method is, you’d be incredibly hard pressed to find a site more legit, and with better value and service than you’ll find at www.pinnaclesports.com. This is true in 2012 no matter if you’re from Taiwan, India, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, UK, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Denmark, or anywhere else in the world – Pinnacle Sports has you covered with the best odds, highest betting limits, and fastest payouts, bar none.
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- F1 Betting Guide
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