When looking for an online sportsbook, the best things that you can possibly do are the most boring (isn’t taht always the way?).

First of all, Read the Rules. Every online sportsbooks has them, and they’ll tell you a lot about what to expect from the sportsbook. Especially when it comes to qualifying for bonuses (at an online casino USA they refer to this as ‘playthrough’, but the term is less used with sportsbooks).

Secondly, Do Your Research. A quick trip around the ‘net with your favorite search engine can save you a lot of heartache in the long run, but it can also confuse the heck out of you. Both good and bad online sportsbooks have a lot of reviews, and a fair number of them exist only to send people to that sportsbook (so they may have to be less honest about a bad one than they would with a good one!).

But the reverse is also true; you can run across a ‘scam report’ for plenty of bad online gambling sites, but you can also see a fair number for the good ones. In a number of cases, the authors wouldn’t have had a problem if they took my advice (i.e, Read the Rules), but there are also a number of valid complaints of slow payment and poor communication that you should pay special attention to when you’re deciding on a site.

Ideally, you should talk directly with some people who have played for a while at the online sportsbook. If that’s just not do-able, try to find references to the site on an Internet forum (Casinomeister has one of the best ones, though you’ll see more about online slots than sportsbooks). The posts on these forums sometimes fall prey to the same issues as the reviews mentioned above, but you get more of a balance — especially if a number of other people weigh in with a decidedly positive or negative note.