Former BetED.com Employee Claims 95 Percent of Business From Covers.com
As two websites attempt to negotiate a deal for BetED.com customers left screwed out of their funds following a recent indictment of that online gambling company, more revelations are coming forth as to the connection between BetED and Covers.com, a popular sports betting information and news site.
For the record, Covers.com is one of our favorite sites to visit daily but Gambling911.com continues to get bombarded with emails from those in the industry crying foul and insisting Covers.com take full responsibility for ensuring BetED.com players all get paid.
One individual claims to have worked for BetED.com in Costa Rica back when they entered into a powerful “advertising” arrangement with Covers.com.
“Paul (the owner of Covers) negotiated a big 70 percent affiliate deal with BetED, basically making giving the sportsbook 95 percent of its customer base, what was coming in,” the source tells Gambling911.com. “They were like the defacto owners without being part of the corporate structure.”
We should stress that there is no proof obtained by Gambling911 to demonstrate Covers.com had any type of ownership in BetED.com.
That said, the website CalvinAyre.com has attempted to show that the relationship between Covers.com and BetED.com is more incestuous than what is being portrayed on the Covers website. Meanwhile, another popular sports betting information website and forum, SBRForum.com, has expressed disgust with Covers.com in recent days for getting in the way of what they believe to be a “much better bailout opportunity” for BetED.com customers being offered by a yet-to-be-disclosed company. Gambling911.com would note that most, if not all, of both Covers.com and SBRForum.com’s advertising companies (and presumably those in line to take over BetED.com’s customer base) are believed to be on solid financial footing.
The former employee suspects that BetOnLine.com, a well established online sports betting site out of Panama City, Panama, will ultimately take over accounts of BetED.com customers with a rollover requirement around 10 times. Another company reportedly offered to take over accounts without the said rollover and would have provided BetED.com owners with cash upfront. The BetOnLine.com deal does not fund BetED’s owners.
“Regardless of the subplot in the BetED.com debacle, all parties agree the most important thing is to make sure that concerned customers be paid back in full,” notes Payton O’Brien, Senior Editor of the Gambling911.com website.
We should note that, despite the current situation, there were never any hints of troubles at BetED.com. The company has been in business for over 10 years with only minor complaints lodged against it.
BetED.com found itself caught up in a sting operation conducted by the US Attorney’s Office out of Baltimore. US authorities set up a phony payment processing company with the intention of seizing all funds. Their primary target, Gambling911.com has confirmed, was PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Agents working on behalf of Baltimore were about to enter a deal with those two poker giants to process payments.
That all changed when, on April 15, those two companies were indicted and charged with money laundering and bank fraud by the US Attorney’s Office out of New York. Both companies exited the market.
Baltimore had managed to snag Absolute Poker, the third company indicted out of New York, however, they were unable to seize any of that organization’s funds as most were froze by New York.
As a result, Baltimore was only able to seize significant funds from BetED.com.
Another company, the Bookmaker (BMX) Group out of Costa Rica, was also named in last month’s indictment, however, the amount of funds seized is considered to have been insignificant at just under $100,000.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
