Offshore sportsbooks
An offshore sportsbook is licensed in another country and takes bets over the internet from players who are not there. It can offer better prices and bigger limits than a book licensed where you live, and it gives you less protection if something goes wrong. Both halves are true, and you should weigh them before you deposit.
What offshore means
A book licensed by a US state answers to that state's regulator. If it won't pay you, there is an office you can complain to, rules it has to follow and a license it can lose. An offshore book holds a license somewhere else, if it holds one at all, and how much that license does for a player varies a great deal from one country to the next. Often the answer is very little.
So with an offshore book, your protection is the book's own reputation. It pays because it wants your next deposit and the next player's, not because anyone makes it. Most of the time that works. When it doesn't, you have few places to go, and the dispute handling page will tell you how few.
The law
Whether you may bet with an offshore book depends on where you live. The laws differ from place to place and they change, and I'm not a lawyer, so I won't tell you what applies to you. Find out before you open an account. A book taking your bet doesn't mean you are allowed to place it.
Why people use them
Price is the first reason. Some offshore books deal reduced juice (the vig cut down), -105 instead of -110 on a spread, and over a season that matters: at -110 you need to win 52.38 percent of your bets to break even, at -105 you need 51.22 percent. Limits are the second. Some offshore books will take larger bets than many state-licensed books, and are slower to cut a winning player. Markets are the third: more sports, more props, more ways to bet.
There are less flattering reasons too. They take players who can't use a state-licensed book where they live, and some take payment methods others won't. I'd be honest with myself about which reason is mine.
How I'd judge one
I'd judge it on how it pays, first and last. The questions are always the same.
How long has it been taking bets, and has it paid through bad stretches? A book that has paid players for years has a reputation worth protecting, and that is the only thing holding it to its word.
How does it treat winners? Read what players say about limits being cut, bets voided after the fact and accounts closed. A book that only welcomes losers is no place to win.
What are its withdrawal terms? Look at the methods, the fees, the minimum and maximum per request and how often you can ask. Say it will take $5,000 on a game at -110 and only send you $1,000 a week. The winning ticket returns $9,545, and it takes ten weekly requests to bring it home.
Are the house rules written down and easy to find? A book that can't show you its rules can apply whatever rules it likes.
Money you leave there
Whatever you decide, treat money in an offshore account as money lent to a company in another country with no one to collect for you. Keep in it what you need for a week or two of betting, ask for a small withdrawal early to see how the book pays, and take winnings out on a schedule.
And set your own limits before the book sets its. Decide your bankroll, keep each bet to a small part of it, and stop for the week when you hit your loss figure. An offshore book will happily let you bet more. That is the one thing it does as well as any other book.