Sports betting differs from the majority of gambling activities as it is the least luck-dependent game (contrary to the games based on the random number generation method), here your success depends on a series of factors such as your professional skills and awareness, and the extent of your preparedness. You should never forget that your opponent - the bookmaker - is a very good professional, and your success depends a lot on his actions. So, before starting making bets, take the choice of the bookmaker seriously. Here are several criteria that will help you to choose a reliable bookmaker.

First of all, try to find as many reviews of a bookmaker as possible. You can ask your friends and your friends’ friends, and try to find some old gamblers to find out what they think about this or that bookmaker, or just search the web and find some reviews there. The more popular the bookie is and the more information you find - the more reliable is the bookmaker you have chosen. But if you found many bad references or heard that the bookmaker withholds his payments – it’s better to find another one – with better image, as it plays a rather important role here.

It is also necessary to find out which methods of payment are available with your bookmaker. Nowadays the competition among bookmakers is rather high and they tend to do everything to attract clients, therefore most bookmakers accept all possible methods payments - for you to make deposits and to withdraw your wins. Most often gamblers use money transfer (like Western Union), various electronic payment systems (Webmoney, Egold, PayPal etc.), and also credit cards and cheques. It’s better to have a separate card or money keeper for your gambling affairs - to control your money and to protect yourself from various financial troubles. This will also help you to record all your wins and losses.

Carefully study the terms and regulations of all bookmakers you have chosen. If you fail to understand something, ask your bookmaker to explain it to you. You should clearly know and understand the rules of the game you are playing. And if the regulations of a bookmaker are ok in general, but you don’t like one or several points in them – don’t ignore that – this is important. You should find a bookmaker you will be able to trust your money to. Naturally, every bookmaker wants to create the best conditions for themselves, but the competition today is really high and they have to create more favorable conditions to their clients.

While studying the regulations of the bookmaker you have chosen, pay special attention to the tax system he sticks to. Some bookmakers automatically detain the tax from gamblers’ wins, and if you declare your wins as revenue, you will pay the tax twice. Then you should better find some other bookmaker. You can always use a betting system instead a bookmaker.

Also pay attention to the way the bookmaker sets and changes the odds. After your bet has been made, the odds for you should stay fixed even if the bookmaker decides to change them. If the regulations of your bookmaker do not guarantee this, seek another bookmaker.

It is also important to check whether the maximum limit of a win is not too low (it is very important when the stakes are high) or the minimum sum for a deposit is not too high (sometimes it is really high). Also pay attention to the variety of possible events for betting – the number differs greatly.