The legitimacy of offshore sports betting website MyBookie.ag has been called into question following a public social media feud with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, aka Stool Presidente.
On Tuesday, April 9, Portnoy posted a video to his Twitter account in response to tweets posted by one of the MyBookie accounts the night earlier — the night of the NCAA Tournament Championship Game between the Virginia Cavaliers and the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
In the video, Portnoy explains that he was attempting to place a $250,000 bet on Texas Tech, but because he was in Minnesota, he could not do so because gambling is not legal there.
Additionally, Portnoy said he “couldn’t do it through my [his] normal guy.”
The next morning, after ultimately losing $20,000 on Texas Tech, Portnoy noticed tweets from a MyBookie Twitter account saying that he was “all talk and no follow through.”
In response to the internet war of words, Portnoy has begun a personal crusade to publicize complaints from current and former MyBookie customers about not getting paid and other examples of poor customer service.
Additionally, Portnoy called MyBookie “an illegal offshore sportsbook”, accused them of “not paying their bills”, and got the hashtag #mybookieisascam trending on Twitter.
Due to the onslaught of replies and messages from Barstool Sports fans, known as “Stoolies”, MyBookie released an official response statement on their Twitter account.
“MyBookie pays 100% of the time, assuming you do not have an outstanding rollover requirement and you’ve verified your identity. Rollovers are industry standard for sportsbook bonuses, although customers are welcome to decline them,” the statement reads in part.
Following the public spat, Pat McAfee — a former punter for the Indianapolis Colts and former Barstool Sports employee –severed ties with MyBookie, who he has previously done advertisement and promotional work with.
“In light of recent events between @stoolpresidente and @betmybookie, I am suspending all ads with them indefinitely. I was not aware of any problems with their treatment of sports gamblers. We’re gonna investigate & figure out the next steps. I don’t enjoy the thought of letting,” the ex-NFL player said in a tweeted statement.
At this time, there is nothing other than customer testimonials on Twitter to suggest that MyBookie isn’t legitimate.
That said, the company does not operate with a .com web address and is not verified on Twitter. Furthermore, the company is not based in the United States, as their official mailing address is listed as 7 Abraham de Veerstraat, Willemstad, Curaçao CW Netherlands Antilles.
So, given that there are plenty of legitimate sportsbooks operating in the United States such as FanDuel, DraftKings, and William Hill, there’s likely a reason that MyBookie isn’t among them.
