How to Use Bitcoin to Deposit/Withdraw from Sportsbooks
Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 8:48 pm
Hey guys, we used to have a thread with some minor discussions on Bitcoin, but it appears they were accidentally lost. I figured I'd re-type everything now that I'm more familiar with things and share it with the forum in case anyone found it useful.
I started using Bitcoin to fund my online sportsbook in the summer of 2016 and have been happy with the transition ever since. I’m sure a lot of people are probably curious, as I was, with how it all works. Perhaps you may even be afraid to use it because it seems confusing and intimidating. Well, it is at first! I didn’t have anyone to teach me the step-by-step process, so I had to do some of my own research and trial/error to figure it all out on my own. I figured it would be beneficial to everyone on here if I helped simplify the process a bit and listed out the main steps that I go through when making a deposit/withdrawal. Here are the basic steps:
1. Sign up at an e-wallet site, such as Circle or Coinbase. I personally use both, but have utilized Circle the most so far because of the fact that you can instantly purchase up to $3,000 in Bitcoin with your debit card (Coinbase can take a few days). Both received good reviews and are legit based on everything I researched. For the duration of this walkthrough, I’m going to use Circle as my e-wallet example. Think of Circle as your own personal online wallet, similar to how PayPal works. This is where you will deposit your money when you are ready to make a deposit to your sportsbook.
2. Once you have signed up with Circle or Coinbase, you will want to link your bank's checking account or your debit/credit card. I prefer to use the debit card method on Circle because the deposit goes through instantly, whereas your bank checking account may take a day or two. Both options work just fine, but similarly to PayPal, Circle may make a few tiny deposits into your bank account for you to verify, before you can continue on.
3. Again, it's a lot like PayPal if you are familiar with how that is set up. Once you have your checking account or debit/credit card linked, you can make a deposit into your e-wallet. The first time may require an extra verification step, but it will be much simpler going forward from that point on.
4. Once you have deposited some money into your e-wallet in Circle ($3,000/week limit), you will then want to sign up for an account at Blockchain. Think of Blockchain as a "middle man" that you will be handing off your money to, right before it's delivered into your 5Dimes account. This may seem weird or feel shady, but it's legit. Doing this will help you avoid any suspicious transaction questions or anything like that. This is the most important step that I read in all of my research. You NEVER want to send money from Circle directly to your sportsbook or vice versa. They are familiar with some of the addresses that come from sportsbook accounts and they may ban you from continuing on, if they feel you are making gambling transactions. Make sure you get Blockchain set up. With Blockchain, you don't really have to do anything once you have it set up. There's no linking your checking account or debit card. It's simply an intermediary between your Circle and sportsbook accounts.
5. Now that you officially have some money in your Circle account and you have Blockchain set up, what you will want to do next is send that money from your Circle account over to your Blockchain account. Whenever you are going to send/receive Bitcoin, you need to make sure you have a Bitcoin wallet "address" so you know where to send it. In this case, you are sending money TO Blockchain, so you will need to determine what your Blockchain wallet address is. On the main page of Blockchain, there is a “Receive” button towards the top left of the screen. Click that and it will generate a random address for you to use with that transaction. It should be a lengthy string of numbers and letters, similar to something like this (12btFPBAU5Lfey76caRKEHaKoYv84ezKUq).
6. Once you figure out what your Blockchain wallet address is, you simply copy that address. Then you go back to your Circle account and click on the "Send" button. It should ask you what the address is that you want to send your money to. Paste that Blockchain address into that field. It will also ask you how much money you intend on sending. Keep in mind that if your money is being displayed in US Dollars, it may get converted into Bitcoin format, which is usually a long decimal amount. Don't be freaked out by that, because 1 Bitcoin is equivalent to around $550 or so and it fluctuates. So $100 is only like .25 Bitcoin for example. It may seem weird at first, but you'll get used to it.
7. Once you send the money from Circle to Blockchain, it should go through pretty quickly. Sometimes it may take 10-15 minutes, but it's usually instant. If it takes a bit longer (especially the first time), don’t panic. You should then see your Bitcoin showing in your Blockchain account at that point. Once you see that your money has successfully been transferred to your Blockchain account, you can start the sportsbook deposit transaction.
8. For this example, I’m going to use 5Dimes as the sportsbook, since that’s what I mostly deal with. Go to your 5Dimes account, click on "Cashier," "Deposit," and then they "CryptoBitcoin" option next to "E-Wallet." It will then ask you how much US Dollars you want to make your deposit for. For this example, let's just say it's $100. Type in $100 and then click the "Deposit" button. A message should appear, giving you a long string of numbers/letters. This is the Bitcoin wallet address that you will be sending your Bitcoin to FROM your Blockchain account. Copy that address.
9. Now go back to your Blockchain account and click on the "Send" button on the top left of the screen. It should be a similar setup as before when you sent the money from Circle to Blockchain. You will paste in the address that you received from 5Dimes. Then it will ask you how much you want to send. When using Blockchain, I like to look up in the upper-right hand corner and simply start typing in the Bitcoin amount number by number, since it's a very long decimal amount. As you start to type in the numbers, Blockchain usually pops up a message that asks you if you want to use your entire Bitcoin balance, plus a small convenience fee to send it. Go ahead and click on that option. This will automatically populate the rest of the Bitcoin amount for you. Go ahead and send it on its way.
10. At that point, you simply play the waiting game and 5Dimes should add in your money anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. It may take a little time when you do it for the first attempt, but I've usually seen it in my account within 15 minutes. I should also point out that Bitcoin is a currency that fluctuates ever so slightly, so you may see a few dollars difference (higher or lower) when you make your deposit. So a deposit of $100 may end up showing up as $103.43 or $96.78. It's usually not a significant difference. I kind of chalk it up as a convenience fee, but sometimes it can actually give you a few extra bucks as well, so it does work both ways.
That should take care of everything on the deposit side. This may seem like a lot of steps, using multiple websites, but trust me, after you do it a few times, it becomes pretty straight forward. After the first attempt, you no longer have to do any sign ups, verifications, etc. That cuts down on a lot of time and effort. The same rules apply for withdrawals from 5Dimes. You will essentially follow the same steps as you did when you deposited. You will request a withdrawal from 5Dimes for whatever amount you want. They will then ask you which address you want the money sent to. You would then go into your Blockchain account and secure an address (by clicking on the “Receive” button), copy it, and paste it into the 5Dimes withdrawal request. Once 5Dimes has approved the request, they will send your Bitcoin to Blockchain. Then you simply send that Bitcoin from Blockchain back to your Circle account (you'll need to get an address from Circle right before you send that). Once the money is back in your Circle account, you're able to cash it out back to your checking account or debit/credit card. Simple as that. Just like PayPal, you can decide to keep the funds in your Circle account for later use if you prefer. The value of the BTC may fluctuate a bit over time (for better or worse), so just make sure you keep that in mind.
So to recap, when making a deposit into 5Dimes, you go Circle to Blockchain to 5Dimes. When making a withdrawal, you go 5Dimes to Blockchain to Circle. Circle is your main wallet, Blockchain is the middle man, 5Dimes is where you ultimately are depositing or withdrawing your money from.
Again, I understand if all of this sounds confusing. It is at first, especially when nobody gives you any instructions. But I was able to figure it out relatively easily and I've passed it along to a few friends that have also had success using this method. So hopefully you'll be able to figure it out too. It’s been 6 months later, and using BTC is a snap for me now. I can’t tell you how much quicker and easier it is to make deposits or withdraw money. I would always have issues with my bank when trying to make a deposit with my debit/credit card, because the activity would be coming from another country and would raise a bunch of flags. I would have to spend forever on the phone trying to justify the transactions, and it was just always a mess. Plus, a book like 5Dimes has a $500 limit per deposit when using MasterCard (which is what my credit/debit cards both are). So I would have to make 5 deposits, for example, of $500 each in order to deposit $2500 into my account.
Now, if I wanted to, I could deposit $2500 instantly with no hassle. The same can be said for withdrawals. Prior to using BTC, it was the biggest headache to make a withdrawal (at least for me anyways). My bank had major issues with a check from some weird Canadian bank. The ACH withdrawal method that was supposed to easily withdraw funds to directly to my debit card also ran into problems. MoneyGram and Western Union scared me from all of the horror stories I had heard from others. I have made multiple withdrawals of several thousand dollars and have gotten that money from 5Dimes directly into my checking account within 48 hours of initiating the withdrawal. That’s so much easier and more convenient than any other method I’d dealt with previously. Bitcoin is definitely the future! At least give it a try if you have the time. If you’re worried something will go wrong the first time around, maybe just play with a small amount of funds to test it out for yourself. I promise you it’s worth it though.
If you have any questions or get stuck along the way, don't hesitate to PM me or respond to this thread on the message board. I don't mind answering questions. I'm here to help.
~ J-Money
I started using Bitcoin to fund my online sportsbook in the summer of 2016 and have been happy with the transition ever since. I’m sure a lot of people are probably curious, as I was, with how it all works. Perhaps you may even be afraid to use it because it seems confusing and intimidating. Well, it is at first! I didn’t have anyone to teach me the step-by-step process, so I had to do some of my own research and trial/error to figure it all out on my own. I figured it would be beneficial to everyone on here if I helped simplify the process a bit and listed out the main steps that I go through when making a deposit/withdrawal. Here are the basic steps:
1. Sign up at an e-wallet site, such as Circle or Coinbase. I personally use both, but have utilized Circle the most so far because of the fact that you can instantly purchase up to $3,000 in Bitcoin with your debit card (Coinbase can take a few days). Both received good reviews and are legit based on everything I researched. For the duration of this walkthrough, I’m going to use Circle as my e-wallet example. Think of Circle as your own personal online wallet, similar to how PayPal works. This is where you will deposit your money when you are ready to make a deposit to your sportsbook.
2. Once you have signed up with Circle or Coinbase, you will want to link your bank's checking account or your debit/credit card. I prefer to use the debit card method on Circle because the deposit goes through instantly, whereas your bank checking account may take a day or two. Both options work just fine, but similarly to PayPal, Circle may make a few tiny deposits into your bank account for you to verify, before you can continue on.
3. Again, it's a lot like PayPal if you are familiar with how that is set up. Once you have your checking account or debit/credit card linked, you can make a deposit into your e-wallet. The first time may require an extra verification step, but it will be much simpler going forward from that point on.
4. Once you have deposited some money into your e-wallet in Circle ($3,000/week limit), you will then want to sign up for an account at Blockchain. Think of Blockchain as a "middle man" that you will be handing off your money to, right before it's delivered into your 5Dimes account. This may seem weird or feel shady, but it's legit. Doing this will help you avoid any suspicious transaction questions or anything like that. This is the most important step that I read in all of my research. You NEVER want to send money from Circle directly to your sportsbook or vice versa. They are familiar with some of the addresses that come from sportsbook accounts and they may ban you from continuing on, if they feel you are making gambling transactions. Make sure you get Blockchain set up. With Blockchain, you don't really have to do anything once you have it set up. There's no linking your checking account or debit card. It's simply an intermediary between your Circle and sportsbook accounts.
5. Now that you officially have some money in your Circle account and you have Blockchain set up, what you will want to do next is send that money from your Circle account over to your Blockchain account. Whenever you are going to send/receive Bitcoin, you need to make sure you have a Bitcoin wallet "address" so you know where to send it. In this case, you are sending money TO Blockchain, so you will need to determine what your Blockchain wallet address is. On the main page of Blockchain, there is a “Receive” button towards the top left of the screen. Click that and it will generate a random address for you to use with that transaction. It should be a lengthy string of numbers and letters, similar to something like this (12btFPBAU5Lfey76caRKEHaKoYv84ezKUq).
6. Once you figure out what your Blockchain wallet address is, you simply copy that address. Then you go back to your Circle account and click on the "Send" button. It should ask you what the address is that you want to send your money to. Paste that Blockchain address into that field. It will also ask you how much money you intend on sending. Keep in mind that if your money is being displayed in US Dollars, it may get converted into Bitcoin format, which is usually a long decimal amount. Don't be freaked out by that, because 1 Bitcoin is equivalent to around $550 or so and it fluctuates. So $100 is only like .25 Bitcoin for example. It may seem weird at first, but you'll get used to it.
7. Once you send the money from Circle to Blockchain, it should go through pretty quickly. Sometimes it may take 10-15 minutes, but it's usually instant. If it takes a bit longer (especially the first time), don’t panic. You should then see your Bitcoin showing in your Blockchain account at that point. Once you see that your money has successfully been transferred to your Blockchain account, you can start the sportsbook deposit transaction.
8. For this example, I’m going to use 5Dimes as the sportsbook, since that’s what I mostly deal with. Go to your 5Dimes account, click on "Cashier," "Deposit," and then they "CryptoBitcoin" option next to "E-Wallet." It will then ask you how much US Dollars you want to make your deposit for. For this example, let's just say it's $100. Type in $100 and then click the "Deposit" button. A message should appear, giving you a long string of numbers/letters. This is the Bitcoin wallet address that you will be sending your Bitcoin to FROM your Blockchain account. Copy that address.
9. Now go back to your Blockchain account and click on the "Send" button on the top left of the screen. It should be a similar setup as before when you sent the money from Circle to Blockchain. You will paste in the address that you received from 5Dimes. Then it will ask you how much you want to send. When using Blockchain, I like to look up in the upper-right hand corner and simply start typing in the Bitcoin amount number by number, since it's a very long decimal amount. As you start to type in the numbers, Blockchain usually pops up a message that asks you if you want to use your entire Bitcoin balance, plus a small convenience fee to send it. Go ahead and click on that option. This will automatically populate the rest of the Bitcoin amount for you. Go ahead and send it on its way.
10. At that point, you simply play the waiting game and 5Dimes should add in your money anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. It may take a little time when you do it for the first attempt, but I've usually seen it in my account within 15 minutes. I should also point out that Bitcoin is a currency that fluctuates ever so slightly, so you may see a few dollars difference (higher or lower) when you make your deposit. So a deposit of $100 may end up showing up as $103.43 or $96.78. It's usually not a significant difference. I kind of chalk it up as a convenience fee, but sometimes it can actually give you a few extra bucks as well, so it does work both ways.
That should take care of everything on the deposit side. This may seem like a lot of steps, using multiple websites, but trust me, after you do it a few times, it becomes pretty straight forward. After the first attempt, you no longer have to do any sign ups, verifications, etc. That cuts down on a lot of time and effort. The same rules apply for withdrawals from 5Dimes. You will essentially follow the same steps as you did when you deposited. You will request a withdrawal from 5Dimes for whatever amount you want. They will then ask you which address you want the money sent to. You would then go into your Blockchain account and secure an address (by clicking on the “Receive” button), copy it, and paste it into the 5Dimes withdrawal request. Once 5Dimes has approved the request, they will send your Bitcoin to Blockchain. Then you simply send that Bitcoin from Blockchain back to your Circle account (you'll need to get an address from Circle right before you send that). Once the money is back in your Circle account, you're able to cash it out back to your checking account or debit/credit card. Simple as that. Just like PayPal, you can decide to keep the funds in your Circle account for later use if you prefer. The value of the BTC may fluctuate a bit over time (for better or worse), so just make sure you keep that in mind.
So to recap, when making a deposit into 5Dimes, you go Circle to Blockchain to 5Dimes. When making a withdrawal, you go 5Dimes to Blockchain to Circle. Circle is your main wallet, Blockchain is the middle man, 5Dimes is where you ultimately are depositing or withdrawing your money from.
Again, I understand if all of this sounds confusing. It is at first, especially when nobody gives you any instructions. But I was able to figure it out relatively easily and I've passed it along to a few friends that have also had success using this method. So hopefully you'll be able to figure it out too. It’s been 6 months later, and using BTC is a snap for me now. I can’t tell you how much quicker and easier it is to make deposits or withdraw money. I would always have issues with my bank when trying to make a deposit with my debit/credit card, because the activity would be coming from another country and would raise a bunch of flags. I would have to spend forever on the phone trying to justify the transactions, and it was just always a mess. Plus, a book like 5Dimes has a $500 limit per deposit when using MasterCard (which is what my credit/debit cards both are). So I would have to make 5 deposits, for example, of $500 each in order to deposit $2500 into my account.
Now, if I wanted to, I could deposit $2500 instantly with no hassle. The same can be said for withdrawals. Prior to using BTC, it was the biggest headache to make a withdrawal (at least for me anyways). My bank had major issues with a check from some weird Canadian bank. The ACH withdrawal method that was supposed to easily withdraw funds to directly to my debit card also ran into problems. MoneyGram and Western Union scared me from all of the horror stories I had heard from others. I have made multiple withdrawals of several thousand dollars and have gotten that money from 5Dimes directly into my checking account within 48 hours of initiating the withdrawal. That’s so much easier and more convenient than any other method I’d dealt with previously. Bitcoin is definitely the future! At least give it a try if you have the time. If you’re worried something will go wrong the first time around, maybe just play with a small amount of funds to test it out for yourself. I promise you it’s worth it though.
If you have any questions or get stuck along the way, don't hesitate to PM me or respond to this thread on the message board. I don't mind answering questions. I'm here to help.
~ J-Money