Guts Sportsbook Review

Guts Sportsbook launched only three years ago in 2014, which is about two years after their original casino was founded. Their parent company, known as Guts Gaming Limited, is owned by Gaming Innovation Group Limited.

Guts currently ranks 55th in traffic among all online sportsbooks. They were given a B- grade on one of the main ranking sites known as SBR. Guts casino appears to have a positive reputation among gamblers though, since we could not find any reports of unresolved disputes.

Since they are based in Malta, it is rather predictable that they are licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority. They also happen to be licensed by the UK Gambling Commission which results in an extremely secure sportsbook for gamblers everywhere. The numbers for the gambling licenses in Guts’ possession are listed below:

Guts features live-betting on a wide variety of sports, which is a huge hit in today’s sports betting world. The betting software is powered by Guts’ very own iGamingCloud, and there are tons of European banking options to help their European-heavy customer base move funds around.

One of our favorite features about Guts Sportsbook is that is available on nearly every platform. It’s supported by Android, Blackberry, Tablets, iPhone, PC (Mac and Windows both), and Windows Phone. When playing from a phone, you do not need to download any software of apps. You simply need to visit Guts.com and you can place the bets right in your mobile browser.

Outside of their sportsbook, Guts also offers an online casino and an online poker room. These have all been enjoying great success since they launched, so let’s examine the site a little further to see if their sports book is worthy of all the hype.

U.S Players NOT Welcome

This is unfortunate since the U.S. has one of the largest sports betting markets in the world. The following list of countries are also prohibited from betting on any games in the Guts Sportsbook:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Belgium, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Bulgaria, Comoros, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Greenland, Greece, Guam, Holy See (Vatican City State), Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland (sports betting prohibited), Israel, Italy, Jordan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Montenegro, Myanmar, New Caledonia, Nigeria, Pakistan, State of Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, Syria, The Faroe Islands, Turkey, Western Sahara, and Yemen.

Major Pros & Cons

Pros

Cons

Live Betting

Guts attracts a ton of players with their modern and exciting Live Betting feature. This feature allows you to bet on any game that is currently still playing. They decided to call it “In-Play Betting” on their website, but we will continue to call it Live Betting.

The reason why the Guts live betting feature is so popular is that they have a huge selection of markets to choose from. Where else can you bet on Gaelic Football or Bandy while it is playing live? These obscure sports are tough to find on other sportsbooks.

The one thing that they are lacking here is a live video stream feature, which is merely a minor inconvenience since most people already have televisions or streaming websites to watch the games on. It is slightly better if the stream is on the sportsbook though, because then you can be sure that there is no time lag between the game and the bets.

Once you have clicked on the “In-Play” tab at the top of their homepage, you will see the extensive list of games that are available for Live Betting at that very moment. Each game on the list will have a bunch of bets pertaining to it, and they are available to complete at any given time.

Depending on where you live, you are probably used to one of the three ways to write odds. There is a pulldown menu in the top-right corner of the In-Play page so that you can choose between Fractional, American, or Decimal number systems. It is important to put the bets into a format that you can quickly understand because in Guts live betting you only have a small window of time to get your bets in. You do not want to waste this valuable time doing trivial number conversions because you could cause yourself to miss the bet before it disappears.

Betting Selection

Guts Sportsbook boasts one of the largest selections of sports to bet on that we have ever seen. Even the Winter Sports category has ten different sports hidden under its trench coat. There are also tons of obscure European sports listed here, which is to be expected for a European betting site.

According to the site, the sports that receive the most bets are Ice Hockey, Soccer, Tennis, and Basketball, in that order. This is interesting because the top five specific competitions that get the most bets are ALL soccer tournaments. The next five are all hockey tournaments, but somehow hockey is ranked above soccer in terms of betting popularity.

Here is the list of games that are available to wager on at this site:

In addition to international competitions, Guts has chosen to include over 30 soccer leagues from around the world to their list of betting options. These leagues are mostly based in England, Germany, Spain, Norway, Sweden, and Italy. These regions happen to be right smack in the middle of their main player base, so it makes sense that they put a boatload of effort into this category.

A betting margin is the difference between the odds that are related to a bet and the actual chance that the outcome happens. The smaller the margin, the better it is for the customers. Below is a list of some of the betting margins that can be found in Guts most common markets:

Soccer 4.8%
Basketball 4.8%
Tennis 6.8%
Baseball 4.3%
Ice Hockey 4.8%
American Football 4.7%
Overall Betting Margin 5.0%

Banking Options

The banking options that are available to you will depend on the region that you are currently located in. Some places have more options than others, but if you log-in and check your account cashier you will be able to see exactly what they have to offer you.

Below is the total list of available banking options:

All these deposit options can also be used as withdrawal methods except for MasterCard, Trustly, and Paysafecard. While this list of banking options might not be very long, they boast a two-hour processing time for all withdrawals. This is far ahead of the industry standard, so it is tough to find anything to complain about in that department.

As far as actually receiving the withdrawals, the terms and conditions claim that Visa and MasterCard withdrawals will be received between 1-3 banking days, and so will bank transfer withdrawals. Any withdrawal that uses an eWallet will be received the SAME DAY, which we find to be amazing.

The main complaint we have about the list of banking methods is that the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin is not on the list. This pains us because it is one of the most convenient and anonymous banking options that you can find on the internet these days.

When it comes to currencies, the site requires all players to deposit using either their local currency or US dollars. Only players from the UK are permitted to open an account in Pounds Sterling (GBP).

As far as reliability goes, every one of these banking methods is well-known and trustworthy. On top of that, Guts makes sure to keep player funds separate from operational funds. This segregation is to ensure that if the site were ever to go broke, they would still be able to pay the players what they have in their accounts.

Whenever we try to withdraw at least 2,300 Euros, we will be prompted to submit some identification forms. These forms could include a passport, a national identity card, a driver’s license, or a recent utility bill from the last three months.

Promotions

It appears that Guts did not feel that it was necessary to include a bunch of promotions for their sports bettors. We count a total of four, three of which feature a lame €10 bonus as their prize.

The Guts Squad loyalty club sounds like a lucrative club to be a part of, it is just unfortunate that it is so tough to get into it. The benefits to this club are extensive, and we like that it gives sports bettors something to shoot for while they are on their gambling journey.

Let’s look at each promotion in detail and see what they are made of.

Welcome Bonus

The first promotion that Guts offers for their fresh blood is underwhelming, to say the least. If you deposit €10 or more, and then bet at least €10 on an event of your choice, you will be eligible for this bonus. The catch is that you must be living in the UK to receive this welcome bonus.

If your first bet loses, they will credit the €10 back into your account. This bet must give the odds of 1.80 (4/5) or higher to qualify. The €10 bonus will then be subject to a 4x playthrough requirement before any withdrawal is possible.

Anyone who deposited using Skrill or Neteller does not qualify for this promotion. This is most likely because these methods incur fees and Guts does not want to pay these fees.

Champions League

This promotion is aimed towards those who are fans of Live Betting. We know this because it rewards you when you place one Live Bet of €10 or more on any Champions League match on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

If this bet loses, you will be rewarded with a €10 Sportsbook bonus. They will also throw in 10 free spins on the game Sticky Bandits just in case you thought €10 was too small (we did). These free spins will be activated as soon as you log-in to your account and you will receive a notification about how many spins you have left to use.

Before you can withdraw any of this bonus money, you are once again required to wager the bonus four times on bets that have odds of 1.8 or higher. This includes any winnings from the free spins on the Sticky Bandits game. You will have only 12 days from the time you receive the bonus money to complete this mission.

Bonus Back

This promotion is almost exactly like the first two deals that we discussed because the end prize is a €10 sportsbook bonus. All we need to do to receive this bonus is to place a single bet of €10 or more on any NHL, NFL, or NBA game between Sunday 12:30pm CET and Monday at 12:30pm CET.

If this bet loses, we will receive a lovely €10 sportsbook bonus into our accounts. These bonuses will be credited within 48 hours of each bet settling, which is 24 hours faster than the other promotions for some reason.

As you probably expected, this bonus also comes with a 4x playthrough requirement that must be made on bets that have 1.8 odds or greater. This means that we must bet at least €40 on some games before we can withdraw any of our €10 bonus.

Loyalty Squad

This promotion is very unique, but we like to see these types of innovative ideas from online gambling sites. It is their only promotion that involves the casino, the poker room and the sportsbook, collectively.

Instead of giving players a goal to aim for, the site handpicks who they want to be on the team. While deciding who will be members of the squad, they consider things such as the total amount of money the person has wagered or deposited, the frequency of log-ins, and the number of different types of games that they played.

Benefits for this squad are huge and it is basically like getting sponsored. For those who are lucky enough to be chosen for the Squad, they will be offered priority payouts, an anniversary bonus, a personal VIP support representative, tons of bonuses, and special trips such as concerts or sporting events!

Customer Service

If we need to get ahold of Guts’ customer service department, we have two options. The quickest of these options is certainly going to be the Live Chat option.

We simply clicked on the Live Chat button at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, and we were chatting with a representative in 2 seconds. This is tied with the fastest response time that we have ever seen from a gambling site’s Live Chat team.

For those of you who are not a huge fan of Live Chat, you can also email them for help. Their email address is support@guts.com.

If you need to mail them a letter, you can send it to GB Buildings, Penthouse, level 4, Watar Street, Ta’ Xbiex, XBX 1301, Malta.

When it comes to resolving customer disputes, the customer service team is doing an excellent job. The reasoning for this statement is that we could not find any complaints of any unresolved disputes or withdrawal issues on Guts side. They appear to truly care about their players and want to improve the experiences that they have.

If you happen to have a problem that customer support cannot solve, you still have the option of taking it to a higher authority. If you live in the UK, you can contact the UK gambling commission at the contact information below:

Street Address: PO Box 62639, London, EC3P 3As, United Kingdom
Email Address: adjudication@ibas-uk.co.uk
Fax Number: +44 02073475882
Telephone Number +44 02073475883

For those of you who do not live in the UK but still need to contact a higher authority, you can visit the website that serves Malta Gaming disputes at http://www.mga.org.mt/support/online-gaming-support/.

Verdict

By using the information above, you should be able to determine whether this is the right place for you to place some sports wagers or not. Using their reputation, promotions, payment methods and betting selection as a barometer, we believe that you should be able to weather the storm of finding an online sportsbook that you can become loyal to.

For those who are impressed with what they saw in this review, you simply need to visit Guts.com and sign-up for an account! You will need a working cellphone because they will text you a confirmation code once you sign-up to confirm your identity.