Why Do Online Bookmakers Ask You to Verify Your Account?
This article is a kind of step-by-step guide on how to register and verify an account in online bookmakers and casinos. In other words, you will learn how to verify your account without much trouble in 2021, but more importantly - why online bookmakers ask you to do so.
Today, with the online betting industry so advanced, few still use local land-based betting shops to bet given there are a number of quality online sports bookmakers where players can deposit their money and bet without leaving their home at all. The advantages of online betting over traditional betting are manifold, ranging from better odds, a wider choice of sports and betting markets, to the ability to watch live match broadcasts completely free of charge. However, there is one segment of online betting that gives players headaches, and that is the segment of account verification in online bookmakers and casinos.
What has become the standard in the sports betting industry is the checking and verification of the identity of users, mainly during the registration process, and in a smaller number of cases before the first withdrawal of money from the betting accounts. This process is also known as the KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
In this short but detailed tutorial, we will try to cover everything you need to know, so that the procedure of verifying your account in your favorite sports betting bookmaker or online casino will be as quick and painless as possible.
Why Do Bookmakers Want to Verify a User Account?
The answer to this question really comes down to two basic things: legislation and the struggle for market dominance. We definitely recommend only bookmakers that are legal and licensed by independent regulators. Actually, every sports bookmaker or casino that operates on the Internet should have a license for sports betting or gambling, which guarantees users a certain level of security and fair treatment of bettors.
These regulatory bodies, as well as the laws of the countries in which the betting companies are registered, require operators to do business in accordance with the law, while each monetary transaction must be thoroughly checked and each user verified at one time.
Here are some specific reasons why bookmakers and casinos need to verify your information before sending you money from your winnings:
⮚ Gambling over the Internet is allowed only to adults, i.e. depending on the jurisdiction, persons under 18 (sometimes 21) are not legally allowed to gamble and bet. Therefore, before you start the verification process, you must be absolutely sure that you are old enough to be allowed to bet at all.
⮚ Premium brands in the market make great efforts to maximize the safety of their customers. By verifying your account, you help your operator to establish that you have not become a victim of identity theft or any other Internet crime.
⮚ Also, online brands work closely with money transfer companies and banking companies around the world and meet their security procedures (the already mentioned KYC procedure and anti-money laundering policy). In order to avoid penalties and sanctions for negligent business, bookmakers must follow these strict procedures and therefore must be especially strict when verifying user accounts.
⮚ If you have a verified account, you avoid unnecessary complications when making payments. Verified users have fewer problems if their transaction is ‘lost’ or there is a delay in the bookmaker-bank relation.
How do Bookmakers and Casinos Verify User Identities?
The vast majority of online operators have a more or less similar approach when it comes to verifying their users, and once you go through it, you should not have any problems with a new verification.
The most common approach used nowadays is the approach of manually sending the required documentation, which approach we are writing about.
How to Manually Verify Your Identity in Online Bookmaker?
The moment a sports bookmaker or casino asks you to verify your account, the first thing you need to do is scan all the necessary documents and save them in .jpeg or .pdf format (depending on the bookmaker). Also, pay attention to the size of the files you create, because most bookmakers and casinos allow uploading files that are up to 5 MB in size. If the bookmaker did not ask you differently, the documents for the registration should usually be uploaded in the part of the site called “My Account”.
What is very important to note is that during registration you must provide valid personal data (name, last name, address, email, etc.) in order to be able to verify them later.
What Documents Are Needed to Verify Identity?
There are basically two steps that need to be taken when verifying an account at an online sports bookmaker. One proves your identity (Proof of Identity) and the other is proof of place of residence (Proof of Address).
In rare situations, when the documents you have submitted to the online operator do not contain all the required information, the bookmaker may ask you for additional documentation to confirm additional proof of identity or residential address.
What Documents Do Bookmakers and Casinos Accept?
In order to verify your identity, you need to send your operator a photo of a personal document with a color image. Bookmakers and casinos ask their users for official personal documents, which clearly show the picture, as well as the full name of the user. This means that it is necessary to send a photo of a personal document issued by a state organization, such as a passport, driver’s license, or ID card.
Pay attention to the quality of the photo you are taking and do not edit it too much before sending it, as it can often happen that the bookmaker asks you to resend the same document that has not been cropped and edited in the programs intended for that.
As for the verification of the address of residence, the situation here is a bit more complicated as online operators usually ask to be sent a bill (not older than six months), which clearly shows your full name and residential address. Most bookmakers ask for utility bills to be sent to them, but as long as you send a document that clearly shows that it was issued by a state body and on which your data can be read, there should be no problem. Note that mobile phone bills are not accepted by 99 % of sports bookmakers and online casinos as proof of residence address.
Here are some bills that can help you verify your address:
- Utility bill
- Cable TV bill
- Internet bill
- Electricity bill
- Insurance policy (car, apartment, etc.)
- Excerpt from the register of immovable property rights
- Bank statement
What Happens if You Are Not a Verified User?
If you do not verify your account and prove that you are old enough to bet, that you are the person you claim to be, or that you do not live where you stated you lived, you will not be able to withdraw your winnings and, in some situations, you may have your account limited, suspended, or even completely removed.
But the most important thing you need to know is that you will not be able to request payment if your account has not been verified.
You Have Verified the Account, What Now?
Once you complete the verification process, all you need to do is start making money at the bookmaker. In addition, our recommendation is that you carefully choose a sports bookmaker where you will register and verify your account. We definitely suggest betting at well-known operators, especially those that offer a free bet on first deposit and which are listed at https://bookmaker-expert.com/bonus/free-bets/.
What is positive in this whole story is the fact that the verification in all the best sports bookmakers is done only once, so there is no need to expose yourself to this process more than once.
This Is What You Will Probably Ask the Bookmakers
Is verification mandatory in regional sports bookmakers as well? The answer is yes. Registration is now a mandatory step in any online sports bookmaker or casino, no matter under whose jurisdiction it is.
Is there a possibility for bookmakers to use your data illegally? The answer is no. Legal and licensed bookmakers do not provide data of their users to third parties, and there is no possibility of theft of personal and financial data of users.
How long does it take to verify an account? Well, if all your documentation is correct, it takes an average of about 48 hours to complete the account verification process.
