Www Intertops Com
Play Intertops Casino. Real Time Gaming Vegas Technology. English Chinese Russian German. Intertops casino is a fabulous casino with a long-standing tradition. It was established back in 1983 as a land-based casino. It went online in 1996 and has been one of.
Online betting portals began turning to sports betting history as a source for fresh content some 15-years ago. Over the years the Computer Group story was written, Ron Sacco (bmaker.eu), better known as Cigar, was named “the founder of offshore gambling”, Billy Scott (WWTS) “the godfather of sports betting” and WSEX founder Jay Cohen was the first American sentenced to prison for operating a gambling site fully legally in the country it was located.. Unfortunately history has found a way to distort itself with rumors turning to fact, and careless research into dates, but all this is minor and fails in comparison to the glaring omission of Intertops.com from the historical archives. As you’ll learn in this article, Intertops truly is the company that started it all.
Detlef Train (Detlef’lI’ain) – Intertops Early Years
Intertops got their start back in 1982 in Germany; it took less than a year for their founder and owner Detlef Train (pictured top right) to run into challenges with authorities. His solution wasn’t to quit bookmaking, but rather in 1983 he moved to London and obtained a British bookmaker license. The purpose of this license was to set up a phone-in betting shop that marketed to his home country (Germany). Perhaps Detlef Train wasn’t the first to execute such a plan, but as far as documented sports betting history goes, he was the first to obtain licensing and safe haven in one country for the purpose of marketing in another where bookmaking was illegal.
During Intertops early years in London, UK punters could place their bets in any Intertops office. The larger portion of their business came from German punters who in their home country were limited to betting with the Government’s monopoly. Considering Intertops offered better odds and more markets, many Germans opened and funded Intertop accounts via post which then allowed them to make telephone wagers. The UK operation remained small and merely a cover for their German post which also attracted a large number of Scandinavian punters.
During Mr. Detlef Trains first eight years in London, many American bookies executed similar plans, BetOnline landed in Panama while others ended up in Belize, Venezuela, Dominican, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Antigua. With pressure coming in from both the US and German governments, UK officials were not quite sure how to handle this grey area. This led to a legislative proposal that would restrict licensees from engaging in cross-border trade. Not one to wait around, Detlef Train moved his operation to Austria in 1992.
Simon Noble Takes Over
Simon Noble was an 18-year college student studying banking and internal finance at Manchester University when in 1989 he gained part time employment as a ticket writer in Intertop’s London office. Little did he know at the time, he’d eventually become the face of online gambling.
Once a part-time ticket writer, Simon Noble would help the company secure credit card processing and then follow them in their move to Austria. In 1994, he headed up their internet expansion team; a team which set a goal to become the first online sportsbook. Detlef Train who was known for declining all media interviews took on a behind the scenes roll in 1995, promoting Simon Noble to CEO and granting him full control over day to day operations. While Mr. Train was a media ghost, Noble was the opposite. His name was quoted in newspapers as frequently as you’d hear MMMbop playing on the Radio; for those not around at the time, although extremely annoying, that was the top song when Intertops was first growing online.
Intertops.com Launches
17 January 1996, was the most historical day in sports betting history. This is the day Intertops.com accepted a $50 wager from a Finnish gambler named Jukka Honkavaara on a UK Football match between Hereford United and Tottenham. Intertops was successful in their goal to become the first online sportsbook. Mr. Honkavaara’s wager placed on 17 January 1996 was the first ever sports bet made online.
The significance of becoming the first online sportsbook cannot possibly be overstated. Intertops.com was developed without footsteps to follow. After just over a year in development, Intertops was able to bring sports betting to the internet, an information network that was still unknown to large portions of the population.
Intertops Plows Forward into USA
Unfortunately for Intertops, first mover advantage was short lived. In 1996 VIP Sports also launched; the following year, dozens of others including Players Only (now: Sportsbook.com), Rio International (later: skybook.com) and Big Book (later absorbed by Bodog) came online. It was a competitive time indeed and there were new government pressures. Austria who was okay with phone in accounts opened via post, but had issues with internet betting and net based signups. As a result Intertops split, moving the internet portion of their business to Antigua in late 1997. Shortly later they translated their website to English and began marketing football betting to the United States.
First Seamless Gambling Site
The innovations over the year have been many. Intertops was an early client of Microgaming, integrating its casino software to their website in 1998. In 2003 they partnered with PartyPoker.com and began operating a shared player skin. Once this occurred, Intertops was quick with press releases declaring themselves the first company to offer sports betting, casino and poker seamlessly from a single website. This statement is only partially true. Technically speaking, Bodog was the first seamless 3-product site, but their initial poker room was horrible and eventually scrapped (a year later a stable poker room was added to Bodog.com). Intertops wasn’t the first, they were just the first “relevant” seamless online betting site; doing it with a much fancier casino than the competition and a poker site that shared the title “world’s largest”.
First Mobile Betting Software – In year 2000!
As the rest of the gambling industry wondered what Y2K might bring, Intertops.com was developing WAP enabled software that made betting via mobile phones possible. To show the significance of this, today the leading mobile betting sites are Betfair, Bet365 and Bookmaker.eu. When Intertops launched their mobile betting client NONE of these three leaders even had their standard websites online yet. This shows how far ahead of the curve Intertops was, once again developing a major betting innovation without footsteps to follow.
Simon Noble Steps Down, Off to WWTS
Intertops is still today one of the largest and most respected betting sites in the industry, but this did not come without challenges and periods of decline. In April 2002, Billy Scott who had built the largest toll-free phone-based wagering shop targeting the US was retiring from his empire operations called World Wide Tele-Sports (WWTS) and insisted Simon Noble take over as CEO. The offer must have been outstanding, because on April 24, 2002 Simon Noble announced his intent to step-down as Intertops CEO, thus leaving the company he worked his way from a part time ticket writer at age18, to the biggest name in sports gambling at age 31. On June 1, 2002 his resignation took effect and WWTS announced him as their CEO on June 15, 2002.
Poker Changes
While first and foremost an online sportsbook, Intertops made great strides pushing their PartyPoker networked poker room during the WPT/Moneymaker driven boom of 2003/2004. Unfortunately, a series of challenges hurt their poker business and this hindered their overall momentum.
Party Gaming Gets Greedy
In October 2005, Party Poker moved all of its skins to their own network. This network still used Party Poker’s software but did not have access to Party Poker’s player pool. The skins on the secondary network included Empire Poker, Eurobet and Multi Poker. Over the next few months the secondary network would dissolve. Empire Poker filed a lawsuit against Party Gaming over the ring fencing of the player pool. During this lawsuit Eurobet moved their players to the Ongame Network. Empire Poker would go on to settle with Party Gaming for $250 million. Upon this settlement, MultiPoker and Intertops Poker would go on to sell their Party Gaming skins for an undisclosed amount.
Intertops Poker to Microgaming
During much of 2006 Intertops did not offer poker directly to their players. Instead, Intertops was an affiliate for Party Poker. In late 2006, Intertops got back into the online poker business. They launched a skin on the Microgaming Poker Network, which at the time was often referred to as Prima Poker. After the UIGEA passed in the U.S. Microgaming banned 11 U.S. states. Players in those 11 U.S. states could still play on Microgaming through Intertops due to the unique method the software was configured.
Intertops Poker Moves Again: CakeNetwork
In 2009, Microgaming stopped allowing new U.S. players. Considering the large numbers of U.S. player accounts in Intertops’ portfolio, they were forced to move their online poker and casino operations away from Microgaming. The online casino operations were moved to Real Time Gaming and the online poker operations were moved to what was at the time the largest U.S. facing online poker network, Cake Poker.
Changing networks several times caused this once well known Intertops poker brand to become largely irrelevant in the online poker market.
Innovative Marketing
Intertops managed to attract 500,000 customers and 20 million wagers by January 2002, thanks in part to wild publicity stunts gone viral. One such stunt was their Moolette.com website which broadcast four cows roaming around a field with a giant 65-foot roulette wheel painted on it. Bettors made wagers based on which number a specific cow would plop on next. The entire marketing idea was that some players didn’t trust computers, but live dealer games that used cows would be impossible to rig. While this sounds like a joke, it was serious! This was in their offerings for several years and caught significant media attention bringing Intertops.com free marketing exposure.
Simon Noble was a marketing genius, he didn’t rely simply on cows taking a dump to grow the brand; he was famous for giving major media a nudge. He’d post odds on who will win Survivor (the original won by Richard Hatch), what fuel prices will be next month, who will win the Israeli election, who Al Gore will chose as a running mate. His nudges were to get major media to incorporate the odds of certain things occurring into stories people were interested in. These articles contained unpaid for references to Intertops.com, and more times than not also included a Simon Noble quote. No doubt this early exposure helped carry Intertops over the top, and the residual effects will likely last for decades to come.
Intertops then and Now
The best way to understand Intertops current state is to look at their founder Detlef Train. He’s as private as anyone you’ll find in the gambling industry; I’m not even sure he gave a single media interview until Intertops.com was ten years old, and the total interviews I recall him giving I can count on one hand. The strategy he’s preferred was to focus on great value, be that entertainment novelty wagers, or better than standard odds. Today, online gambling is restricted in many countries, yet no one seems to pay much attention to Intertops because they’ve headed back to their roots. Once the king of media stunts and link bait, today Intertops prefers to remain low key and off government radars.
Intertops is however still an excellent choice for sports betting. Their company offers a VIP loyalty scheme that automatically gives rebates equivalent to a 10% savings of vig. They have dozens of promotions, frequent reloads, and a massive selection of wagering opportunities including soccer competitions from around the world and over a dozen football propositions for each and every game of the NFL football season. They also offer small markets such as ski jumping, politics and movie props.
Know this: for as long as online sports betting has existed, so has Intertops.com. They were founded by the first bookie to move offshore, accepted the first ever internet bet, and developed mobile sports betting in a time pay phones cost a dime. They are innovators of the industry, building it all with no footsteps to follow. If you’re looking for a well established and highly respected gambling site, Intertops.com is a fine choice!
One of the largest online sports betting and casinos in the world, Intertops.com also has a poker room that offers a variety of online poker games in around 180 countries across the globe, including the UK. NO USA PLAYERS! . Players can choose from poker tables for Texas Holdem, Omaha and 7 Card stud, and start playing games for as low as $0.02 to $0.04. If you are a poker lover and want to make some money online, Intertops poker room is the place to be. Here is a short review of the different features of the Intertops poker website.
- Location: Curaco
- Established: 1996
- Code:n/a - use links
- Mac Friendly: No
In the few years that Intertops Poker has been online, the casino has quickly risen to the top of the online gambling world. Through a combination of advertising, generous promotions, and generous odds, Intertops Poker has developed a loyal player base. Games offered include slots, video poker, blackjack, craps, roulette, keno, video slots, and much more.
If you’re looking for a new online casino that offers excellent software and fun games, Intertops Poker is definitely a great bet.
BESTPOKERSITES.ORG
for a 200% up to $1000 Bonus!
Intertops Poker Deposit Bonus and Promotions
Intertops poker offers a 200% bonus, limited to $1000, for all new players. This bonus is paid in instalments of $5, and the amount would be credited to your account when you acquire the required number of Frequent Player Points (FPPs).
>> Ready to redeem your $1000 bonus? Visit Intertops.com to get started << |
You will be awarded one FPP for every dollar you spend on playing real money poker games on the site and for every 83.335 FPPs you earn, your account would be credited with $5 of the bonus amount. In case of tournaments, you will gain 7 FPPs for every dollar spent as tournament fee.
Gold Chips – The FPPs you earn are automatically converted to gold chips, which in turn can be redeemed for different prizes or for entry into the Gold Chips sit ‘n’ go tourneys. Also, you can redeem your gold chips for a no-deposit bonus by mailing the details to the site. You can trade 20 gold chips for a bonus of $5, 100 gold chips for $25 bonus or 400 gold chips for $100 bonus.
Gold Cards – Poker players on the Intertops poker site are awarded gold cards simply for playing cash poker games on the site. Players can accumulate their gold cards, which can be redeemed for entry into the Match & Win freeroll tournaments. Players can also trade their gold cards or sell them to other players who are falling short of the required number of cards for entry into freerolls or tournaments.
Besides these, players are also offered reload bonuses which are bonuses offered on additional deposits made by them. These bonuses are offered occasionally and players are intimated about them through promotional emails sent from the site.
Intertops Poker Software
The software used on Intertops Poker site is developed by Cake Gaming Networks, which is known for its sophisticated yet user-friendly gaming softwares. The easy to install software enables fast and smooth gaming and allows players to set the table size, play on multiple tables simultaneously, chat with other players and provides updates and statistics of the different players at the table. Players can also access useful information like average pot size, number of players at each table, the game type at the table etc from the lobby.
Intertops Poker Tournaments
Intertops poker room has a number of exciting tournaments including the $15,000 and $25,000 Weekly Guaranteed Tournaments that are held every Sunday. Players can also take part in the $250 Bounty Tournaments, $1000 freerolls, the Sunday $1k Freezeout and also take part in the prestigious World Poker Tournament qualifiers and win a chance to participate in the biggest land-based poker tournaments. There are also a number of satellite tournaments players can take part in every day.
Intertops Poker Player Traffic
With attractive tournaments and lucrative bonuses, the Intertops poker room has been successful in drawing thousands of poker players from across the globe and gets over 20,000 poker players during peak hours. Even during non-peak hours, you can surely find a good number of sit ‘n’ go and tournament tables with thousands of players taking part in cash games, although the majority of players can be found at the Texas Holdem and Omaha tables.
Despite the traffic, competition differs from table to table and can vary based on the rake or the table limits. If you are an average player and want to make some easy money, you should choose tables with lesser stakes, where you can easily find a lot of fish. If you are experienced and know the ins and outs of poker, you’ll find soft competition irrespective of the table you choose.
Intertops Poker Banking Options
Deposits in Intertops Poker site can be made through a variety of options like MasterCard and Visa credit or debit cards, Diners Club cards, e wallet accounts like Moneybookers, Neteller, Instadebit, and Ukash, Money Global, PaySafeCard, Money Transfer, Online Bank Transfer, EU Standard Bank Transfer, ECO Card, and Click2Pay.
To make a deposit into your Intertops Poker account, all you need to do is click on the ‘cashier’ tab on the home page and you would be directed to a secured banking page. The banking page lists the deposits options, the time taken for deposit and the deposit limits for each of these options. To make a deposit using one of the available options, just click on the ‘Pay In’ button next to the option, login and make your deposit.
- Visa/MasterCard
- Moneybookers
- NETeller
- UKash
- Bitcoin
- Amex
- PaySafeCard
- Money Transfer
- Online Bank Transfer
Www.intertops.com
- EU Standard Bank Transfer
- ECO Card
- Click2Pay
Payouts are made through check, Bank Wire Transfer, Visa Shopping Card, Moneybookers, ECO Card, Click2Pay, Neteller, Instadebit and EU Standard Bank Transfer. The minimum time taken to withdraw is 48 hours and the maximum time could be around 7-10 business days. To withdraw your winnings, players are required to submit a valid picture ID and the latest utility bill for verification of identity and address.
Intertops Log In
Customer Support
For any kind of query or complaint, you can contact the support team of Intertops poker through email at any time and telephone or fax them during their business hours. Players from North America, the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland can use the regional toll free customer support hotline numbers for their queries and complaints. Players from other countries can call the regular customer support hotline which is also a toll free number. In addition to that, players can also make use of the information available on the Intertops poker site to learn about the different poker games, software compatibility, promotions etc.
Intertops.com
Now that you have read our review of Intertops, why not check out the site for yourself. The poker room is open for free or real money. They have a huge tournament schedule coupled with action packed cash games ( loaded with fish). Join Intertops here and claim your $1000 bonus!