Quite often in social media groups or on forums, you can find ads where people want to buy other people’s negative balance accounts in bookmakers. As a rule, the price ranges from 500 rubles to 30,000 rubles depending on the total negative balance, the bookmaker, and additional services (providing a SIM card, photo with passport, and so on).
It’s quite reasonable for people to wonder: why do bettors buy these accounts when any honest person can just create their own? Naturally, thoughts of fraud come to mind. This isn’t always the case. We’ll look at all possible scenarios and explain why accounts in bookmakers are purchased.
Negative Balance Account: What Is It?
A negative balance account in a bookmaker is one where the total amount lost is greater than the amount won (over all time or a specific period). Naturally, the account doesn’t have a negative balance, but the total deposits are significantly higher than the withdrawals.
Generally, about 85% of players are in the negative. Bookmakers build their main profits from them. The remaining 15% of bettors are the biggest threat to the companies. They keep a close eye on these ‘characters’.
For players in the negative, bookmakers don’t interfere. They have high limits, aren’t under close surveillance, their accounts aren’t touched, and so on. That’s exactly what buyers expect from an account.
Why Are Accounts in Bookmakers Bought?
There are several categories of buyers. Each has their own goals. Let’s try to figure out why accounts with other people’s details are needed by certain individuals.
Post-Goal Bettors
This term refers to people who closely monitor live bets and wait for bookmaker errors. They place bets like ‘Who will score the next goal’ and wait until the goal is scored, but the bookmaker hasn’t reacted yet due to a delay or technical glitch.
Overall, post-goal bettors are becoming fewer. This is largely due to the introduction of VAR. Now, even if you catch such a moment, the player can’t guarantee the goal will count and the bet will win.
Bookmakers react normally to 1-2 such bets. But when it turns into a system, the situation changes drastically. They might block the account, prohibit withdrawals, and so on.
Post-goal bettors buy accounts in bulk, as each one is needed for just 3-4 bets. Afterward, they either discard them as unnecessary or sell them to other players.
Arbitrage Bettors
If we consider all users buying accounts, arbitrage bettors make up at least 50% of the total. There are many of them, they need a lot of accounts, so they buy them.
Arbitrage bettors are people who play on the differences in odds across various bookmakers.
Example. Suppose Parimatch offers odds of 2.05 for Medvedev to win over Zverev in tennis, while Winline offers 2.02 for Zverev to win. So, if a player bets 1,000 rubles on Medvedev at Parimatch and the same amount on Zverev at Winline, they are guaranteed to profit.
Bookmakers don’t like arbitrage bettors. They rarely block their accounts but often cut limits significantly. It can get to the point where a player can bet no more than 200-300 rubles. The profit from such amounts is negligible.
Arbitrage bettors buy accounts because they can’t afford to play with small stakes. To place these bets, players have to pay for premium odds monitoring services, which show the exact arbitrage opportunities. That’s why they need negative balance accounts with high limits.
Bonus Hunters
This group of buyers is one of the most harmless. They simply buy accounts from bookmakers that offer free bets, deposit bonuses, and other good promotions.
How It Works. They buy an account for a specific promotion at a particular bookmaker. Then they meet the conditions to receive the bonus. They play through the bonus until it converts to real money, then simply withdraw the funds and look for new bookmakers with bonuses.
Often, these players don’t buy accounts but rent them. They give an unknown player a certain amount of money, take the account for a week, and then return it.
Profitable Players
As we’ve mentioned, bookmakers closely monitor professional players. Their goal is to ensure that the winnings of these bettors don’t exceed the losses of negative players. So, they not only watch professional tipsters but also cut their maximum bet limits.
Professionals bet large amounts and not every day. Each bet for them is the result of in-depth analysis of the upcoming event. After limits are cut, the bet amount is very small, and the winnings aren’t worth the effort.
In principle, this category of account buyers can also be considered harmless. They aren’t engaging in anything fraudulent or illegal.
Fixed Match Enthusiasts
A limited group of people has access to fixed matches. With 99% certainty, these aren’t the guys who message everyone offering to sell info on a fix, so don’t mess with that yourself.
The problem for fixed match players is that bookmakers eventually find out which matches were fixed. Once there are about 4-5 on an account, it’s likely to be buried, and you’ll have to find a new one.
Each account lasts for 4-5 bets, so fixed match players buy accounts in large quantities.
Fraudsters
Bookmakers are ideal for money laundering and other illegal operations. Illegally obtained profits are sent to a bookmaker account, run through a few bets, and then withdrawn.
As a rule, fraudsters prefer bookmakers that allow deposits via cryptocurrencies. Such transactions are untraceable.
Basically, it’s best not to trust your profile to this category of buyers. God forbid authorities suspect something and follow the money trail… It leads straight to the bookmaker, who will hand over the username. That’s when problems start. You’ll have to prove your innocence and explain how the data from the bookmaker ended up with fraudsters.
Plus, there’s the option that fraudulent activity could target other players or even the bookmaker itself. Naturally, companies don’t want to risk their profits, and fraudsters don’t want to expose their details.
What Accounts Can Be Sold
Only a rare buyer would be interested in a completely new account at a bookmaker, though some exist. Mainly, the requirements are as follows:
- Registration date—at least 1 year ago.
- Loss to win ratio—from minus 20,000 rubles.
- No suspicious bets and a good profile reputation.
- Bet history of at least 500-600 bets.
For arbitrage and post-goal bettors, there’s another crucial point: a bookmaker with low margins, meaning high odds. Obviously, income directly depends on the odds.
There are also buyers with minimal requirements: they provide a list of bookmakers, along with the amount of negative balance and the period for each.
Risks
In these deals, both buyers and sellers take risks. We’ll discuss them shortly.
Many might think the main risk is the transaction itself. That is, how two people should exchange data for money? Who should provide information first? It’s straightforward.
On the internet, there are specialized escrow services that handle such deals. These are projects with excellent reputations that both parties trust. So, the account buyer gives the escrow the money, and the seller gives the escrow access to the account. The escrow checks the account; if everything’s good, they pass the profile details to the buyer and the money to the seller.
That’s how most electronic goods are sold online. Now, let’s move on to the risks after the deal.
Risks for Sellers
As for sellers, we’ve already talked about the financial trail from fraudulent operations that could lead to a specific user and cause problems. That’s just one side. The other is the impossibility of returning to betting. At least, it would be very, very difficult.
You see, the buyer will use the foreign account to the fullest to get the maximum out of their purchase. Most often, this leads to the profile being blocked, and the user ends up on a blacklist. There’s suspicion that bookmakers share a common blacklist. So, a block on one account could automatically end your betting career on another bookmaker or put you in a high-risk zone, with surveillance like no other.
Risks for Buyers
Here, I’d like to highlight 3 key points:
- There might be issues withdrawing large sums. Negative balance accounts rarely have large wins or withdrawals. When requesting a withdrawal, the buyer might face a request for re-verification. If the seller is honest, they might handle the re-verification. But they could refuse, since they’ve already received the money…
- Account block before the first withdrawal. There are two possible outcomes. Either the person starts winning, raises suspicions, and gets blocked before they can build up the account to the desired amount. Or the bookmaker notices a sudden IP change, realizes the user likely hasn’t moved across the country that quickly, and restricts their actions. In any case, the buyer is left empty-handed.
- The former owner might reclaim the account through support. Unfortunately for buyers, this is possible. The seller could contact support at any time, claiming their account was hacked and they’ve lost access. Then the account is returned to them. But don’t engage in this. First, the buyer won’t forgive such boldness and will prove to the bookmaker that there was a sale, leading to a block. And if SMS confirmation was required for access and the hacker couldn’t get in without it, the bookmaker will figure it out themselves.
The Legality of Buying and Selling Bookmaker Accounts
Naturally, no one will go to prison for such actions. At least, not sellers. Buyers might, but only in cases of massive financial turnover, fraudulent activity, and use of illegally obtained money.
As for the seller, sanctions typically come only from the bookmaker. They simply cut ties with such players to avoid further dealings.
In the agreement that every player accepts, it states that accounts can’t be transferred to third parties. But if you go by that agreement, players can’t do almost anything. Meanwhile, the bookmaker can take any self-imposed actions.
How Much Does a Bookmaker Account Cost?
The cost of an account varies. It usually starts at 1,000 rubles. There’s no upper limit, but deals over 30,000 rubles are rare. An account might go for 30,000 if it has a negative balance of around a million rubles, is fully verified, and the seller includes the SIM card tied to the profile.
Should You Sell an Account?
It’s a debatable question. We’ve provided all possible consequences of selling. We’ve explained how and why purchased profiles might be used. If that doesn’t scare you and you’ve decided to quit betting, then go ahead and sell—why not? On the other hand, if the risks outweigh the potential profit from the deal, then it’s not worth it.
In the end, even among account buyers, there’s a sort of ‘rating’—the reputation of a particular person. Often, they ask sellers to leave reviews, confirming that there were no issues after the sale and so on. You can probably trust such people.
Note! We do not recommend or promote services for buying/selling profiles and once again emphasize that this violates the rules of bookmakers.
