Have you ever seen a particularly attractive line on a football game and tried to make a quick deposit at your offshore book, only to have your credit card turned down just in time to miss out on a big payday?
It’s not an uncommon occurrence in the online sports betting world, thanks in part to the restrictions contained in the UIGEA.
Fortunately, there’s now a way to fund your overseas gambling account quickly and easily with Bitcoin, even if you’ve never used the cryptocurrency before.
The solution is an instant payment service called Zelle.
(Incidentally, the Bovada betting line on tonight’s MNF tilt between the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins is Bears -6, so if you want to deposit in time to get in on that action, keep reading.)
What Is Zelle?
Zelle is a peer-to-peer payment platform supported by hundreds of national banks, credit unions, and their regional and local subsidiaries. Owned and developed by some of the biggest names in the financial industry (like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and others), Zelle’s reach is unparalleled in the United States.
Positioned against PayPal and PayPal’s Venmo e-Wallet service, Zelle has far fewer active users, in part due to the fact that Zelle is a US-only service. However, despite that limitation, Zelle moves significantly more money in the United States than PayPal or Venmo. In the last quarter (Q2 2019), the Zelle service transferred $44 billion across 171 million transactions, up from $39 billion on 147 million transactions in Q1.
But Zelle, as a US-only service, can’t actually be employed to send money from your bank account directly to your USA sportsbook site of choice.
Instead, Zelle makes funding your account easy because it almost totally eliminates the wait time associated with purchasing Bitcoin.
Because Bitcoin is the most reliable and secure way to fund any offshore betting account, it’s in high demand for this purpose. But for users who have never purchased Bitcoin before, there is a bit of a learning curve.
Worse than that learning curve, however, is the wait time involved.
If you want to buy some Bitcoin to deposit into your online sportsbook account, you are going to be twiddling your thumbs for up to 10 days while that transaction clears before you can send your Bitcoin to your bookie.
Clearly, if you’re going to bet on a sporting event tonight (or tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that, etc.), that simply won’t do.
And this time requirement – more than anything else – is what keeps online gamblers from embracing Bitcoin and taking advantage of all the perks that the cryptocurrency has to offer, like enhanced bonuses and same-day payouts.
But because Zelle sportsbooks support the option by proxy in their acceptance of Bitcoin, you can buy into the crypto right now and have it in your own personal online wallet within 15-30 minutes, ready to send overseas.
The Zelle-to-Bitcoin process is simple enough to understand. Just follow these instructions, and you’ll know how to buy Bitcoin in a hurry, so you can bet on that hurry-up offense a couple of hours from now.
How To Fund Your Gambling Account With Zelle
- If you don’t already have one, set up an account with a reputable US sportsbook.
- Confirm that your bank supports Zelle. You can do this by logging in to your online banking portal or mobile banking app. You can also download a dedicated Zelle app for iPhone or Android.
- Sign up for a free LocalBitcoins.com account. LocalBitcoins is a highly-regarded, safe Bitcoin classifieds exchange that allows you to purchase Bitcoin from private sellers, bypassing the typical long wait associated with commercial cryptocurrency buy-ins. LocalBitcoins is secure and free, and it’s one of the best ways to take the Bitcoin plunge.
- Use Zelle to send money to a LocalBitcoins seller in your area at an agreed-upon rate. LocalBitcoins will hold the seller’s Bitcoin in escrow until your Zelle transfer clears, at which point the Bitcoin will be released to your LocalBitcoins wallet.
- At your sportsbook of choice, select the Bitcoin deposit option, and send your Bitcoin from your LocalBitcoins wallet to the wallet address provided by your bookie.
- Once this transaction goes through (usually within 5-15 minutes), you will have your Bitcoin credited to your account as USD, and you will be able to gamble freely.
In short, Zelle allows you to fund your sports betting account in about 45-60 minutes from start to finish, even if you’ve never used Bitcoin before. That’s a gamechanger, and it makes transitioning to cryptocurrency for your sports betting needs easier than ever before.
If you need to deposit ASAP – and who doesn’t, these days? – then Zelle might be the X factor you’ve been looking for.