How Intertops Got Things Started

Updated: 15.08.2025

It is hard to overlook Intertops when talking about the history of online gambling sites. They were the first legal sportsbook in one nation created for the purpose of paying bets to another nation, opening in 1983. In 1996, they launched the first ever online sportsbook, followed by the then cutting edge mobile betting site in 2000. Then in 2003, they were the first gambling site to unify access to three categories of games: sports betting, poker, and casino, accessible through a single login to a centralized player bank. Their site is a bit quaint today, but they accomplished these things unchallenged and without any other company to follow.

An Early Competitor to the German Monopoly

In 1982, the founder of Intertops began his illegal gambling business as a German bookmaker. While Germany had long offered legal sports betting, the state-run monopoly that provided it had an uncompetitive pricing structure. Because it had to pay a huge tax, the legal books offered terrible odds, and in fact, even the successful bets were propped up by absurd laws that made it impossible to use certain types of gambling math. These laws made betting on the legal books a kind of bet that was very hard to win.

The business came from Britain, was licensed, and was initially taxed. Although not nearly as much as in the UK, the taxes were low enough to undercut the German monopoly. Intertops targeted intelligent gamblers who knew the value of getting the best deal. They received checks in the mail long before most sporting events took place. By 1992, the company had morphed into a toll-free telephone sports book, and still sends out most of its action on football (soccer) bets.

Simon Noble

In 1989, an 18-year-old university student named Simon Noble took a job as a ticket writer in the London office of Intertops. This kid turned out to have a talent for the business and some incredible marketing ideas that management took notice of. In 1992, Intertops moved to Austria and the young man stayed with the company. In 1994, Noble was promoted to management and led the Internet expansion team. The goal was to become the first online sports book. We will return to him shortly.

The First Online Sports Bet

On January 17, 1996, Jukka Honkavaara, a punter from Finland, logged on to Intertops.com and placed a $50 bet that Tottenham Hotspur would beat Hereford United. They did, and by a wide margin: 5-1 to be exact. This was to be expected, of course, as the odds were 1.04, and Mr. Honkavaara made a profit of just $2.00. Far more significant than the two Washington bills is the fact that this wager was the very first sports bet ever placed online. This made Intertops.com the first internet sportsbook ever.

Mobile Betting and All-in-One

Too often, Ron Sacco of bookmaker.eu is inaccurately credited with being the first bookmaker to move to a new country to legally offer sports betting in his home country. Of course, the second of four felony bookmaking convictions that resulted in a second consecutive 3-year prison sentence proved that Ron Sacco's idea wasn't exactly on the level. This section will also briefly cover the life and times of Intertops' D.T., who was also a legal bookmaker and preceded Sacco.

Among Intertops' many accomplishments, they can rightfully claim to have launched both the first ever sportsbook and the first ever mobile betting site. In fact, if you look at their iGaming history, they have established a number of lifetime "firsts"; and with these "firsts", they have certainly captured a sizable chunk of the poker space. So between calling themselves the "First in iGaming" and having all these "firsts" under their belt, they seem to be pretty well positioned in a marketing sense.

Simon Noble Marketing Genius

Although Intertops had all the advantages of position, none of these advantages could provide a better boost than that of its CEO, Simon Noble. This was a man who had come a long way to the top, but who had also come a long way in terms of experience. In 1989, he started working for Intertops as an 18-year-old, writing sports tickets by hand. When the company wanted to move beyond analog, he went to university in Berlin to learn about computers and the Internet. Armed with this knowledge, he returned to Intertops as Internet Manager and eventually rose to head the expansion team, if not the company itself.

Noble got media attention. He got it easy. But it went to his head. He did some pretty crazy things in his day, but sometimes they worked. One example is in late 2001, when he started various marketing skits about how gamblers don't trust computers, Internet casino games have a limited future, etc. Then he launched a new casino game where the results couldn't be rigged. Called Moolette, it was a live game with cows as dealers. Intertops painted a giant 65-foot roulette wheel on a field. Cows were let loose to roam around. The whole thing was video streamed and bets were taken on where the next cow plop would land. This was more than just a publicity stunt; they actually took bets on Moolette. Meanwhile, hundreds of forums filled up with comments about how stupid an idea it was, giving Intertops even more exposure.

Executives at other companies saw the value of Simon Noble. It wasn't long before Intertops was one of the biggest betting sites that everyone else was trying to imitate. The founder of Bodog, then known as Cole Turner, had the sensationalist website gambling911 report all sorts of fabricated and exaggerated stories about his supposedly wild adventures in Southeast Asia, supposedly filmed in Thailand and featuring mostly massage parlor and bar girl actresses. These guys took the ruse too far and actually reported that Cole had been captured by the Cambodian army while doing missionary work. This wild story sent a panic through the gambling community as bettors lined up and rushed to cash out now that Bodog's supposedly dead CEO had come back to life.

Returning to Moolette, even if you thought it was a silly concept, there was no reason to dislike it. If you happened to have a negative opinion and expressed it to others, it was arguably a positive form of publicity, and almost certainly a public relations boost. Simon Noble was a marketing genius. He had a way of making people talk and think about him, and sometimes what he said or thought was even serious.

Masters of Retention

In June 2002, Simon Noble left Intertops to take up the position of CEO at World Wide Tele Sports (WWTS), a company that was acquired by Bodog in 2006. He then moved to Pinnacle Sports as Marketing Director. Our history of Pinnacle Sports also touches on the wonders he worked with that company - including his invention of the Pinnacle Pulse.

Intertops had a lot of momentum when Noble left. In 2003, they added a Party Poker skin, and in 2005, marketing director Michl Posch pushed to publicize their 10th anniversary - an event that should have made a splash. Posch was not around in 2006, but his presence in these years is one of optimism. The first-ever sportsbook was a "considerable sell" and a PR success, and was positioned by Intertops and Republic Media as the first sports betting option in the market. Still, UIGEA or no UIGEA, other than an affiliate program, it doesn't seem like they've been out there aggressively recruiting. And at least most of it seems to be overshadowed by the banking aftermath.

What Intertops excels at is keeping players engaged. There are all sorts of season-long promos and even tournament-long deals for different leagues and competitions. Reload bonuses are a regular occurrence as well as cash giveaways. Their banking methods are as good as you will find anywhere in the industry, with many different and enjoyable ways to request a withdrawal. In our estimation - and in several offensive and defensive ways - we think this company plays well enough to earn an A grade. If you have an account at Intertops, they do a good job of making you feel like a VIP. And last time we checked, they still do.