Full History and Start Up of Sportsbook.com

Updated: 15.08.2025

Sportsbook.com is the gambling site most associated with the US market. In the early days of the Internet, when they and many others were still trying to figure out how to use this new medium, their ads could be seen on a variety of mainstream sites. They were never shy about becoming one of the top names in the gaming industry. Now, in 2010, they have a very big place on the web.

Sportsbook.com Origins

The most interesting fact about sportsbook.com is that it has, for the most part, kept its true ownership well hidden. This esoteric corporate structure is certainly consistent with the way offshore gambling companies generally operate. And it's not hard to see why they would want to stay under the radar: Offering sports betting to U.S. citizens is a gray area at best, and in many ways an outright illegal activity. Given all of this, it's really a testament to the almost iron-fisted control Sportsbook.com has over its own public relations that some of the issues surrounding its ownership have never really been much of a story.

PlayersOnly.com Came First

A tall, red-haired Irishman from Canada, then 26 years old, landed on Margarita Island (a Venezuelan territory) in 1996. There he started a bookmaking business and a bar. His name was Patrick Callahan. The bar was called Fat Boys and the bookmaking business was called Players (later PlayersOnly.com).

Mr. Callahan was far from the first person to operate an offshore bookmaker. In fact, the history of William Hill and bookmaker.eu shows that he was quite late to the game. What was unique about Mr. Callahan's business was that he was the first offshore bookmaker to accept credit cards in January 1998. His competitors were still relying on mailed postal checks, cash agents, or Western Union wire transfers to settle bets. In addition to accepting credit cards, Mr. Callahan gave his customers the option of receiving payouts by check or wire transfer.

How did he do it? It's hard to say exactly, but one thing is clear: Patrick Callahan had a team of experienced hands on his side when it came to creating shell companies and hiding money in offshore bank accounts. Whether he founded the company or not, it's rumored that a well-known investor, John Vipulis, was a major shareholder. Here are some connections to consider:

The founder of Ameridebit, Andris Pukke, is a family friend of John Vipulis. He was the best man at his wedding and his father, Andris Pukke, is John Vipulis' godfather. With Patrick Callahan, Andris Pukke was co-owner of Villa C Acquisition Co., LLC ("Villa C"). Callahan bought out Pukke's interest for $2,150,000. The connection goes deeper with an earlier divorce case. Pukke's ex-wife produced a letter signed by Patrick Callahan, dated July 1997, showing that he had a 3.5% interest in Internet Opportunity, which owned PlayersOnly. In January 2011, Andris Pukke pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

A quick note on Ameridebt: This was a notorious non-profit credit counseling company. If you were in the US and had credit card debt, you probably saw their TV commercials and Internet ads. They promised quick resolution of credit card debt and an end to nuisance phone calls, etc. They collected $172 million in upfront fees from some 300,000 troubled customers, most of which, it is said, funded Andris Pukke's extravagant existence. They were sued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2003 and went belly up. From here, Andris Pukke has a long history of skirmishes to silence his critics, using dirty tricks and similar crap.

It's speculation, of course, but Andris Pukke knew about payments, and John Vipulis had the kind of venture capital smarts that could at least inspire the kind of lowlifes that might be needed to not only make the operation work, but to defy the many regulatory odds stacked against it. To be the first in the U.S. to promise credit card acceptance to bettors, you'd have to underwrite a pretty lawless operation with minimal chance of getting caught. There's no evidence that Andris Pukke ever acted that way.

Back to Patrick Callahan. How did a guy who just a few years earlier ran a tavern and a small bookmaking operation grow so quickly that he was able to create a gambling site that was an early player in the online gambling world, and then acquire the most sought after domain name in the business (sportsbook.com)? Before the company he ran acquired the domain, let's examine who owned it.

SportsLine USA – Original Sportsbook.com Owners

The sportsbook.com domain name was originally owned by a huge company called SportsLine USA. They were a pioneer in the Internet world, having launched sportsline.com on June 1, 1995, their first website offering live scores, sports news, game previews, and so on. (To avoid confusion, CBS Corporation was once an investor in this site, but they've been the full owners since December 2004).

Michael Levy of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the founder of SportsLine USA, received his initial funding from the kpcb.com group. He then formed partnerships with the major U.S. sports leagues, player associations and superstar athletes such as Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Tiger Woods and Wayne Gretzky, among others. After securing additional private investment from Reuters, TCI, US West, and NY Life, the company went public in 1997 after raising $332 million. During the Internet boom of 1998-2000, its market capitalization routinely exceeded $1 billion.

Steve Budin Offered Sportsbook.com

A word of warning: Budin is in the tout business (selling sports picks). He and his partner, Al Demarco (real name All Rolli), own dozens of websites featuring so-called handicappers like Brandon Lang (real name Brandon Link), who wrote the forward to the book. Brandon, of course, is the handicapper portrayed by Matthew McConaughey (a fake/Hollywood made-up version) in the movie Two for the Money (2005). These guys get paid a lot of money to appear larger than life, so again, expect exaggerations in the book.

In the book, Budin claims that his company, SDB Global, was grossing $20 million a year - $10 million a year (net) in gambling profits. Their programmer, William Ramirez, was toiling away to prepare the site's online betting functionality for a March 1998 launch when they were offered the opportunity to buy the Sportsbook.com domain name for $1,000,000.

Steve Budin tells how the domain came to be owned by Sportsline USA (sportsline.com), which was in the process of negotiating the sale of its site to CBS. Having a gambling domain was a potential problem, and they were in a hurry to close the sale. Sportsline did not want to draw attention to the fact that they were selling a gambling domain, and for $1 million, no less. So Budin came up with this plan: to say that he would buy $1 million worth of advertising, and in exchange they would transfer the domain to him. Tsang's writing also adds some dimension to the story: The domain had a good reputation; it was worth about $5 million; and most importantly, a lot of people in the know thought it was a good idea to own a gambling domain.

When US authorities indicted Steve Budin on bookmaking charges, this deal was still pending final approval. He returned to the U.S., where he settled by paying a large fine and agreeing to close the company. Another company, a less than reputable offshoot called SBG Global, took advantage of his misfortune to set up shop. Still operating today, SBG Global is wading into waters that its founders muddied while Budin was still in the business. But at least this company is not under US jurisdiction. Missing out on the lucrative Sportsbook.com deal seems to have left Budin a bit short on cash.

Sportsbook.com Becomes a Gambling Website

In November 1998, Sportsbook.com went live with software that was almost identical to that used by PlayersOnly.com, which had launched earlier in May 1998. Could Budin have been referring to the software apparently used by the SBD Global subsidiary he founded? It fits the timeline, but as mentioned above, certain products were being developed by certain programmers in Costa Rica during Budin's heyday.

Patrick Callahan & Sportsbook.com / CBS Involvement

In March 1999, an ESPN.com article quoted NCAA executive director Cedric Dempsey expressing a concern that went to the heart of NCAA sports. It was about money, and who was making it, and who might be trying to change the outcome of a game in order to make a killing in the betting parlor. This particular worried appearance by Dempsey is significant for a number of reasons, which I will get to in a moment.

The next day, CBS announced that it was unaware of the relationship between SportsLine USA and Sportsbook.com. Meanwhile, Sportsline.com founder Michael Levy claimed that his company leased the URL to a Margarita Island company called Global Internet, which used it to operate a gambling site. He claimed that even though CBS owned 20% of his company, he was not sure if what he was about to tell me was really going to make them look good.

It was during the reporting of this situation that the name Patrick Callahan first appeared in print next to sportsbook.com as opposed to PlayersOnly.com. In these 1999 reports, he was identified as a 28-year-old Canadian citizen and the manager of something called Global Internet. Some interesting tidbits from the media reports at the time include

• Sportsline USA was publicly traded, but there was no mention of Sportsbook.com or the revenue generated from the lease in the public financial statements
• Despite operating with a market cap of nearly $1 billion, Sportsline USA did not disclose the actual purchase price for its domain name. But according to the company's founder, who wouldn't give specifics, it was a significant enough sum that they wouldn't have made the deal if it were less than that
• The then-identified and now-identified Patrick Callahan claimed that the company was profitable and had about 50,000 customers at the relevant time.Sportsbook.com not only leased the domain
• SportsLine USA also provided the people and equipment to run the entire web operation
• The primary advertiser on other SportsLine USA owned sites, such as Vegas Insider, was Sportsbook.com;

In the end, the most bizarre claims surfaced. Michael Levy, the founder of SportsLine USA, claimed that he had numerous opportunities to sell the sportsbook.com domain name, but had the foresight to decline. Levy said he believed SportsLine would generate more revenue in the future by leasing the domain. Callahan then said that not only had SportsLine decided against an immediate purchase of the domain, but that the company had discussed making another bid for the domain in six months, when it could more confidently assert that the site was worth more than when SportsLine first considered purchasing it. This did not sound like either man had an adequate plan for resolving issues related to the domain.

Editor's Note: A slight detour, but when the concept of CBS owning a gambling website hit the mainstream media, there was a rush of profit-seeking sportsbooks. Almost immediately, the Internet was populated with sites like CBSSportsbook.com, CBSBetting.com, and so on. One that went so far as to use the CBS name was a sportsbook called Casablanca that used the URL betCBS.com. It was, of course, sued by CBS Network owner Viacom. After a legal battle, the sportsbooks using that name changed their URL to WagerWeb.com.

Patrick Callahan the Owner or Manager?

In reality, it's uncertain whether Patrick Callahan was a manager or a shareholder, or where he got his funding. Nevertheless, he has been portrayed as the person who transformed the modern processing for online betting platforms. Undoubtedly, he ran the company extremely well. However, it's essentially indeterminable how many shares he held, who else held shares, and the remaining early history of the company after his peak.

Sportsbook.com Corporate Years

We just finished looking at the early history of Sportsbook.com. From mid-2001 to late 2006, they were owned by a well-known public company traded on the London Stock Exchange.

Sportingbet Purchases Sportsbook.com

In July 2001, an Internet gambling company based in Alderney and listed on the London Stock Exchange under the name Sportingbet acquired Internet Opportunity Entertainment Inc., Oak Ventures Corp. and all of the group's sports betting and related businesses... in a deal that primarily involved the acquisition of assets associated with those businesses. Among the primary assets listed for the transaction were

• sportsbook.com
• playersonly.com;
• Repurposed material from wallstreet.com;

The company recently moved its headquarters from the Caribbean to Gibraltar. The risk management, customer service and accounting functions were located in Margarita Island, Venezuela. The call center operations were in Dublin, Ireland. And the hosting and licensing operations were in Antigua. These sites - which reported combined revenues of $435.4 million - were said to operate with a gross margin of $42.1 million and a net profit of $4.9 million.

The financial details of the deal included an upfront payment of $51.25 million in cash, notes and stock. No breakdown of these components was provided. An existing agreement with the casino regulatory apparatus was part of the transaction. Other unspecified future performance incentives were also included.

Sportsbook.com Thrives Under Sportingbet

Sportsbook.com already had the perfect domain name and an unblemished record of paying out winning bets on time. They were known as the only online betting site where credit cards were approved almost 100% of the time. Even as their market share grew in 2002 and 2003, it was the explosion of poker on the Internet that made Sportsbook.com the mega gambling site it is today. In 2004, Sportingbet Plc, one of the biggest players in the online gambling world, purchased one of the first and largest poker sites on the Internet, ParadisePoker.com, and integrated this poker room with its other sites, sportsbook.com and sportingbet.com, to create one of the Internet's first seamless 3-in-1 betting sites.

In 2005, they did incredible things with branding, yet their domain name was a generic, one-word affair. The 2005 marketing effort featured the slogan "Everyone Bets. That same year, the brand featured celebrity spokesperson Brooke Burke, who at the time was best known as the host of Wild On! on the E! Network. In 2006, the brand sought to further its Las Vegas connection by hiring actress Nikki Cox as its spokesperson. Cox's current role as Mary Connell on Las Vegas, a hit series for CBS, seems a much better fit for the brand than the role Burke played.

They have revamped their affiliate program and it is now one of the best in the industry. It has a long history of timely payouts, great credit card processing, and impressive corporate ownership and branding. Sportsbook.com's celebrity endorsements take it to another level. Awards won by Sportsbook.com include, but are not limited to: - 2005: Best Overall Sportsbook (Casino City, 2005) - 2005: Best US Sportsbook (eGaming Review) - 2005: Best Overall Sportsbook (Casinopedia) - 2006: Best US Sportsbook (eGaming Review)

Sportsbook.com Sold to Jazette Enterprises Limited

On October 12, 2006, Sportingbet PLC sold all of its US customers to the then unheard-of company Jazette Enterprises Limited (JEL) for $1.00. This is actually a bit misleading as it involved the settlement of approximately $13.2 million in liabilities that Jazette presumably inherited; it also saved them the cost of shutting down the business. This move was prompted by the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act.

The terms of the sale stipulated that if the President of the United States, George W. Bush, did not sign the bill into law, the deal would be rescinded, with Jazette, the seller, receiving $500,000 as part of this rescission clause. Jazette was also obligated under the terms of the sale to abide by a clause that effectively prohibited them from accepting any new non-U.S. players for a period of two years and any players from outside North America for an additional year. Also included in the sale were all of the domains controlled by Jazette, the business she operated under the name Sportsbook.com.

Sportsbook.com Continues to Grow

Although many predicted that the UIGEA would be a major setback for sportsbook.com, this did not prove to be the case. No one is really sure who runs Jazette or Domain Holdings, the companies that now operate sportsbook.com and related online gaming sites. Even with the disappearance of Paradise Poker, by which time Sportsbook had long since divested itself of its interest, the operation of sportsbook.com in concert with the myriad of other online ventures maintained by Jazette or Domain Holdings or whatever entity runs those companies remained seamless.

Immediately after the move to a US-only brand, Sportsbook teamed up with a relatively obscure poker network known as Cake Poker, which has since become part of the Revolution Gaming Network, now owned by Lock Poker. This network was then brought to the forefront of the US online poker universe via the quasi-legal "poker press" and by the end of 2009 had found its way to the Merge Network, another online poker operation seemingly doing well in the same market.

Currently, Sportsbook.com is one of the most reliable and respected gambling sites. When other sites have trouble processing credit card payments, they boast an acceptance rate of over 95% and have several other banking options as well. Their poker room is the largest room accepting US players, and they manage to keep a low profile with the US authorities by using their sportsbook.ag domain as part of their strategy. If you're looking for an online gambling site that you can trust, with a good track record and a good number of players, Sportsbook.com is certainly a safe and solid option.