Using a bank wire to fund your sportsbook account can be fast, secure, and easy. A bank wire, which is an electronic method of transferring cash from your personal bank account to your sportsbook account, can take a few hours or a few days to complete. Once the cash is in your account it is good to go; there’s no additional waiting.

Fees

One of the drawbacks to using a bank wire is the associated fees. Your bank will charge you to make the transfer, and the sportsbook will typically charge a fee for accepting it. These fees, which can be high, will start to cut into your profit margin in a fairly big way without your having made one bet.

Bank wire fees in the U.S range from $25 to $50 per wire and online sportsbooks will charge from $10 to $30 to accept the deposit. That means it could cost you $35 to $80 to send a $100 deposit. That is not sound money management.

Does It Work?

Before attempting to have your bank wire money into your online sportsbook account, the first thing to do is check with the sportsbook to see if they offer such a deposit option. You may see that a specific sportsbook provides its members with the chance to utilize bank wire services. However, pages listing deposit options for online sportsbooks are often highly generalized, which means that although a sportsbook might say that it does accept bank wires, it may not do so from those in the U.S.

U.S. laws forbid financial institutions in the U.S. from sending money to offshore gambling sites. Even if the book allows such activity, chances are your bank does not.

Check for Any Other Restrictions

Also, when researching the feasibility of sending money to your online sportsbook account, find out what the limits are on the number of times you can utilize the service during a given period of time and the amount you can put in your account. Most funding methods involve limits.

Is this Your best Option?

For U.S. sports bettors, it is rare that utilizing a bank wire will be their best option. In fact for many, it may simply not be an option at all. Once you have determined what type of funding mechanism is best for you, set up a weekly schedule that involves checking your online sports betting account to determine if you need to reload, withdraw, or simply let the money stay in your account. In doing so, you may discover that the bank wire, even if it is available to you, does not fit into your best scenario for low-cost account funding. There are many ways to fund an online sports book. A bank wire is just one.