The Top 11 countries where sports betting is popular

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Real Madrid vs. Real Betis lineups

Real Madrid are generally healthy, but with a UEFA Champions League coming up in midweek at Celtic, Carlo Ancelotti makes two changes to the lineup: Rodrygo is in for Federico Valverde, while Eduardo Camavinga starts in midfled with Toni Kroos on the bench. Dani Carvajal and Ferland Mendy also take up the fullback roles.

Los Blancos also get Nacho Fernandez back on the bench, and his return will be handy with reserve defender Jesus Vallejo out. Right-back Alvaro Odriozola is also not in the squad and hasn't featured in La Liga play this season.

Real Madrid starting lineup (4-3-3, right to left): 1-Thibaut Courtois (GK) — 2-Dani Carvajal, 3-Eder Militao, 4-David Alaba, 23-Ferland Mendy — 10-Luka Modric, 18-Aurelien Tchouameni, 12-Eduardo Camavinga — 21-Rodrygo, 9-Karim Benzema, 20-Vinicius Jr

Real Madrid subs (11): 13-Andriy Lunin (GK), 26-Luis Lopez (GK), 22-Antonio Rudiger, 6-Nacho Fernandez, 17-Lucas Vazquez, 19-Dani Ceballos, 8-Toni Kroos, 7-Eden Hazard, 11-Marco Asensio, 15-Federico Valverde, 24-Mariano Diaz

Real Betis will be without Argentina international centre-back German Pezzella, who will be serving a one-game suspension after his straight red card in the last match. He will be replaced by ex-Lazio defender Luiz Felipe.

Portuguese defensive midfielder William Carvalho is an injury absence after an undisclosed knock picked up last weekend prevented him from training. That opens the door for Sergio Canales to get his first start of the season after being hampered by an injury to start the campaign. Paul Akouokou was originally in the traveling squad but he is reportedly a last-minute scratch due to a traffic accident.

Youssouf Sabaly gets the start at right-back over Aitor Ruibal, while Sergio Canales makes his first start of the season. Goalkeeper Claudio Bravo and forward Willian Jose are officially registered and will be hoping for their first minutes of the season.

Real Betis starting lineup (4-2-3-1, right to left): 13-Rui Silva (GK) — 23-Youssouf Sabaly, 19-Luiz Felipe, 3-Edgar Gonzalez, 15-Alex Moreno — 5-Guido Rodriguez, 18-Andres Guardado —10-Sergio Canales, 8-Nabil Fekir, 7-Juanmi — 9-Borja Iglesias

Real Betis subs (10): 1-Claudio Bravo (GK), 25-Dani Martin (GK), 24-Aitor Ruibal, 33-Juan Miranda, 6-Victor Ruiz, 17-Joaquin, 28-Rodri Sanchez, 21-Loren Moron, 11-Luiz Henrique, 12-Willian Jose

MORE: Why did Casemiro leave Real Madrid?

11. Customer Service 10.0/10

Email: [email protected]

Phone Number: Not available

Customer service usually is the make-it-or-break-it point with online casinos, and it should be among the top deciding factors when choosing the right platform for you.

Stake.com's online support can be described with just a single word: amazing.

The main communication channel is the 24/7 Live Chat feature on the site. According to the information there, the average response time is five minutes.

When I got in touch with the support, I was surprised as I received an answer in under a minute.

It seemed like the guy was just waiting for me to drop a message!

This really is something rarely seen with online casino support teams.

Most importantly, the support was great; the agent was well-trained and brought to my attention the information I needed to enhance my experience.

Stake.com can also be reached through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The only downside is there is no telephone line, which, in all fairness, isn’t too much of a problem, considering how responsive the support team is in the live chat.

Overall, support at Stake casino is very helpful in finding you a detailed answer and getting back to you quickly. They’ll send you screenshots and URLs to back up their responses and explain things to you.

Legal vs. offshore betting

The best options available for US sports bettors come via the sites that have been approved for operations in the respective states. Gaining acceptance and approval is not easy, and those who have joined the list of approved operators have invested heavily to do so.

While there remains an active black market for sports betting via illegal offshore sites, there’s no reason to take the risk. Here are some of the main points to understand.

• The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed in 2006 to crack down on offshore operators. The law is aimed at the companies to prevent them from doing business in the US, but many still operate due to what they claim is a legal gray area.
• Offshore operators are not operating under the same rules and regulations that legal US betting sites are. There is no guarantee that your funds, data or information will be safely kept.
• Legal sports betting sites have clear terms and conditions, house rules for players to follow, a wide range of normal funding options and customer service options that can be reached easily. That’s not the case with offshore sites.

Best odds guaranteed

Best odds guaranteed is a big part of betting especially for horse racing bettors, with customers aiming to have the best odds possible to earn the biggest amount of money from their winners. Some bookmakers don’t offer this, so it’s a factor we look for from our best betting sites.

Informational Resources

Most online casinos' notable problem is the lack of sufficient information on their websites.

For example, many lack detail about their history, founders’ background, payout details, limits, restrictions, fees, and other crucial information.

With Stake.com, things aren't much different. It seems like the platform doesn't even bother covering the relevant information.

Several sections of the site provide details, including the Privacy Policy, Terms, and Provably Fair pages, but that information is more on the legal side of things.

There is also a blog that features all the latest news and updates about the Stake crypto casino.

It also answers popular questions and provides users with ideas on how to get the most out of the platform.

Also, there is a helpful forum that you can browse through when you get stuck.

A new question/comment is posted every few minutes, making the forum a great place to get in touch with someone from the Stake casino or engage with a random user.

Stake.com’s Telegram channel has over 7k members, and the community there is also very active.

The major downside is that there isn’t a dedicated FAQ section, which may confuse some users in their search for basic information.

For example, it is hard to find the deposit and withdrawal requirements, fees, and payout times.

The easiest thing to do is to contact the support line and wait for some guidance.

Betfred

American Gaming Association’s stance

The American Gaming Association is the gaming industry’s lobbying group. It maintains the black market of illegal gambling is too lucrative and thrives in an unregulated environment.  The AGA supported the repeal of PASPA and strongly advocates for states to be able to write their own sports betting laws.

4. Giving you free money

The feeling that you’re getting a good deal is another motivating factor that makes you more likely to bet. But it’s worth it for the house if it brings you back for a second bet at riskier odds.

One of the products that has emerged in recent years is “boosted odds”, where the bookmaker gives you much longer odds than you would usually get, say 15–1 that a good team such as Chelsea will beat a weaker side like Fulham. Sometimes this will be on offer to new customers only, as a means of driving new account sign-ups.

The same phenomenon is at play with the “free” bets and bonus spins that companies hand out. “It’s called the house money effect,” explains Philip Newall. “People are much more risk-seeking with money they’ve won than with money they’ve paid in.”

If you get an email saying you’ll get a £50 free bet if you bet £50, you find a way to scrape it together. It’s a little hook back in

If the house gives you a free spin, you’ve got nothing to lose. Except that such free bets and bonuses usually come with strings attached. You get them, for the most part, only on the condition that you’ll “roll over” the bet into a second or third one. Sometimes the bet has to be rolled over many more times before it can be withdrawn. The house money effect makes that whole process feel like a free ride. Of course, all the while you are becoming habituated to gambling, and you’re more likely to return with your own money and to go on longer rides, this time at your own expense. “The more you bet, the more you’ll get free bets, and the more likely that you give it straight back,” says recovering addict Phil Worrall, from Nottingham. “You might think you’ve got no money left, but if you get an email saying you’ll get a £50 free bet if you bet £50 of your own money, you find a way to scrape it together. It’s a little hook back in.”

There is a question mark over the extent to which gambling firms are deploying these techniques with precision. Some of these phenomena are so woven into the fabric of certain products that they aren’t so much being weaponised as a fundamental feature of gambling. If you’re at a casino and you put all your chips on 25, spin the roulette wheel and it lands on 26, the only person you can blame for that near miss is Lady Luck, whatever the detrimental effects on you may be. It’s a near miss, but not a manufactured one. It is self-evidently an intrinsic part of the game you’ve chosen.

It would, of course, be different if a digital game were designed in such a way as to make this happen more than is statistically likely.

I have spoken to many problem gamblers who are convinced this is the case – that the machines are rigged to push your buttons as much as you push theirs, to maximise near misses and capitalise on psychological weaknesses. I have never seen any evidence for this and such information would surely be closely guarded by any company unscrupulous enough to deploy it.

The same goes for the “early win”. This is something that crops up again and again in my conversations with gambling addicts, and it is backed up by statistics. A 2019 report from the National Gambling Treatment Service, an umbrella term for several organisations offering help to addicts, found that 62% of those receiving treatment had experienced a big win at the start of their gambling career. It makes sense that hitting the jackpot soon after you start gambling – or even early within a session – creates a memory of that sweet feeling that might drive you to gamble more and more, hoping to recapture the same taste. It’s reminiscent of the horror stories parents tell their kids about drug dealers giving out free samples to get people hooked.

In the course of my journalism, I occasionally experiment with various gambling products so that I can get a better idea of what I’m talking about. On my very first go with online slots, I had a couple of big wins. (Steady on, we’re only talking a tenner here.) I don’t know what would have happened if I’d carried on gambling, but the return to player on that game was 96.09% – spend £100, on average you get £96.09 back – so it’s a certainty that I’d have lost my winnings eventually.

When it comes to online casino games and slots, Kim Lund feels that something less cunning is going on: that firms are simply watching what makes money and repeating it in a robotic process of trial and error. “My main gripe with the industry is that it has, to a large degree, been run by people who don’t love it, who treat gamblers as dumb sheep. They see gambling like petrol: ‘We have a commodity – how do we sell it? What else can we sell them while they’re at the gas station?’”

The result is an evolutionary mechanism that rewards the development of addictive content while absolving anyone from the responsibility for its impact.

Breaking this cycle can be done. In the course of writing about the gambling industry, I hear inspiring stories of people like Chris Murphy, who used to gamble online secretly at night as his girlfriend slept beside him, but now works for the Sporting Chance clinic, run by former England footballer Tony Adams, helping athletes with addiction issues. Or James Grimes, who lost everything betting on football and now works via his group The Big Step to disentangle gambling from the game he loves.

But tales of recovery like these require superhuman effort – and a good deal of support from friends, family and treatment services. All too often these safety nets are lacking and there is nothing to fall back on; no recourse but another spin of the wheel.

This is an edited extract from Jackpot by Rob Davies (Guardian Faber, £14.99). To support The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

In the UK, anyone concerned about their gambling, or that of a loved one, can visit BeGambleAware.org for free, confidential advice and support. The National Gambling Helpline is available on 0808 8020 133 and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. The charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393. In the US, Mental Health America is available on 800-273-8255, and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org