[vanman]

Has anyone tried these guys yet in regards to their bailout for pointbet customers.

[bigboydan]

AscotSports is a mirror of 188bet and is mainly focused with the Asian Handicap. I've never played there though, so hopefully somebody can expand with farther details.

[noyb]

bbd, ascot is not a mirror of 188bet, i don't know exactly where you got that info but they're completely different in every aspect.

it's an ok book, but not really an asian-style kind of bookmaker. limits are pretty low in general, but they do seem reliable.

[Maledetto]

The same owner, different management. Different focus, it's their european facing side. 188 use Ascot's headquarters as a front office only for paper stuff and nothing else. Ascot trades inhouse but still relies somewhat in the asia op.

[citlec]

They are safe to use but do have low limits on some bets. They did deposit bonuses when they first came on the scene but dont do any now. If i was you i would use Pinnacle or 188Bet. You cant go wrong with them two books.

[bigboydan]

Originally Posted by Maledetto

The same owner, different management.

I knew it was some type of connection there, but I wasn't exactly sure what it was. For some reason I kept thinking they were a mirror, however that wasn't the case.

[Maledetto]

The plug has been pulled for the ascot experiment effective immediately.

[bigboydan]

Originally Posted by Maledetto

The plug has been pulled for the ascot experiment effective immediately.

Here is the press release on this:

Vincent Tan ends online sports betting venture

KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 —Tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan has called it quits with his first venture into the lucrative online sports betting and casino industry.

In a move that came as a shock to staff of Ascot Sports at their office in Wisma Cosway, Jalan Raja Chulan here this morning, Tan announced that he was ceasing operations with immediate effect.

A visit to AscotSports.com showed a single page with a message stating that the website was “temporarily unavailable due to system maintenance”. The message was also duplicated for the Chinese-language version of the website.

Ascot Sports had obtained a retail sports betting licence in mid-2003 during the tenure of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The annual licence fee payable to the government was RM1million.

The company even paid the full licence fee in advance for 25 years, for exclusivity in this highly-profitable sector.

With the change in leadership, from Dr Mahathir to current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, came the decision by the government not to renew the licence in 2004.

Instead of taking the legal route against the government’s decision, Tan decided to take the sports betting business online.

The company was registered in the Isle of Man (IOM), a self-governed island state in the United Kingdom, in order to obtain a sports betting licence issued by the IOM government.

The rationale for choosing the IOM jurisdiction was because of its strict security requirements as well as its extremely low tax imposed on the sports betting and gaming industry.

The AscotSports.com website, together with its information portal AscotSportal.com, was finally launched a few months prior to the Fifa World Cup 2006 tournament, which kicked-off in Germany in June 2006.

A call centre was also set up in the Philippines to support taking bets from Malaysian punters who were not inclined to bet on the Internet so as not to contravene Malaysia’s tight laws against gambling.

In late 2006, the company expanded its services by launching a 4-digit number lottery product online. Punters were given the option of buying four-digit numbers and having the numbers drawn against the results of any one or more of the three current numbers lottery operators in the country.

The Ascot e-Casino was also launched last year, especially catering to the Chinese-speaking market in Asia.