Bitcoin Forum

Since you can't send directly from Coinbase to Sportsbook, what middle man do you use?

My strategy:

Buy my coins on Coinbase --> withdrawal to Poloniex (free) --> withdrawal Poloniex to Sportsbook (.0005 BTC fee).

Withdrawal from Sportsbook (fee varies) --> Poloniex --> withdrawal Poloniex to Coinbase (.0005 BTC fee).

So at this rate, I'm paying .001 BTC to complete my transaction.

Does anyone else have a better (cheaper) method?

Thank you!

I recall you need to pay a fee when moving out of coinbase, not sure if that was still a thing since I never used coinbased when they had added a transaction fee. But basically you are doing a good job. Poloniex has one of the lowest fees right now to withdraw from the exchange, however, they might flag you though if you do not really trade and just use it for a wallet. Not to mention you are withdrawing and depositing from gambling sites. This could trigger AML policies.

Thank you for the response  8)

I actually use GDAX, no $0 fees.

I agree with you about Poloniex though, which is why I sometimes buy a few bucks worth of other coins.

I know Coinbase (Gdax) is not gambling friendly.  Can anyone say the same thing about Poloniex, which isn't nearly as regulated as Coinbase?

I'd say they are fine with it. I've occasionally sent money to and fro Poloniex without problems. However, since I actually trade a lot, I don't get flagged, I am not sure if that would be the case if you mostly use them as a wallet for gambling.

Just to correct your math there, poloniex charges 0.0001BTC. So you are actually just paying 0.0006BTC in fees moving your funds.
I guess they just changed it. Oh well.


Good luck!

Thanks again for chiming in!

I'm curious what other people to when sending BTC to sportsbooks.   Or does everyone use this same method?

My method is simple, buying btc on my local exchange and send it to the sportsbook with 0.0005btc fee. Good thing, the exchange that I use is not against gambling so far so I can send deposit and withdraw directly from and to my account at local exchange.

Buy coins and hold them in blockchain.info or electrum like wallets because there you will have full control over your coins and also you can send/receive Bitcoin from any sources you like.

Coinbase is not a true Bitcoin wallet

Why do you buy your coins at coinbase? The last time I checked, they had huge fees. That was about a year ago though, so they might've changed.
However, Poloniex is not a good exchange. I don't get why you don't want to send directly from Coinbase to Sportsbook either...

Anyways, here are my recommendations:
-Buy directly from others at a low rate & send directly to sportsbook.
-Buy from Coinbase, send directly to sportsbook.

I don't get why you can't send from coinbase to sportsbook?

You could also try buying lower-txfee cryptos for sportsbooks.

I actually buy my coins at GDAX.

Then withdrawal for free to Poloniex.

Then withdrawal from Poloniex to sportsbook for a .0005 BTC fee.

If you send directly from Coinbase (GDAX) to a sportsbook, your Coinbase (GDAX) account will get banned.

There's a reason why you don't send money directly from an exchange to a gambling site in one transaction. Most people use a 3rd party wallet like blockchain,electrum, mycelium or any other desktop wallet because exchange like coinbase tracks your activity and if they found out that you're gambling then they'll close or suspend your account.

I have the same method as OP but I don't use coinbase because it's not supported in my country and the exchange I use also blocks account that has a transaction from a gambling site. Always use a different wallet to be safe even though it costs a couple of $ it's better than getting your account locked.

You get the address from Live Support and after confirmation your funds are added into your account.

I use my trezor to send transactions whether it be for a service or gambling site, i never use exchanger to keep my coins or send from it to a gambling site. the problem with exchanger sometimes can be delays in withdrawals. it would be better to use a wallet that you have full control over, to send transactions/payments.

Why do you want to withdraw your coins from one exchange to another exchange instead you can withdraw all your coins to anyone desktop wallet and later you can use your coins for whatever purpose you want. Exchanges are not safe to keep your coins for long-term so better keep your coins under your control.

I don't know if it country specific but I've like hundred of times sent my bitcoins from coinbase in and out from several gambling sites since 2011 without any issue. At at a time, I used to make a lot of instant deposit and return bets on directbet directly from my coinbase account.
Though now I'm not using coinbase and my bitcoins stay in an electrum wallet.

Personally from my coinbase account I directly send coins to gambling sites (dice and sportsbook most of the time) and after around 3 years doing the same thing I didn't get any issue regarding it so maybe sending coins directly to any gambling site you want you will save more money

From Coinbase/localbitcoins to my electrum wallet and to the sportsbook. For reduce the fee i usually use sportsbook address directly from localbitcoins but never do it if it's from coinbase, because you can get banned by doing that. Also when i join a sigcamp i use sportsbook addy to receive my payment.

Just use any convenient wallet in the middle (blockchain, electrum, mycelium, copay etc.) and you will be fine. Coinomi is my choice - it is secure and supports a lot of altcoins.

Are you sure with what you have just said? It is almost impossible to see your coinbase account is not being banned/blocked because of your gambling activity. It is clearly against coinbase terms and there are many people get their account banned/blocked because of they use their account for gambling activity. You must be a lucky user, but once coinbase notice it then your account will be blocked. Better to stop to use your coinbase account for gambling.

I agree. you need to protect your computer from viruses and other virus programs and install a secure hardware wallet.

you should look for sites that do not need a withdrawal fee to make transactions. because it could be one of the disadvantages. even more so when the btc price becomes high. 0.001 is not the number of coins that mingkin not visible. but for me this is very useful and can be used for other purposes

I never use coinbase so I do not know such a thing, there are lots of wallet options there, why do not you use them? Yes using poloniex exchange is also good I guess with low fees, it can save you expenses.

Where can you find that thig exist? On the real world there is always fee so in a virtual they must also have this fee to support their system and much probably thing is to change a better system on their site but if you do not pay this fee or even think not to have this fee for their transaction then it should be some scam site or whatever you called it, unless like nitrogen which offer free withdrawal after X transaction may be it is still possible

I never used it either but the simplest way of making this possible is just use blockchain.info like this way;
Coinbase --> blockchain.info --> sports book -->blockchain.info --> coinbase. You can even adjust the fee although just stick to the recommended one.

There's none but if there's one of it, name it.

That's true when you just send the money to an exchange but did not make a single trade at all continuously , it could be a big deal.
You might accused do money laundering or so , why you did not use a mixer service by the way?
Do transfer money twice cost too much time , but it is okay if you feel comfortable.

I have another solution for you. since I am place a bets with my friend and he manage everything and I only gets the money, it is better that you join with your friend which often to place the bets in the sportsbook so let he manage everything like what I do and you don't have to get confuse for this. I do this because I don't know much about sportsbook and my friend offering me to play with him so our balance will bigger and if we win, we can win much money and I know that he has a good knowledge in the sportsbook so I trust him to manage everything.

Afaik nitrogensports provide a free withdrawal once a week , take that benefit. Coinbase aren't gambling friendly wallet but since it's the only place that op always used, well it would cost a little higher fee due you have to move it several times , there's no other choice but to move it to the third party wallet yeah unfortunately.

Never thought of this, but I haven't been gambling much recently. I also didn't knew coinabase wasn't gambling friendly, and didn't allow you to withdraw to gambling sites. Do they block the transaction, and your coins never leave your account? I'm assuming Gdax does the same thing, otherwise it would be a good option for what the OP is trying to do, since you pay no fees to send BTC to another address.

By the way, how is segwit adoption doing among gambling sites? Shouldn't that help solve the current fees issue?

Hes using coinbase on buying bitcoins which we do know they do have strict prohibitions to use it on gambling purposes which would turns out for them to blocked our accounts but there still other way which wont really be hassle and less fees. Buying coins on coinbase -> electrum -> Sportsbook. When you are withdrawing then Sportsbook- Electrum directly.So on next plays you do have already funds on your electrum wallet and its much safer compared to coinbase when we do talk on storing up our bitcoins.

Anyone else enjoying these $1.50 bitcoin transaction fees? 
Almost makes you forget that bitcoin is tanking  :'(