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ESB aka Telebet (r. 1) is one of those names that literally chills blood into players veins. A countless number of players have been stiffed by this book in the past three years. English Sports Betting was one of the first books offshore in the '90s, and it used to be a good one for many years.
The arrival of Dennis Atiyeh at the book's helm coincided with the conversion of ESB into a deposit only book.
While slow pay complaints where mounting Telebet relocated from Jamaica to Ireland. ESB managed to grind new victims up until late 2004 thanks to their telemarketing which was targeting phone bettors, more likely to be completely unaware of Internet based Watchdogs warnings.
Things began to go rapidly downhill for Telebet under the pressure of SportsBookReview and TheOffshoreWire on Irish Authorities.
In July of 2005 the Company was shut down by the Irish Chamber of Commerce, once landlord of ESB at their premises in Ballinasloe.
A couple of weeks later SBR reported that the Company was reopening in Jamaica. In the mean time TheOffshoreWire tracked down links directly involving US Talk Cheap LLC, another Company belonging to the infamous Atiyeh, to Telebet.
A few hours after the publication of this new information on TheOffshoreWire ESB vanished once again.
We thought the Saga was over. On August 27th Telebet re opened its doors in Ireland, allegedly under new ownership and management.
Their new main man Tom is not entirely new to the operation. He used to be part of the operation prior to Atiyeh's arrival in the '90s.
Hundreds of players hoping to get paid by the new owners immediately approached Telebet. They soon learned that the nightmare is far from being over.
Tom is available to consider honoring players balances only if players will continue to play with Telebet and will rollover their balances 5 times. He is adamant in pointing out that no payment will be processed before beginning October 2005.
The new Telebet management tells TheOffshoreWire that they simply bought the assets of ESB, not the liabilities. Despite that they will "try to do what they can" to appease the book's victims.
While other former ESB managers like Barry Cormican, simply regret having been part of Dennis Atiyeh's ESB, players are facing a new incognito: will Tom keep his word and the new Telebet ever pay their balances ?
At this time nothing seems to have significantly changed from the earlier reports of stiffed players:
"I have over the $8,292.82 that is owed to me by ESB/Telebet. It has been owed to me for nearly 9 months. I call 2-3 times per week and I am lied to and given the run-around. Is there anything you can do to help me and the hundreds of others who have been defrauded from their money?" J.G.
"We'll I've now read a ton on how my book esb-english sports betting area bunch of scammers! Great site. I've been with them for 7 years now and I'm finally up enough to collect, up 2,300. When i called they keep saying to call monday between 9-12 eastern time. I read on another site that they have some phone # regognition system and it will be busy always once you request payout. Well that happened today!" M.P.
"I have had an accounts with ESB on and off for almost 6-7 years;in that time I have received payouts from $200-$300 (these occurred about 4 years ago). After signing up last September I began betting but I felt their operators were very difficult to deal with. When 2005 rolled in I asked for a small $200 payout, I was told to call back in 2 weeks, then one month, then ESB operators refused all payout requests. I was told if I stopped betting I would never receive anything, the more I asked for a payout the rudder operators and managers treated me. Today 6/13/5 I gave-up because they cursed and hung-up the phone." J.A.
Special thanks to TOW reader and ESB victim J.G. for his valuable contribution to our investigation on Telebet.
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