5Dimes Sportsbook

5Dimes Sportsbook opened in Costa Rica nearly 19 years ago in 2000 by William Sean ‘Tony’ Creighton, a former professional sports bettor. As a sharp player Tony had the insight on how to attract bettors with unique offerings while never overexposing 5dimes. The book’s first claim to fame was its wagering menu, the largest for North American sports. At one time 5dimes.eu had five different casinos and two different poker rooms. If you wanted to make a bet on a Division 2 college that had more than one cardinal point in its name (South Western ‘Still-No-Idea-Where-the-hell-it-is’ University), 5Dimes was the place to go. 5Dimes was the very first sportsbook to book bets on teams featuring Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony… because they were in high school… as underclassmen.

In 2007 5dimes.eu began offering almost all of its betting menu on reduced juice markets, AKA low vig, AKA -105, AKA half of the standard price a sportsbook typically charges. Tony wasn’t quite Jeff Bezos. Afterall Pinnacle was the first bookmaker in the market to maintain the reduced model but they suddenly switched their focus to the United Kingdom and Asia. 5Dimes, recognizing the demand for value at the right time, solidified itself as one of the largest betting sites. Since then not much has changed. The software has improved, but the model remains the same: high value, high volume bookmaking. This value for the player means 5dimes excels at player retention.

5Dimes Sportsbook has been taking bets before its customers were born

Yes, 5dimes can officially say it has been accepting wagers before some of its customers were alive. It has been over 18 years since the 5dimes website was launched. It’s impressive when you consider 5dimes started taking bets when people dialed in to AOL and spent most of their time in chatrooms asking “A/S/L?” or sending the kind of email forwards long forgotten if not for Grandma recently discovering the internet.

Sign-up Bonus – It’s relatively crappy.

The 5dimes deposit bonus almost seems to be set up to educate bettors on the value of reduced juice -105, VS -110 betting. It’s not that a 50% Free-play is terrible. It’s just that when you compare the bonus to the reduced juice offering its like committing to cable for the full year because they gave you two months free instead of going with Netflix for nine bucks. And just like that cable package, you can’t simply switch to Netflix after the bonus is over. You are stuck with the deal you made. 5Dimes gives players 50% Free-play bonus on deposits of $400 and then 20% on any amount above that.

Bonus Terms – Get out your calculator

If you understand how sportsbook play-through requirements work, this is not that complicated. However, if you understand how sportsbook play-through requirements work… you are opting for -105 reduced juice.

Using the example of 50% free-play bonus of the max bonus amount of $200, 5Dimes releases a $20 free-play (10%) for each one of the ten required play-throughs (rollovers) of Deposit + Bonus. So rather than get your free-play on the day of your deposit, it is released after you give the sportsbook its wagering activity. Using a rough evaluation of a free play being worth half of its amount in cash, you are getting $10 for every $100 wagered. When you bet that same $100 on a given day and won half of your bets, you would pay $5 in vig (on the $50 losing side). Now, recalculate that at -105, and you save $2.50 for every $100 wagered. To summarize: You get $10 of value for every $100 wagered but only up to $200. With reduced juice, you are in theory paying yourself $2.50 for the same $100 wagered, but also for every $100 wagered after that, FOREVER. All bettors will lose some of their wagers. Reduced juice minimizes those losses.

Reduced Juice at -105

Less than -110 pricing has a few different names including Reduced juice, Reduced Vig, Discount Vig, or is simply referred to by how many cents on the dollar it represents. Reduced juice is often -105 or -107 but can be anything less than standard -110. 5Dimes offers all standard straight bets at -105 with the exception of soccer markets. For example, the Celtics full game spread would be priced at -105 but the Celtics spread for the 2nd half would be the industry standard -110 price. For players line shopping and looking for long-term value, this feature makes 5dimes a must-have.

Unique Odds – At 10c lines, one side is always juicy

A sportsbook that has -110 lines has enough wiggle room to stay around, or straddle, the average odds essentially. There are good sportsbooks that have a model of not being exposed to bettors who are looking for the best odds on their pick. With 10 cent vig, there is less to work with as well as the line moves propelled by its thousands of bettors. 5dimes is often offering the best price on a team.

Bitcoin – You don’t actually bet in crypto

Bettors want to bet on their sport picks not on the price of bitcoin. When players send bitcoins to 5dimes, they will see the value in US dollars reflected in their 5dimes balance. When they request funds, it is also in dollars. That means if you request $100, 5dimes will always send $100 worth of bitcoin, and barring a bitcoin value change in the time, it takes you to redeem your coins to dollars, $100 is what you get — free of fees. Typically bitcoin redemptions take a few business hours although 5dimes asks that players allow for up to 72 hours to send the funds.

5Dimes Pros & Cons

When talking about one of the best sportsbooks of all time, it is hard to outline cons without feeling like you are doing it for the sake of needing them on the review. Having 5dimes as one of your sportsbooks will save you money on a nightly basis so pointing out that the homepage is ugly or bitcoin withdrawals can take longer than other books may seem superficial. However, if you are a brand new bettor about to burn some cash for the weekend’s playoffs, then finding a big cash bonus may be the better choice, especially because you are still eligible for -105 at 5Dimes Sportsbook later. If you are settling into one betting site for the season or just need to add the sportsbooks that may have the best odds for a given play, 5dimes makes sense… and less cents.