Update: 5/30/2018
While there is plenty in the information below (Dec. 2017) to give players pause before depositing at Sekabet, we need to update due to non-payment of player winnings and the Sekabet domain still hosting what appear to be counterfeit games.

In the non-payment case, a Sekabet representative told an LCB account manager that they don't care what the player does, they are not a 'casual player' so they are being punished for winning - "being a 'shark'" and they shouldn't go broke if they don't get paid.

Regarding fake games, as we documented below, there is a somewhat secret directory where players can supposedly access Novomatic games that are being recorded and transmitted live from some unknown location. We blew that ridiculous statement to bits in our December review.

While we don't see the word, "NOVOMATIC" in the Sekabet lobby, we were still able to access the server on May 29, 2018, at hxxxs://sekabet.com/tr/Slots/StartNovomatic from a location in Turkey. We were able to transfer real money credits into and out of the "machines".

The reason we were testing the site again is that we received a message from a Sekabet manager asking to have this review content updated, because, "We do not have fake games in our casino content."

Until the player is paid, and/or the counterfeit games are no longer accessible on their servers, the only update this review is likely to receive is a continued warning to players. While "Pauli" from Germany is the only currently active complaint on the LCB Sekabet Direct Casino Support forum, they have been waiting 3 months to get paid, and the Sekabet rep has not replied to any issues in public since December 2017. There's no reason to currently believe that fair play is paid fairly and that all games offer a fair chance to win.

PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK

Review as of December 2017
Sekabet Casino is an online gaming and gambling portal launched on June 23, 2015. Upon launch, the site was licensed in Montenegro, permit #49. The domain was actually created on June 1, 2010, but the domain was dropped or the nameserver removed on July 1, 2011. The site offers a vast array of betting options including sports, live sports betting, Asian betting lines and handicaps, horse racing, poker, slots, live dealer streams, table games, bingo, scratchers, and an oddity streamed from another casino site that claims to facilitate live betting on real physical slot machines. More on that later.

The site serves over 90 countries and seems to use redirects in order to work around blacklists, such as those generated by Turkey's Telecommunications Authority (TIB), Cyprus, and Russia to name a few. Some of these jurisdictions enforce their laws on internet service providers making them block any site found on the official government list.

We have found dozens of redirects, some are still active and some of the domains have been abandoned. They look like http://xxx.sekabet102.com/ or 136 dot com, etc. In some instances, the site would redirect several times before resolving to the host, which although it was at a different URL, such as 136, it was presumedly a mirror and accessing the same servers in real time as the "straight" URL.

For more than a year, from about February 8, 2016, until at least May 14, 2017, the site always redirected through a number of escaping URLs 105, 102, etc. Sometime during the redirection period, they acquired a Curacao sublicense under Master License 1668/JAZ.

At one point, and possibly at least from May 31 through June 22, 2017, the site was operating without an SSL Certificate or using out of date and insecure SHA-1 encryption. This was seen via an archived image of the site on the first date mentioned and a mention of the issue again on the last date noted.

From what we've been able to gather, as a sportsbook they are a premier site, handling millions of euros a day in payouts. We've seen comments like, "They have as many lines as bet365", etc. We've seen unconfirmed reports of large bitcoin payouts handled quickly. They seem to be operating in closed markets and maybe that's not a bad thing depending on your beliefs about the internet, free will, legislated morality, governments capturing revenue, monopolists cornering markets, etc. It certainly explains why the URLs jump around so much.

For the volume we assume they are doing (with good source) we don't really see any poker complaints or sportsbook complaints about payouts. And we don't find any casino complaints at all. It is possible there are Turkish or Russian forums we aren't finding, but by now something should appear if they aren't handling the bank right.

Games and Software

We chose not to count all of the games on tap, but it must be well over 1,000. We can't be certain which platform they are using or where they are getting their games aggregated, but you can find options from 49 different suppliers, as of review time. These run from Platipus Ltd to Microgaming to GameArt and Xplosive and everything in between.

It's the "in between" part that is bothersome here. Among the reams of suppliers, we find Novomatic listed with an offering of 8 games. It is the only provider listing we found that requires a player to log in before seeing the available games. Looking back in history we can see that's been the case since at least June of this year. The "redirect" looks something like: /en/Security/LogOn?ReturnUrl=%2ftr%2fSlots%2fStartNovomatic. Which takes you to a login page.

Accessing today via the US, Canada, and Germany as soon as we logged on the Novomatic listing disappeared. However, by selecting Novo first and then logging in we were able to access the games.

One reason to do that could be that the provider is not on their platform, that they've used what's known as an API or another gateway to access another store of games. We can only guess at the technical aspects of that.

While accessing the games through the reviewed site there was no option to view the pay tables, except when they appeared on the second screen of the console that was supposedly being broadcast live. The full machine is shown on the left with a screen less than 2" x 2" and the game screen on the console matches the main browser display when playing.

We did find that the games are being provided by a site called bet boom. This site also uses dozens or hundreds of redirects, and we assume it is so they can get their product into blocked markets as well.

We didn't need to log in at bet boom in order to look at the games. And pay tables were available in demo mode. They were very poor representations of the actual manufacturer's true displays. The bet boom premise is thus: They say that they are using a unique technology that lets you remotely control original Novomatic slots like Book of Ra, Pharaoh’s Gold II, Lucky Lady's Charm Deluxe and so on. "You place your bets on the real machine, which is filming by the camera. Due to this you may play slots online on our site and see the process in live."

Now, that is some virtual reality! Simply amazing as well as complete and utter nonsense. Let's look at 3 possible ways for that work. One: They have a Gaminator machine and they've cracked the board so every time you push a button on your keyboard it either wirelessly activates the parameters of the spin, or they have a few miles of spaghetti wire running from a server to a bank of kidnapped slots.

Two: Somebody is sitting there, reading your input and pushing the buttons for you. Nice. Three: They have a robot octopus with a chipped-in brain and real good dexterity. All three of these scenarios would let them put a webcam in front of the machine and broadcast your results while a little movie plays on the left with the larger game screen reduced in size and superimposed. Of course, data has to feed back to the server in order to update your balance, so we'll rule out #2 and #3, they're simply too cumbersome.

Actually, let's rule it all out and just say they aren't Novomatic games. The demo mode graphics are pure crap and there's simply no way that Novomatic would allow their games to be delivered through a Curacao license.

For the sake of argument let's just say that perhaps Sekabet has so much going on that they just didn't know they were feeding bad games. Or one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. Or maybe bet boom has cracked a bank of Novomatic machines and they're doing the world a favor. After all, we don't see any complaints! Without further research, we can't be certain which games from the other 48 providers are authentic and which ones aren't, so we'll just say that they have a ton of games, many many, and leave the games review at that.

Bonuses and Promotions

The promotions lobby seems to be chock full of offers. Welcome offers, reloads, special offers for certain slots, poker races, huge participation rallies for new slot releases, casino rebates, poker rake-backs, it's all there. Looking at a 50% reload bonus we see wagering of 14x deposit plus bonus. So if we deposit €160 to get the max bonus of €80 that would be €3,360 and all slots count (except "Novomatic"). Further details are supposed to be included in the general terms & conditions but we couldn't find anything earthshaking for better or worse.

Banking

There are over 20 ways to get your money into the casino from PayPal to Neteller - which has a minimum USD:1.00 deposit threshold. There are currently 11 ways to get your money back out, from Neteller to Yandex. Many options are minimum $10, Wire Transfers are $50. Neteller incurs a 2% fee, BTC is minimum 0.01, max 5 BTC, instant and free. Bank wires are free and are stated to occur in 1-30 minutes up to $30,000.00. The payment processor is stated as Cauri.

Pitfalls

There's definitely something rotten about a Curacao licensed enterprise foisting off so-called Novomatic games. Is it incompetence, malfeasance, or something else? There is quite a bit of that kind of thing going on. When a corrupt affiliate outfit got caught doing it at half a dozen or so casinos prior to May 2016, they didn't lose their Curacao license. They got blacklisted all over the internet (for that and much more) and pulled the offending games but kept their license.

It goes to show that Curacao is not concerned with player protection. In fact, the Master License holders only seem to be required to answer to the government in terms of money laundering and casino solvency.

While it is possible that the Malta government's company registry website is malfunctioning, we were unable to find Sekabet's operating company by name or registration number C76253. However, the Curacao license appears to be valid - it's simply not possible to know for sure any longer as Curacao eGaming has changed their system so that while you can still view a license, you have to take another step to validate it, and that requires a username and password.

The Final Analysis

If it weren't for the fake games we could easily say, "so what" if they use a redirect technique to get to their customers as long as they always have and always will pay, provide fair rules, fair games, and honor a bet laid with a bet paid. But unless they remedy that 'minor' indiscretion, everything else should be suspect.

External Links

• Novomatic Official Site
• Official Youtube Channel
• Official Twitter Page