Pinnacle

Summary

Pinnacle is one of the most renowned and reputable betting operators. It may not offer any bonuses or promotions, but many punters will agree that its favourable odds are actually a better deal. When it comes to eSports, Pinnacle covers pretty much everything and was one of the first major operators that included eSports betting in its offer.

Pros and Cons

Interface and Usability

As soon as you open the Pinnacle website you will realise that the operator’s main aim is to give its customers a hassle-free and straightforward experience. There’s nothing too flashy and everything revolves around the menus and the options that are at the punter’s disposal. The odds can be displayed either as decimal or as American (Money line). You are free to choose a language from the language menu.

You can easily access Pinnacle’s other services, like the casino and the live casino from the top horizontal menu, and on the left-hand side you will notice a vertical menu with all the available sports. Once you click on a particular sport you will see all the sub-categories, and you can choose to see only the events which take place on the day. All links, including betting resources are placed at the bottom of the main page.

eSports Betting Offer

Pinnacle features more than 15 categories available for betting, and both match betting and specials betting are available. All major conventional sports such as football, American football, basketball, tennis and several more are offered.

When it comes to eSports, Pinnacle has been one of the pioneers and its eSports betting offer is always up-to-date. If you click on eSports, you will see the full list of featured sport and if you click on ‘Today’ you will only see the upcoming events. Pinnacle offers CS: GO, Dota 2, League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch and Starcraft 2, and under new markets you will find the eSports that have been introduced more recently, or events and tournaments that have not been covered previously. As early as 2014, there have been already over one million eSports bets placed with Pinnacle.

The eSports menu is a dropdown menu, and then there’s an additional dropdown menu for each of the featured sports. For example, if you click on CS: GO, you the menu will show all CS: GO events that are available for betting at that point.

Pinnacle offer flexibility in many betting aspects, but in many cases there aren’t too many markets available for each match. For most eSports matches the available options include match betting (two selections, except where draw is an option), handicap betting and totals. For some matches only match betting might be available. The handicap margin depends on how evenly (non-evenly) the teams in question are matched.

However, in other cases, there might be a much broader range of available markets. You will be able to match on the result of the first map, of the second map, on which team will be the first to reach 5 or 10 kills, and many other options, depending on the popularity of the particular eSport and the specific tournament/league in question.

Specials

Special betting on eSports events is also offered, just select ‘eSports’ in the ‘Specials’ menu and you will see all upcoming eSports tournaments and other events for which special betting is offered. In most cases you will be able to bet on the winner of the tournament, but other options may be available as well. You can combine up to a total of 10 selections in an accumulator (parlay) bet, provided that there are no obstacles for particular selections to be combined. The maximum payout per day for accumulator bets is $250,000.

Favourable Odds and Other Advantages

Unlike most other operators, Pinnacle doesn’t let you build your bet slip before you are registered and logged in, so when you click on the odds for a particular selection you will be prompted to register with Pinnacle before you can place a wager.

There’s another aspect in which Pinnacle differs from most other operators. Namely, Pinnacle doesn’t offer any betting promotions or bonuses. Instead, it provides more favourable odds compared to other traditional bookmakers. In fact, in many cases the odds offered by Pinnacle are as competitive as the ones offered by betting exchanges. The average payout percentage at Pinnacle is 96.90%, which means that the margin is only 3.10%. An independent odds comparison site conducts a survey every year, and every year Pinnacle is named the top bookmaker in terms of margin.

Moreover, Pinnacle doesn’t resort to random closures and limitations of successful punters, which is often the case with other bookmakers. Pinnacle is one of the very few arbitrage-friendly bookmakers, and those who seek to make a guaranteed profit are welcomed at Pinnacle. On the website, you will find many detailed betting articles and resources that will help you reach a better understanding of betting in general.

Live and Mobile Betting

Pinnacle offers live betting, on the main page there’s a link to a live betting page, where only events that are underway are listed. You can place live bets just like you can place pre-match bets, just you’ll need to be quicker, as the odds may change pretty quickly or even get suspended.

With Pinnacle Mobile and Pinnacle Lite you can place bets on your mobile device. Pinnacle Mobile is just the mobile version of the website, which can be accessed directly in your mobile browser, whereas Lite is an app (available for Android and iOS), which can be downloaded and installed on your phone/tablet. The Lite version even allows you to set odd alerts, or see visual presentations of how the odds have moved.

Payment Methods and Customer Support

Pinnacle accepts 20 different currencies, and the range of payment options that will be available to you depends on your choice of currency. If you choose Euro, you will be able to deposit using Visa and MasterCard, Neteller, Skrill, iDebit, Sofort, ecoPayz, Trustly, Paysafecard, bank transfer and several other options. Unless you’re using a Paysafecard, deposits are free of charge, whereas the minimum and maximum deposit amounts may vary. With most methods the minimum deposit amount is €10.

The range of withdrawal methods is pretty much the same, but unlike deposits which are free, Pinnacle charges a withdrawal fee of €12 (€20 if you withdraw using bank transfer), regardless of the withdrawn amount. The minimum and maximum withdrawal amount depends on the chosen method.

Customer support is provided 24/7 via email, and you can either use the online form provided on the website, or send an email from your email account, but the effect is pretty much the same.

About Pinnacle

Pinnacle was established in 1998, which makes it one of the oldest online betting websites that are still in business. This bookmaker offers its services in more than 200 countries, all over the world. Pinnacle was formerly known as Pinnacle Sports, but it was fully rebranded in 2016. The website is available in more than 15 different languages.

In addition to sports betting, Pinnacle also operates a casino which features software and live casino games. The site is owned by Pinnacle Sports Worldwide. As the company is privately owned, it doesn’t release any records, but experts suggest that its annual revenue amounts to billions of dollars. The company is located in Curacao and it is licenced by the authorities of the Netherlands Antilles. Pinnacle was one of the first internationally renowned betting sites to offer eSports betting.