Best UK Betting Sites for 2019

Best Betting Sites UK

All the new betting websites we suggest are appropriately licensed, so although it’s good to check this information yourself, we’ve gone the extra mile to ensure they are, so it’s one thing less to worry about!

Choosing the Best Online Betting Sites

There are many different factors that we need to consider in order to judge a betting site and examine whether or not it is potentially one of the best betting sites that you are able to register with. Your tastes and preferences have a huge impact on which betting sites are considered the best. Some customers may be satisfied with simple the betting markets and bonuses, whereas others like to look more deeply into things, including the user interface, brand identity, support etc.

Below you will find the key factors that we consider to be the most important of a betting site. So that when you are examining a betting site and reading some of our sportsbook reviews, you will be able to look out for key aspects of the UK betting sites, to help you determine whether or not it is worthy of you signing up to and can fulfil the enjoyment you want.

Welcome Bonus & Promotions

The types of bonuses offered by betting sites vary in type, size and who’s eligible to claim them! If you’re a new player, betting websites will typically target you with all their fantastic new promotions. This doesn’t mean existing players are completely forgotten about and they have a fair share of deals to contend with. Below we go into detail about the common types of bonuses offered by betting sites and which ones might be more suited to your own individual needs.

Matched Free Bets

Easily one of the most popular type of welcome offer you’ll find at the best betting websites UK, this bonus represents more than 70% of total sport betting site offers. These offers are straightforward, and players are required to bet a specific amount and the betting site will then credit your account with a free bet up to a maximum value.

This might read something like “Bet £10 and receive a £30 Free Bet”, depending on which UK betting site you’re playing at. Make sure you always check out the qualifying requirements, as these might require you to make a bet on a match or event where the odds are evens (2.00) or greater. Requirements like these are designed to stop players abusing the offer by placing bets which are almost a dead certainty.

It’s worth noting that if your free bet wins, you won’t receive the free bet stake back as part of your winnings. You will receive the winning proceeds, but the betting sites won’t return the £30 free bet stake.

Matched Deposit Bonuses

An alternative to a free bet bonus, some sports betting sites will often be a match bonus. This could be a promotion that specifies “100% matched bonus when you deposit up to £100“. These are a great way to get off the ground running, as the amount of bonus money you receive depends on the first deposit you make at the betting site.

If we use a £100 deposit as an example and you make the first deposit at a betting website which offers a 100% matched bonus, you’ll receive the £100 you deposited plus £100 in bonus money. If you make the same deposit at a betting site which offers a 50% matched bonus, you’ll receive £50 in bonus money.

Offers like a matched deposit bonus can bring a wealth of options to the table for you, in terms of making some serious cash. As with all bonuses, however, they don’t come without their own terms and conditions and betting site bonuses like these can be subjected to more complexity when you factor in the wagering requirements that players will then face.

There are two main different types of wagering requirements which you’re likely to encounter regarding a match bonus, one refers to your ability to withdraw the bonus funds as cash and the other is to release the bonus.

To release the bonus, some sports betting websites will set a wagering requirement of 1x, so you’re required to wager your total deposit amount before the match bonus then becomes available for you to bet with it. Then to withdraw the bonus money as cash, this will typically vary between sportsbooks but normally they specify players bet the bonus cash around five times.

Promo codes are also another popular form of promotion that only a number of bookmakers will offer to customers. These promo codes are a necessity in order to claim the bonus in question. have a look at our betting promo codes page for further information on how you can claim these types of deals. For example, both the Betfred and Ladbrokes promo codes are easy to recommend to all new players ready to snap up a deal.

Okay, so you’ve claimed the welcome offer and what next? Ongoing offers are a great way of lining your pockets with bonus cash which you can then go on and turn into real money.

VIP & Loyalty Schemes

Existing customers are able to opt into loyalty schemes, which is a great way of earning constant rewards. A loyalty scheme could reward you with free bets weekly if you wager over a certain amount every week. This is good for loyal customers who may not want to register with a new betting site, instead, they can simply stick with the betting site they are registered too and win these nice bonuses, as well as the other existing customer offers.

Five of our favourite types of Existing Customer bonuses to claim:

Free Bets for Existing Customers

You might only be able to use these on a specific sport or event and are commonly added to increase the volume of players betting on the event.

Acca Offers

Acca Insurance is one of the most commonly found accumulator offer out there. These are designed to give you a percentage of or your whole stake back if a team lets you down. Players will normally need to make 5+ selections as a requirement for the insurance. Occasionally some sports betting sites will offer acca boosts. If you’re keen on football betting, we definitely suggest keeping your eyes open for these.

Enhanced Odds for Existing Customers

Check the different markets and odds available for the sports you’re interested in betting on. This could be anything from the number of cards shown in the match or if a team hits the crossbar.

Money Back Specials for Existing Customers

There’s nothing more defeating than having your horse finishing second in a race, except for perhaps for your first goalscorer to bag the second. Plenty of top betting sites will give you a money back special under these circumstances.

Betting Markets

Bookmakers do not offer the exact same amount of sporting markets and betting markets within these sports. That is why it is important for you to source which ones are willing to offer you the correct amount of sports and markets that you would like to bet on. It is typically the case that new betting sites will offer less markets than established betting sites. However, this is not always the case as traditional betting sites can sometimes keep it plain and simple in what they are willing to offer customers.

In terms of the different sports you can be ton, there is typically a standard of which sporting markets are included in nearly all betting sites. These include the likes of Football, Horse Racing, American Football, Aussie Rules, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Cricket, Cycling, Darts, eSports, Gaelic Football, Golf, Greyhounds, Handball, Hurling, Ice Hockey, Motor Sports, Politics, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Snooker, Specials, Tennis, UFC/ MMA, Virtual Sports. There are of course more niche betting markets that you can bet on, but these are the standard markets that are typically included.

Betting Odds

It is important to consider the betting odds that a bookmaker is offering to you, as there could be another bookmaker that will offer you even higher pay outs for the same selection, in which case, you will obviously prefer the higher odds for a higher cash reward. A bookmaker may not necessarily offer the best betting odds for every selection out there, but there are ways in which betting sites can be competitive in this market. Using bonuses such as “Best Odds Guaranteed”, which a few online betting sites do have, is one way in which you can ensure great betting odds. Typically, this bonus will apply to horse racing and greyhound racing.

Mobile Gambling

Mobile Betting is becoming increasing popular and is now the most common form of gambling, with customers switching from desktop betting sites to mobile betting sites and mobile betting apps. Betting from your phone whether you’re on a mobile site or betting app is a great way to wager bets on your favourite sports and teams on the go! Nowadays, nearly all betting sites have some sort of mobile options or a betting app for you to download, which is something we take in consideration when recommending you the top sports betting websites.

If your betting site does not have an official mobile betting app that you can download from the iOS or Android app stores, then simply type in the web address of the betting site into google and play through the internet app.

In-Play Betting & Live Streaming

In-Play betting allows customers to place bets, which a fixture is currently underway. The point of this is to be able to predict what you think will happen next. For example, you may want to predict the next goal scorer, or the next booking in a game etc. Live betting adds entertainment to watching sports. You could make watching sports more interesting by predicting what you think can happen next and then watching it unfold.

Different betting sites approach this subject in different ways, however live streaming is not only a fun addition to betting on horse races and other sports, it also makes it easy to make live bets, as you can see the performance of teams more clearly. Most of the best betting sites UK offer some variance of live streaming.

User Interface

Ease of access plays an important factor when choosing a good site. A cluttered site can make it vastly more difficult when it comes to navigating round the website, which is something we don’t want. A clean user interface means you’ll be able to spot any live sports and betting offers available and jump in with no time wasted.

Payment Methods

In the technologically advanced world we live in, we are open to use a huge variety of different payment methods in order to successfully withdraw and deposit funds to/ from your betting account. It is down to you, which payment method you want to use, once you have decided this, you can then search for a betting site that is willing to offer this form of payment.

Card payments are of course the most original and still the most popular form of online payment. Almost every online betting site will offer this form of payment and encourage players themselves to use it. They do this by making it only possibly to make bonus deposits and wagers via card payment. The common card payment methods that you are able to use are: Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, Solo and American Express.

E-Wallets are becoming increasing popular in the gambling industry and customers are able to make withdrawals and deposits, without entering their full banking details to the bookmaker. The way in which this works is by entering your bank details onto an e-wallet sight, for example PayPal, then when it comes to using it for a betting site, you simply need to enter in an email and password to make a transaction. Common e-wallets include PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, Paysafe, ecoPayz and more!

Prepaid cards are another form of payment. The way this works is you go into a shop and buy your prepaid card or top up your prepaid card with a certain amount. There may be a limit on how much you can put on. Then you take the code written on this card and enter it into the betting site, it will transfer funds from the card to your betting account.

Tipping services at Betting Sites

Betting tips are out there for all sports and events under the sun and although these aren’t as much of a staple as they once were, a lot of top sports betting sites UK will offer betting tips for the bigger events. Bookies which focus on horse racing will often have a tips section and whilst some offer better than others, we suggest shopping around rather than going off what one site says.

If checking out tips is something you’re keen on doing, you can do some research into the actual tipsters. This helps you gain a bit of back history and see how accurate their previous estimations have been. Some of the best tipping betting sites we’ve come across are the likes of Betfair, Paddy Power and Ladbrokes. All these sports bookies have years of experience in both the betting site and tipping industry.