Sports lovers are well-acquainted with Betfair. This brand is perhaps the most popular betting brand when it comes to football. It sponsors multiple leagues, cooperates with Real Madrid, and is generally a crucial part of the betting world. The good thing is that Betfair is extremely popular among UK gamblers, due to its competitive odds and generous promotions. So, how good this online bookie actually is? Let’s find out in our comprehensive review of Betfair.
Betfair Welcome Bonus – Is It Generous?
Starting off our Betfair review, we ought to talk about welcome bonus. Welcome bonuses are used by UK online bookies to entice new players into betting on their websites. They are essential for every online gambling website and Betfair knows that really well. Right of the bat, Betfair greets you with a generous welcome bonus. You need to place 5 bets of £10 and get a £20 free bet.
The trick is that you can do this FIVE times, resulting in a total bonus of £100. Sounds good? Well, it is actually quite hefty.
Let’s review the bonus requirements of Betfair. The eligible customers are only the new ones, with an account not older than one month. Furthermore, you need to be from the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland and use a valid referral code to get the bonus. Speaking of code, you can use the button below and we’ll automatically apply it to you, so you can instantly get a welcome bonus!
Another good thing is that this qualifying bet is pretty reasonable. The 5 bets you need to place must be placed on the odds of at least 1/2 (1.5). It can be a single bet or combined bets – your choice. Once the bet is settled, regardless of the outcome, you’ll get a welcome bonus of £20. Finally, there are no wagering requirements, so everything you win is yours to take immediately.
Betfair definitely did an amazing job when it comes to welcome bonus, which we’re sure is going to make the new players happy.
Betfair Promotions – Are There Some?
If you’ve claimed and used your welcome bonus, you’re probably going to want some active rewards. Betfair makes sure that your stay is always welcome and that you enjoy betting as much as you can. Of course, it has pretty good promotions for its active users. Here’s a screenshot from Betfair website:
One promotion that we like, for instance, is the promotion in the bottom-left corner of the image. It’s called Refer and Earn. Basically, you need to refer a friend or anyone else to register and place a bet of at least £10, in 60 days, and you get £10 as a reward. The website allows you to create your referral link, which you can later use for your friends.
We like that it allows up to 5 referrals, so you can earn £50 in total. This isn’t a small amount of money, especially since you can use it as a stake on your next bet and win some good cash.
Wait, that’s not all! Betfair offers yet another great promotion that can bring your bonus free bets. For the promotion shown in the image above, you’ll need to opt-in and you’re immediately qualified. After that, you’ll need to place a bet on multiples, with the stake of at least £10 and once the bets are settled, you get a £5 in free bets.
Despite horse racing being shown, Betfair applies this promotion to every sport. It can be football, boxing, MMA, tennis, rugby, or whatever you like. You just need to fulfill certain conditions of the promotion and the £5 bonus will be yours. The bookmaker offers several other promotions, and since the new ones appear often, it’s hard to tell you which promotion will be available at the time of reading this review.
One thing is certain – Betfair will not abandon this section of the website. If you’re a daily gambler, be sure to check its Promotions tab on a daily basis, to avoid missing out on decent promotions. That’s exactly what we did while doing this review of Betfair.
Deposit/Withdrawal Methods and Limits
Being a world-renowned online bookie, Betfair is very serious when it comes to money. After all, we’re talking about betting and the main goal here is to earn some decent cash. Thankfully, the sportsbook made sure that all the main payment methods are available to its active players.
Apart from standard methods that include VISA and MasterCard, Betfair also offers Apple Pay, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, Paysafecard, and Bank Transfer. We like that PayPal is here, as it is our main way of funding our betting account. In our opinion, using PayPal is the easiest way, as withdrawal times are mostly the shortest when using this service.
Now that we talked about payment methods, let’s see what are the limits imposed on deposits and withdrawals. A moment ago, we mentioned that you need to place a bet with a stake of at least £10 to qualify for a welcome bonus. Well, this is the minimum deposit – £10. As for the upper limit, Betfair lets you impose deposit limits right from the get-go.
That limit can be £10,000 or £100,000, depending on your betting preferences.
Important thing to mention is that deposits come with no fee and are instantaneous. So, as soon as you click Deposit, your cash is already in your Betfair account.
What about withdrawals? Well, they’re certainly not instantaneous, but on the brighter side, there are no fees imposed. The minimal withdrawal is £10, while the upper limit doesn’t exist. You can basically withdraw everything you won, even if that’s a mind-boggling amount of cash.
If you use a VISA or MasterCard, your withdrawals might take up to 5 days. Methods like PayPal, Neteller, and Skrill are the best for that purpose. All of them take up to 24 hours to process your withdrawal and there are no fees.
Betfair Betting Variety
On Betfair, you’ll enjoy a vast choice of different sports and non-sports events to place a bet on. Truly, this UK online bookie is galore of matches, games, and races, that even the pickiest betting lovers will admire. What we really like is that Betfair displays its offerings in the manner shown in the image above. While other bookies use a vertical array, Betfair displays its offerings horizontally, letting you notice the sport you want to bet on much easier.
Speaking of sports and betting variety in general, Betfair offers 27 of them, which is pretty impressive. Aside from dozens of football leagues and horse races, we saw during our review that Betfair also allows you to bet on table tennis, politics, basketball, motorsport, Esports, rugby, boxing, golf, and so forth. For every choice we mentioned, the bookmaker offers numerous ways to place bets, increasing your betting effectiveness.
To do so, just click on the match and it will display you every betting option for that particular match or sport. We promise you – as soon as you see how many betting options are there, you’ll be pleasantly surprised! Let’s talk more about that in the next section.
Betting Options
If you’re not very ambitious, your betting options will probably be very limited. You’ll play on fixed bets, with no handicaps or other advanced betting strategies. Well, that would be a cardinal mistake, as Betfair isn’t shy when it comes to giving you a multitude of options. Let’s review the football betting options on Betfair, for instance:
Apart from 1X2, you can bet on the first goal, correct score, over/under, double chance, handicap match results, and so forth. While you do so, you can enjoy some of the highest odds we’ve seen! Football fans will definitely have something to look forward too on Betfair, for both odds and betting options the bookmaker offers. That’s not all – this trend continues regardless of the sport. Heck, even betting on darts is going to be enjoyable!
If you’re not a darts fan, though, you’ll struggle to understand these terms. But, those who often bet on darts will know what these are. You can bet on the one who you think is going to win 2nd leg, correct score, handicap, alternate handicap, most 180s, and so forth. Oh, and if you thought that’s all, you’re once again wrong – take a look at this:
Tennis fans – here you go. You can now bet on every aspect of a tennis match. The player who is going to win the first set, total tie breaks, first serve of the game, etc, etc.
We could go on like this for the entirety of this Betfair review, but you get the point. Betfair is extremely good for both beginners and highly-ambitious players, offering tons of betting options at your disposal.
We can’t end this section without mentioning the Cash Out option. It’s used for live betting and it means that you can take back your cash if the bet you placed isn’t going to win in your approximation. Simply click on the Cash Out option and get your money back like nothing’s happened. Partial Cash Outs are also here, allowing you to get back a portion of the money, while the other part runs its course, in case the bet is winning.
The Odds at Betfair – Are They Competitive Enough?
One thing where Betfair mostly dominates the UK gambling market is the odds. A proper bookmaker should have very competitive odds, otherwise, people will most likely avoid it like the plague. Our research showed that 888 Sports is the best in this regard, but Betfair, to be honest, isn’t very close to it. We compared this online bookie with another competitor, Unibet, to see how it stacks up against other bookies.
Bundesliga offers some of the most exciting football matches in Europe, and as such, it offers very good odds to bet on. These are the exact same three matches that we’re going to compare. On the first match, the odds are pretty much the same, on Eintracht Frankfurt. However, on draw and Mainz, the odds are slightly higher in Betfair.
The second match has the odds, more or less, similar to what Unibet offers, which can be said for the third match, as well.
Is Betfair a competitive bookmaker regarding odds? Well, it surely is! But, if you want even higher odds, our suggestions are either 888Sport or Bet365.
Betfair Special Features
Betting on online bookmaker sites is quite exciting. You get to enjoy the experience you would otherwise enjoy in land-based bookies. Given how well the company works, it’s not strange that it offers all the necessary special features for maximum enjoyment. Let’s see what features you can expect here:
Live Streaming
Live streaming wasn’t always a standard feature of online bookies in the UK. Betfair was the first one to invent it, and even to this day, it has one of the best live streaming sections out there. Whereas other websites usually let you stream only horse racing, Betfair doesn’t stop there. You can watch Greyhounds, horse racing, football, and several other sports.
There are two options for live streaming here. You can either watch the matches directly from the website or use a Betfair player, which will allow you to stream outside the site. All you need to do to enjoy streaming is either fund your account or place a bet. Each bet will give you the ability to enjoy live streaming for 24 hours.
Even if your bet is £1, streaming will be unlocked for you on Betfair – amazing!
In-Play Betting
Betting before the match starts is a thing of the past now. Most online UK sportsbooks offer you a so-called In-Play betting, widely popular as live betting. This feature allows you to place bets while the match lasts, making it easier to predict the next event. Sometimes, odds aren’t very good, but most of the time, you can bet on some competitive odds here.
Either way, it’s a much safer method of winning money when compared to classic, pre-match betting.
Betfair Blog
Before you say that Betfair blog isn’t anything special, we want you to think about it. This is one of the best blog sections we’ve ever seen. And you know why? Because the company cooperates with dozens of current and former professionals, ranging from football players to basketball and tennis players. All of them contribute to this blog, write articles, and upload at least a few of them on a daily basis.
When you get information and insights directly from professionals, that information has a lot of value, making this blog simply fantastic.
Betfair Mobile Gaming Experience
All of us live pretty busy and fast lives. However, if you’re a passionate gambler, you’ll always find some time for what you love. That’s why mobile gambling and betting exist. Betfair was among the first bookmakers to introduce a mobile app, and to this day, it’s among the best apps on the market. The app is available for both iOS and Android, meaning that every mobile phone user can enjoy it.
How good it is?
In our opinion, very. Even on a bigger screen, you can enjoy it with a single hand. In the bottom part, you can visit certain parts of the website, including sports, and the middle part is reserved for the odds and matches. Simply tap on the bet you want to place and it’ll be added to your bet slip. Moreover, the app offers online banking and the ability to contact support.
With both iOS and Android apps being great, it’s hard not to like Betfair’s sports betting app. On top of that, it’s lightweight and won’t take a whole lot of space on your smartphone.
How Fair and Secure is Betfair?
Talking about security and fair play is always necessary for online bookmakers in the UK. Is it really necessary in the case of this Betfair review? Well… not exactly. But we’ll do it anyway. Betfair is an online bookmaker based in Malta and regulated by Malta Gaming Authority. Apart from that MGA license, the bookmaker also has a license from the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC). These two licenses are enough to prove that this is a verified online bookie.
Apart from that, Betfair also cooperates with numerous Responsible Gaming companies, to make sure that your betting is fun and not a chore. GamStop and When The Fun Stops are both here for that purpose. They can arrange your self-exclusion if needed and talk to you about your betting problems, in case you have them.
Lastly, Betfair is secured by Norton and uses 128-bit SSL encryption for keeping your data safe and secure. Sure, it’s not military-grade, but it’s still impenetrable. With everything being said, this online bookie is safe, secure, and fair. You shouldn’t have any problems betting on it.
Loyalty Program
Unfortunately, we found out while doing this in-depth review that Betfair doesn’t offer any type of loyalty program for Sports players.
We don’t know why that’s the case, especially since the bookmaker offers it for pretty much every other section of the website – Exchange, Casino, Bingo, and so forth. The good thing is that it offers decent promotions, but promotions aren’t a loyalty program, they’re completely different.
If the absence of the loyalty program bothers you, we suggest betting on 888Sport instead. This British online bookie offers a pretty good loyalty program that yields solid cash-based and free bets rewards.
Betfair Customer Support
Should you decide to contact this bookmaker, you can do it in many, many ways. In the image above, we can see that Betfair offers lots of contact options, with support being available 24/7, in general. The option in the top-left corner is live chat. You can use it for minor issues, and for us, it’s the best option as support responds immediately.
The second option is email, which is also available 24/7, albeit, you’ll wait for a few hours to get a response. If your issue is a more urgent one, you can always use the phone number to call Betfair directly. It’s available from 10 am to 8 pm EST and it’s not toll-free.
All in all, Betfair’s support is pretty good. The support team is knowledgeable and quick to respond, so you should have no worries if the potential issues arise.
What do Other Users Think About Betfair?
Before wrapping up our review, let’s see what other users think about Betfair.
This one is a pretty positive review about Betfair. The user has logical arguments on why Betfair’s bookmaker is good. He praises quick verification and quick payments, as he received his money in just a few hours. That’s how you write a review for an online bookmaker. Of course, there are users that write reviews like this:
It’s clear that this user is dissatisfied because she lost money – yes, it’s a woman, by the way. She even goes so far, saying that Betfair sportsbook is a scam, just because it took the money that she bet and lost.
Betfair doesn’t have very favorable reviews on Trustpilot, but most of the bad reviews are very similar to this one.
Conclusion – Should You Bet on Betfair?
Betfair is an exceptional online bookmaker from the UK. It offers fairly competitive odds, responsive customer support, intuitive interface, and lots of betting options. Our review tells you everything you need to know about it, and since our conclusion is very positive, it’s logical that we’re talking about a high-quality online bookie.
When it comes to downsides, we can only mention the lack of loyalty program, which isn’t really a big deal, considering that there are decent promotions for Sports players. To wrap up our analysis of Betfair, we recommend registering on it and enjoying an outstanding betting experience. Register now and get your £20 welcome bonus using the button below!
How to Register on Betfair?
Registering on Betfair is very easy, so we’ll quickly go over that process in this paragraph. First off, open the website and click the Registration button shown in the image below:
After that, a new registration window will pop up:
We can see that the registration proceeds can be completed in a single page, which is always good. The first part is where you enter your full name, date of birth, country, postcode, and mobile number. This information needs to be genuine because you’ll need to verify it afterward.
The second part is more about the account in general. Email address, password, security question, currency, frequency limit, and so forth. You can also see the promo code for getting a welcome bonus – VAL225.
After filling out the necessary info, accept terms and conditions and click Join Now. Following this step is setting your deposit limit, depositing money, and starting to bet on Betfair.
Verification Process – What Do You need?
Withdrawing your winning is possible only if you verify your identity on Betfair. You can do so either before your first withdrawal or immediately after the registration. Should you decide to do so, the image above shows you how to do it. A total of two verifications are needed – personal identification and address verification.
In the first step, you need to provide a copy of your passport, driving license, or national ID. For address verification, two documents are valid – a utility bill and a copy of a bank statement that isn’t older than 6 months.
You can easily submit your documents by messaging the support team using the Contact Us section.
FAQ
For the end, let’s answer some of the questions we haven’t touched on in our Betfair review:
? How long does it take for Betfair to pay out?
It depends on the payment method. With PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller, it can be in 24 hours. However, with VISA and MasterCard, it can go up to 5 days.
? Does Betfair work in Spain?
Yes, it does work in Spain. Just click here to create an account.
? Can Betfair detect VPN?
It depends on the VPN. In most cases, it can’t, but you need to enter a genuine address for your account. If you don’t live on that address, you can’t verify your account later on, so it’s pointless using a VPN with it.