Best Betting Sites – Get the Edge of Online Sports Betting in the UK

It doesn’t matter if you are the kind of punter who just likes to place an acca on betting sites and watch the football with your mates on a Saturday afternoon or if you are someone who is looking to generate a side income using your football knowledge, I can point you in the right direction.

The Gambling Commission of the UK has made the task of identifying a legitimate betting site rather easy, but here I can tell you a little something about sports betting that you may not know yet.

Key takeaways: use my insights in sports betting to help you with your strategies, find out which are the best bonus offers and follow my tips for being a pro.

Top Betting Site in the UK

I have been writing about the best betting sites for nearly 20 years, 5 of those years as a professional gambler, so I would like to share with you everything I have learned to make your betting pay.

Top Betting Sites in the UK

This Information Will Be a Gamechanger For You

What’s in it for you? Here is how my website will be useful to you.

Betting is my business and to be perfectly honest with you, the standard of information that I see plastered all over the internet is often shocking. Bookies described as the best betting sites that I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole, betting systems which will lose you money and put you off betting for the rest of your life.

Recommended bonuses with terms and conditions which make it nearly impossible to make a profit and information about betting on other sports which is obviously written by people who don’t know what they are talking about.

I have seen it all, and to say that I have had enough must be the understatement of the year.

Stick with me, and I will show you everything you need to know, gleaned from years of experience, in order for you to use only the best betting sites UK and the strategies you should use.

How to Decide Which Bookies Are Worth It

There are so many bookies available to UK football punters that we really are spoilt for choice. The competition for your business is immense but as you would probably expect, not all betting sites are as good as they claim to be.

I have been burnt a few times over the years by betting sites who have not honoured bonuses and promotions, taken far too long to process withdrawals and given me misleading advice through their support system. For more information on how things are done, you can check my online betting guide.

With that in mind, I have put together a foolproof checklist which you must follow to ensure that you only open accounts with the most reputable betting sites.

• All UK betting sites must have a licence issued by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) – Any site that doesn’t have a licence should not be operating in the UK, end of story.
• Easy navigation – The website must be easy to navigate, it’s no good at all if it takes more than a few seconds to find a particular market because the odds could have changed and the opportunity will have been missed.
• A decent mobile app – The app should be simple to navigate and not at all ‘clunky’. Are the buttons too close together, are the markets slow to load, if they are then look at other UK betting sites apps, there are plenty to choose from.
• Bonuses and promotions – I don’t pay too much attention to welcome bonuses, I’m much more interested in the promotions that are available to existing customers as that is where the decent profits can be found.
• Customer Service – Sports betting sites need to have customer support who know what they are talking about. If I have a query I would like it answered correctly, a friendly manner also goes down well with me

How to Open an Account at the UK Betting Sites

Opening an account at any of the top betting sites is extremely straightforward.

1. Simply click on the ‘sign up’ button which can usually be found in the top right hand corner of the website and fill in the requested personal details (address, email, DOB etc) along with your desired username and password.
2. The bookie will carry out an automated check to confirm your identity and if for whatever reason this can’t be done you may receive a KYC check (know your customer).
3. The process takes no longer than a few minutes but there are a couple of steps you should take to make the process even easier.
4. Use your mobile phone to take a photo of your ID (passport, driving licence) as well as a utility bill (under 3 months old)
5. Then, if you are asked to send in copies of your ID you can do it quickly and without any fuss instead of messing around.

Pro tip: From personal experience, my one tip when it comes to registering at the online bookies is to type your name as it is stated on your driving licence/passport.

So, If your name is James Smith but everyone calls you Jim, don’t use Jim Smith when signing up as it could complicate matters during a KYC check.

The Wonderful World of Betting Bonuses

As a matched bettor, I must have claimed every bookie bonus known to man but over time I have discovered to my cost that not all bonuses are created equally.

I will cover each type of bonus shortly, but before I do, there is one thing that you should make yourself aware of before you use any bonus, and that is the terms and conditions.

Every bonus has T&Cs, and more often than not, they revolve around wagering requirements and minimum odds. So always take a quick glance at what is required, and if you are unsure, jump on to live chat to get an answer.

OK, let’s take a look at the different types of bonuses.

• Welcome Bonus – These usually come in the form of ‘bet and get’, ie, bet £10 and get a £10 bonus. The qualifying bet will have a minimum odds requirement (usually 2.0) and the free bet will be stake not returned (SNR)
• Bet Boost – My favourite type of bonus at the moment, and thankfully, quite a few of the UK betting sites offer them. You will find most of these bet boosts available on Premier League football matches and horse racing, mostly on a Saturday.
• Acca bonus – There are two types of acca promotion, one in which your stake is returned if one selection lets you down, the other is a percentage bonus if all of the legs of the acca win.
• Reward programme – Not all of the online bookies offer reward programmes but those that do reward customers for wagering a certain amount of money during a set period.
• Reload Bonuses – Keep an eye on your emails because reload bonuses, usually in the form of ‘bet and gets,’ are sometimes given to tempt punters to deposit money into their accounts.
• Casino related bonuses – You’ve probably seen these before and they do come in different forms, one of the most popular is something like, bet £10 on a particular football match and receive 20 spins on a specified slot.

Deposit Bonuses

Most of today’s online sportsbooks offer opening bonuses to attract new clients and it’s tempting to choose the one with the best bonus. A deposit bonus means you need to top up your account with a required minimum sum in order to claim the bonus.

Free Bets

Unlike deposit bonuses, the best free bets can be given to you on many occasions. Sometimes, they come with a new registration, or they as well may also come with reload bonuses or loyal points. They’re also easier to claim and have fewer requirements.

Depositing and Withdrawal Methods

You will never be stuck finding a deposit method that suits your requirements with the top betting sites.

The most popular payment method is a debit card but you could choose web wallets such as PayPal, Skrill and NETELLER or even a bank transfer.

Crypto deposits are becoming more and more popular, Bitcoin, Ethereum etc and I can actually see these methods become many punters preferred choice over the next few years.

Prepaid cards such as Paysafecard are also popular as they can be topped up at your local newsagent so you can stay on top of your spending.

Gone are the days when a credit card could be used for making a bookie deposits but I don’t think that’s a bad thing, only bet what you can afford to lose has always been a motto of mine.

List of most popular betting deposit methods:

1. Debit Card – Very quick and easy
2. Web Wallets – Skrill, NETELLER, PayPal
3. Pre-Paid Cards – Gives complete anonymity, but not all bookies accept this method
4. Bank Transfer – Very easy to do with mobile banking
5. Mobile Payments – Apple Pay is my first choice at the moment

Sports Betting On The Move

As the trend for mobile betting has grown, the quality of the mobile versions of bookies as well as the dedicated apps have increased tremendously.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the reputation of a bookie lives or dies based on the quality of the app because many punters will not give an underperforming app a second chance, they will simply take their business elsewhere.

As an example, going back a few years, I could never get on with the Ladbrokes app, it was slow and buggy so one day I decided I’d had enough and downloaded the Bet365 app instead, I have never used the Ladbrokes app since that day.

I’m sure the app has improved greatly, but punters can be very fickle, including me.

To download the app, simply follow our links above and they will lead you to the Apple store or Google Play, depending on your phone and click on the install button.

Almost every respected bookmaker has a mobile app and they became necessary for the companies that wanted to keep up with the modern trends. You can find my opinion on the best mobile sports betting online in the betting apps reviews section.

In Play Betting – Not for The Faint Hearted

With Live Betting you can place wagers on football, horse racing and many other sports, even curling. That way betting becomes an interactive experience because you can actually see what’s going on. By that, I mean Live Streaming, which is also crucial for any bookmaker. The top companies have the resources to afford streaming events live, and this is connected with live betting. In most cases you only need a positive bank balance in your account or to place a bet on an event (this applies to horse racing).

Do you know that live betting is so common in the UK that according to Statista’s Sports betting participation report for the UK adults bets twice as much on football, rather than on live horse or dog racing? You’ll see that sites without Live Betting and at least Audio Commentary aren’t high on our charts.

Before I delve into the delights of in-play betting I must issue a warning, and that is, the odds can move very quickly and, due to Sod’s law, usually in the direction you don’t want them to move

Ok, now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about in-play betting and how to take advantage of it. To access the in-play section of any of the sports betting sites, click on the ‘In-Play’ or ‘Live Betting’ link, which can usually be found at the top of the website.

You will be presented with icons which identify the different sports on which live betting is available.

In the following example, I have chosen football in-play and you can see in the first column how many minutes have been played and then the live match odds as usual.

Pro tip: Something to remember if you are placing a live bet on a sport such as football: If you intend to place a bet and lay the same bet on a betting exchange (matched betting), wait until halftime, when the odds are stable, to avoid any volatile movements.

Also, remember that with live betting, there is a buffer of ten seconds from when you place the bet until it is accepted into the system.

This is to protect you and the bookie, but it does get frustrating when you have just placed a bet and the market is suspended. This is usually because an event that could affect the result has occurred, such as a goal or sending off.

Cash Out

Another form of inplay betting is the ‘Cash Out’ option which is available on most pre match bets after the game has started. You can see the bets which are available for cash out by clicking on the ‘Cash Out’ option in your bookie account.

From my experience, the cash out figure for single bets is not especially generous but if you place an Acca and the first one or two selections have won, you may be surprised by how big the cash out figure is.

This is because of the large potential wins that can go hand in hand with this kind of bet.

Live Streaming

Live Streaming is often available in the live play section of the top betting sites but if I watch any football on these streams it is for entertainment purposes only.

I find that these streams can be way behind real time, by several minutes sometimes so it is not worth using for betting purposes.

Popular Betting Options in the UK

Now, betting on football is obviously extremely popular but it would be remiss of me to not mention a few of the other sports that present opportunities to make money at the expense of the ‘old enemy’. I will start of course with the king of sports and then move on to the rest.

Football

Football betting sites are a massive business these days, particularly online. It is the biggest revenue generator for most of the online bookmakers. And most of them provide a top-notch football betting service, including live football services.

In the UK, football betting started with the introduction of football pools back in 1923. Every family in the United Kingdom played classic football pools. The aim was to select eight games that will end as draws.

Bookmakers found a way to rival the pools. It was by offering “fixed odds coupons”. With these football fans can place single bets, accas, doubles and even trebles on every UK match. They started to offer these on European games as well. These days, football betting has moved to online. And millions of punters all over the world gather in front of their TV’s and computers every week to see the results of the Premier League.

For example, you placed a bet on Arsenal to defeat Liverpool. They are at 3-2 with only 20 minutes left, but they had a crucial defender sent off. If you think that Liverpool will take advantage of this, you can cash-in your wager, so it stays a winner.

To help you pick the best football betting site, I have researched some of the top players. I chose 4 random matches to compare the odds for a home win. For this, I selected two matches from the Premier League, one from the Championship and one from League 1. Then I compared the difference between the best and lowest odds between different bookmakers that I selected.

Imagine you see an advertisement for a product on TV, and the price seems very low. You go to the supermarket to buy this specific product and some groceries, but when you come home, you realize that you spent more than you usually do. Even though the advertised product was cheaper, other prices were raised and you ended up spending more in total. The smart thing here would be buying the cheaper product from here and the other groceries from your normal supermarket.

This situation can be applied to the betting market because if you have more than one account, you can find the best value for the event that you want to bet on. I found out that some bookies offer odds almost 14% better than their rivals. The Premier League games had the biggest difference between the biggest and lowest odds—13.94% and 6.13% on the 2 sample games. For the Championship and League 1, these stats were 4.16% and 5.04%.

I believe that you should not rely only on one bookmaker and gain an advantage by using the new player bonuses. I recommend that you choose at least two of our best football betting site.

Horse Racing

Betting on the horses has always been regarded as a national pastime in the UK, a visit to any of the high street betting shops on any afternoon will prove that point.

Big events such as the Grand National, Cheltenham, Royal Ascot etc are obviously hugely popular but most UK punters are more than happy with a Tuesday afternoon meeting at Wincanton.

Whilst professional punters concentrate on placing win single bets, it is multiple bets such as a Round Robin, Yankee or Lucky 15 that catch the imagination of the average punter because of the possibility of a big win from a small stake.

Special mention should be made of the Tote run Placepot, a bet where you pick a horse to place in the first six races of every meeting. I love this kind of bet because as well as offering entertainment they can also prove to be extremely lucrative at times.

Tennis

Tennis betting is popular with punters at the best online betting sites, especially in play betting as the market swings are quite extraordinary so if you are following a good stream and you know what you are doing, there are numerous opportunities in a tennis match to make money.

Outright betting is also popular, especially in the Grand Slam tournaments, Wimbledon in particular.

Cricket

Betting on cricket is popular in some quarters, especially if the UK betting sites have promotions in place, but it would be fair to say that it is not the most popular sport to bet on.

Pre-match betting on cricket can throw up some opportunities but those with a knowledge of the game often get involved in live betting as the odds movements are often over exaggerated.

Markets and Odds – A Simple Explanation

As you are probably aware, the chances of a selection winning an event is deemed to be more likely if the odds are shorter.

As an example, if a horse is priced at Evans (2.0), is thought to have more chance of winning than a horse with odds of 10/1 (11.0)

If a series of large bets were placed on the 10/1 horse, the odds would reduce depending on the weight of money, if the odds changed to 4/1 the horse would be regarded as a ‘steamer’ so more people would place bets and the odds could reduce even more.

This doesn’t mean that the horse is definitely going to win but the weight of money would suggest that it will run better than the market first expected.

The bookies use complex algorithms to determine the odds on offer and depending on the different markets available on each sport.

With football betting, there are literally hundreds of different markets to choose from with the most popular being 1X2, first/anytime goalscorer, over/under and correct score.

To give you an example, let’s take a look at the over/under market for a football match.

The most common over/under market is 2.5 goals so if you placed a bet on the ‘unders’ market and there are a total of 2 goals in the match (under 2.5) your bet would be a winner, 3 goals or more and your bet would be a loser.

As you can see below, there are also over/under options for alternative total goals, 0.5, 1.5. 3.5 etc

Another bet which is becoming increasingly popular is the BetBuilder.

See the example below for the match between Fenerbache and Man Utd. The BetBuilder option is chosen and then multiple selections are made for the same match, in this example Marcus Rashford to score at any time, Match result Man Utd and over 1 Goal

The Importance of Customer Support

I always place a great deal of importance on customer support, when you have a question, it needs to be answered by someone who is friendly and knowledgeable. The usual contact methods are telephone, live chat, and email, and more recently, I have seen options to contact support through Twitter and Facebook Messenger.

For me though, it has to be live chat every time, you usually don’t have to wait long to get connected and you will have a record of the conversation should you need to refer back to it at a later date.

Licencing in the UK

For UK betting sites to operate legally, they must be licensed by the UK Gambling Commission; it really is as simple as that.

If you happen to come across any online bookies with a Curacao eGaming License or licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission for example, stay well clear as they are not worth getting involved with.

The UK Gambling Commission is known for enforcing strict rules on responsible gambling and consumer protection, which is good news for UK punters.

It is also worth pointing out that there is no tax payable on profits made from gambling in the UK so fingers crossed that it stays that way.

The Voice of Experience

My first piece of advice would always be to have a dedicated betting bank and treat your betting activities as a business. Use a small percentage of your betting bank for each bet (maximum 5%) and record each bet, not just the winning ones.

My second piece of advice would be to learn more about matched betting (taking advantage of bookie promotions and using a betting exchange to guarantee profits). I have been involved in matched betting for years and even though I now only do a couple of hours per week, I still make decent money as you can see from my profit tracker.

Finally, if one of the online betting sites is promoting a particular type of bet, ask yourself why they are promoting it. There is no getting away from the fact that they are in business to make money so if they are promoting a bet such as a ‘Super Heinz’, that will be a bet that they will most likely profit from.

As an example, with horse racing, you will not see the bookies promoting an Each Way Double because it is a bet that can swing the odds in favour of the punter.

What Does the Future Hold?

I believe AI will play a large part in the future of the UK betting sites by offering personalised betting options passed on your past betting patterns.

So, if you place bets on your favourite football team or a Yankee every day on the horses, different variations of those bets, along with promotions, will be presented to you automatically.

At the same time, AI prompts could be used to find betting opportunities, for instance, which referee has issued more than 3 yellow cards in Division 2 matches this season and then bets could be placed to that effect with betting sites UK.

I also believe that the best online betting sites will utilise blockchain technologies (crypto) and responsible gambling laws will become more strict.

Whatever happens, though, I am confident that there will still be many opportunities to make money from UK betting sites. After all, UK betting and gaming statistics show that betting profits only increase, which means that online betting is here to stay.

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