Betting Guides

We decided to put Coral's withdrawal process to the test by withdrawing the minimum amount of £5 with a Visa debit card. We were told on the confirmation page that it would arrive within four hours, but we had the money in our bank account in less than an hour. In other words, punters who sign up will not have to worry about withdrawals being slow.

We put William Hill's withdrawal process to the test, requesting a withdrawal of £5 on the mobile app. We used Visa Direct as the payment method and although we expected a relatively fast payout, the outcome actually surprised us.

Having been fans of bet365 for a long time, we have certainly withdrawn from the bookie before. However, it's important to test betting sites regularly and our most recent test of bet365's withdrawal process had a positive outcome. Using Visa Direct as the method, the money arrived in the bank account after just over an hour.

Bookmakers constantly claim to have the highest odds available, but with so many claiming to have the best odds, how do we know who’s telling the truth? Easy. On BettingLounge, you can compare betting odds across 10+ UK bookmakers. These odds are updated in real-time, so you know who has the best odds.

We always make sure to test the withdrawal process ourselves when reviewing bookmakers in the UK. We used a Visa debit card to withdraw the minimum amount from Ladbrokes, which is £5. Much to our surprise, while the bookie stated that the money would arrive within four hours, it arrived after less than 30 minutes. A fast and convenient process, in other words.

Those who are used to fast withdrawals from betting sites should opt for PayPal when moving funds to and from NetBet. As per the information on the site, verified during our test, withdrawals with PayPal will be processed within 24 hours. Along with Trustly, this is significantly faster than the other methods on the site, which can take up to four business days.

Coral was first established in 1926 and has thus been in the gambling industry for a very long time, becoming famous with its betting shops across the country. In 2016, it merged with Ladbrokes to form the 'Coral Ladbrokes Group' and a mere two years later, this group was acquired by the gambling giant Entain.

BetMGM is owned by the powerful MGM Resorts International and was launched in conjunction with another gambling giant, Entain, in 2017. However, the betting site first entered the UK scene in the summer of 2023 as it partnered up with another MGM-owned bookie, LeoVegas. As a result, the site has a very familiar look for most UK punters.

We decided to put Betway's withdrawal process to the test ourselves, with the bookie claiming to have good withdrawal times for some method. We used Visa Direct for our test and withdrew £5, but we had to wait a little over 10 hours for the money to arrive. This is significantly slower than other Visa Direct withdrawals we have done, so that was a bit disappointing.

As always when reviewing a bookmaker, we decided to test the withdrawal time at BoyleSports ourselves, not just relying on the information listed on the website. Using a Visa debit card to withdraw the minimum amount of £10, we were pleasantly surprised by the result.

As we do with every bookmaker, we made sure to test the withdrawal process at BetVictor ourselves and sadly, we were quite disappointed with the result. We used Visa Direct as the payment method and requested a withdrawal of just £5 (the minimum amount). However, we still had to wait for over 12 hours to get the money. Most bookies are a lot faster than that, at least via Visa Direct.

We tested Unibet's withdrawal process ourselves, using a Visa debit card to withdraw the minimum amount of £5. We were quite impressed as the funds arrived in our bank account after just over three hours, thus meeting the bookmaker's standard of paying out funds via Visa Direct within four hours.

We decided to put BetMGM's words to the test, downloading the app and taking a look at the withdrawal process ourselves. We opted for the minimum withdrawal amount, i.e. £10, and chose a Visa debit card as our payment method. Thanks to the Visa Direct feature, withdrawals tend to be quite fast.

Of course, we made sure to test Betfred's withdrawal process ourselves and the outcome was positive, given that we received the money in our bank account after around 90 minutes. We withdrew via a Visa debit card - using the Visa Direct feature - and the bookmaker thus stuck to its word, claiming that withdrawals with this method usually arrive within 3 hours.

BetVictor was launched in 1946 and is considered to be one of the biggest betting sites in the world, not just operating in the UK market. Owned by BV Gaming Limited, the parent company recently decided to expand its operations with the white-label additions of Parimatch and talkSPORT BET.

Kwiff promises fast withdrawal, especially thanks to the Instant Banking option, but we wanted to put a more conventional payment method to the test on the bookie's app. Indeed, we withdrew the minimum amount of £10 with a Visa debit card, which tends to be quite fast thanks to the Visa Direct technology.

Coral Cash Out is the British betting brand's way of giving its customers control over their bets, allowing them to bank winnings before the bet has settled. There are two parts to this feature, more specifically Full Cash Out or Partial Cash Out, which means customers can either bank the full cash-out amount or just some of it.

Most top online betting sites, one of which is Betfred, now have their own form of cash out. UK punters demand lots of flexibility over their wagers these days, with the cash-out function enabling them to lock in some guaranteed profit from a bet or cut their losses instead. You can read our general guide about the cash-out feature here.

We believe gambling should only ever be for fun, and should never be seen as a way to make money. While there has been a trend of so-called experts - focusing heavily on statistics - in the betting world recently, this is certainly not for everyone and new as well as experienced bettors need to be careful.

Sports spread betting is a type of betting in which you bet on whether the result will be above (Buy) or below (Sell) the spread. A spread is a range the betting company predicts for the outcome of an event.

The Scratch of the Day promotion is no longer available at William Hill, as the betting brand decided to discontinue it. This has left many loyal customers disappointed, with it being rather popular, but at least there are still some promotions such as the William Hill Bet Boost.

Lotteries are becoming a lot more popular on UK betting sites, with Betfred among the bookmakers trying to get a piece of the action through its Nifty Fifty game. Indeed, punters will often find lotteries from all over the world on most betting sites, which is certainly a receipt of the demand.

Betfred's Spanish Lotto game allows punters to bet on the outcome of the Spanish national lottery, rather than participating in the latter. In other words, punters do not have a chance at winning the lucrative jackpot of the actual lottery, but instead they rely on the fixed odds offered by Betfred to calculate potential winnings.

On April 17th 2023, Ladbrokes changed the fundamentals of the Grid Card, no longer allowing punters to deposit and withdraw with the card. However, it is still possible to use the card - as well as sign up for one - for the rewards that Ladbrokes offers in-store. In essence, the card means that punters can make use of the online promotions in-store as well.

On April 17th 2023, Coral changed the fundamentals of the Grid Card, as punters can no longer handle funds with the card. Although deposits and withdrawals are no longer possible, Coral customers can still use the card - as well as sign up for one - to make use of the online promotions in the shops as well.

Bet365 is one of our top 10 best UK betting sites - and for very good reason. Home to some of the best betting bonuses around, a host of live sports streaming options and arguably the top mobile betting apps for iOS and Android, bet365 is a fantastic choice to use.

Lottery betting is growing in popularity at a rapid rate, with many of the top UK betting sites now offering this option alongside other products like bingo, poker and scratch cards.

System bets might seem complex, but the name just refers to a type of wager where there is no need for every leg to be a winner in order for some form of return to be handed to the player. As such, system bets have become increasingly popular on UK betting sites.

To place a bet online, head over to the betting site of your choice and create an account. Browse the sportsbook for the game/event you would like to bet on. Pick one or several markets and then add the selections to your bet slip to create the bet.

Darts is possibly the most popular pub sport in the UK and it's one that most people try before being able to bet on it. When most people think of darts, they imagine overweight alcoholics down the pub playing for a free beer.

Betfair's Acca Edge replaced the Acca Insurance a few years back and is a fantastic promotion for sports punters. If one of your acca selections lets you down, Betfair will refund the full stake as cash. The only requirement is that the acca has at least three selections, after which the Acca Edge will kick in, and there is no maximum refund either.

Like many of the top UK bookmakers in the industry, Paddy Power offers its customers an acca insurance. In short, Paddy Power will refund the stake as a free bet if one selection lets the acca down. This is fantastic for punters who want to maximise the odds of their accas, being able to add a risky selection to the mix, and it also applies to bet builders.

In short, over/under 2.5 goals is a bet on the total number of goals scored by both teams in a game. The bet covers 90 minutes plus stoppage time but now extra time, which is worth noting. Over 2.5 goals is a bet on there to be 3 or more goals in the game, while under 2.5 goals is a bet on 2 or fewer goals in the game.

Put simply, over/under 3.5 goals is a bet on the total number of goals in the match (both teams) and covers the 90 minutes plus additional time. Over 3.5 goals is a bet on 4 or more goals in a game, while under 3.5 goals is a bet on 3 or fewer goals in a match.

In short, over/under 4.5 goals is a bet on the total number of goals in a game across 90 minutes plus stoppages. Over 4.5 goals is a bet on 5 or more goals in a game, while under 4.5 goals is a bet on 4 or fewer goals in a game. The total number includes all goals scored by both teams, but there are other markets available if you just want to bet on team goals.

In the simplest of terms, over/under 1.5 is a betting market that concerns the number of goals scored in a game across 90 minutes plus stoppages, though not including potential extra time. Over 1.5 is thus a bet on there to be 2 or more goals in the game, while under 1.5 goals is a bet on there to be 1 or no goals in the game. This bet includes the goals scored by both teams in a game, and this must be taken into consideration.

Over/under 0.5 goals is a betting market in which punters bet on the total number of goals (both teams) scored in a match. The bet covers 90 minutes plus additional time, but not extra time. Over 0.5 goals is a bet on there to be 1 or more goals in a game, while under 0.5 goals is a bet on no goals in a match.

Many of the UK's top online betting sites have a free-to-play game that encourages customers to return to the site. Paddy Power's version, called Wonder Wheel, was launched at the start of 2021 and has since become a big hit among its customers. In many ways, it is similar to Coral's free-to-play game Rewards Grabber.

Many of the top online betting sites in the UK now put the power in the hands of their customers by allowing them to request a bet, or build one, with SkyBet among these sites. In the last few years, in fact, the bet-builder feature has skyrocketed in popularity and it is no surprise that most of the betting sites constantly are developing the feature.

Both teams to score (BTTS) is a betting market in which you can bet on 'Yes' or 'No' to both teams scoring in the match. If you bet on the 'Yes' market, you will need both teams to score at least one goal each in the match (90 minutes plus added time) while the 'No' market is neither team scoring, or just one of them.

Most of the top UK bookmakers now offer the ability to track in-shop bets online, making it possible for punters to use features such as cash out for in-these bets as well. Paddy Power's version of that is Track My Bet, also known as Paddy Power Onside, and it allows you to track and cash out a bet that you have placed in a Paddy Power shop.

49s is a popular lotto game at Betfred which features - as you could guess - 49 balls during the draw. The latter is held twice a day, once at lunchtime and once in the evening, giving players an increased chance of winning on a daily basis.

Betfred Goals Galore is one of the betting brand's football promotions, allowing punters to choose the games they think will deliver many goals. There are a few different versions of the promotion, but the standard one involves predicting at least three games in which both teams will score.

Simply put, a void bet is one that is cancelled, which could be for various reasons. For example, if a Premier League game does not take place due to poor weather, the bets placed by punters on that game will be voided by the bookmaker. When a bet is declared void, the punter will get the stake returned.

Many people who like to gamble online on sports such as football and horse racing probably wish that there was a way to guarantee they would make money out of all their bets. But with a strategy called matched betting - which is getting a lot more popular in the UK - it is now possible to carve out a regular reliable income from using sports betting sites.

Win-draw-win, also known as 1X2 or simply Full-Time, is a betting market that allows you to bet on either team to win or a draw in 90 minutes of football (plus injury time). Simply tap on the team you think will win or a draw and place the bet as a single, or add more results and build an acca. The latter has become increasingly popular among football punters in recent years.

Darts betting has been growing in popularity at UK online betting sites in recent years, with the sport's public profile rocketing of late thanks to the rise of Fallon Sherrock and other top stars.

Quite simply, it is a bet on one selection. Usually, on a match result, say Win/Draw/Win (1x2). Singles are good for bankroll builders. Let’s say, pick a favourite that you feel has a great chance of winning, place a larger stake than usual and use that money to build a bankroll to place riskier bets for bigger rewards.

Asian goal line bets are very popular on the best UK betting sites and involve football fans having to predict the number of goals scored in a game. As such, they have some similarities to other markets like over/under and total goals.

Lots of the top UK bookmakers offer free-to-play prediction games, so how does the Sky Sports Super Six option - which is operated by Sky Bet - compare to its rivals in a crowded market? With a £250,000 jackpot up for grabs, Super 6 has one of the top prizes out there, but naturally that means it is also difficult to win.

The Martingale Strategy involves increasing your stake by 100% after a losing bet and is commonly used in 50-50 scenario games such as Roulette. If your bet has a stake of £10 and it loses, you should increase the stake to £20, £40, £80 and so on until you win again.

Rewards for Racing - also referred to as Rewards4Racing - is a site that lets users collect points that can then later be traded in. In essence, it acts as a form of cashback bonus, with punters earning points from each racing bet they place. However, even though it is completely free to register, a lot of people are still unaware of Rewards for Racing.

There are often a couple of different types of round betting on the UFC at British bookmakers.

In UFC betting, no contest means that the fight finished for a reason outside of either fighters' hands, therefore, without there being a winner or loser in the bout.

The Draw No Bet betting market is a bet which removes the outcome of a draw in three-way markets such as 1X2. Draw no bet allows punters to bet on either a home win, or an away win, and if the result is a draw, your stake will be refunded. However, you will lose your bet if the other team wins of course.

The cash-out feature allows you to accept a profit or loss before the end of the event. It is a real-time decision and usually pays immediately after you use the feature. You can either celebrate by cashing out at the right time for a profit or embrace the pain of cashing out early and missing out on potential profit.

Yes, punters who place a bet on Ladbrokes will indeed get winnings paid out based on first past the post (FPTP). This has more or less become standard among bookmakers, especially the top horse racing ones in the UK.

In short, evs or evens is used to describe 'even money' when talking about betting odds and profit. When outlining terms and conditions for promotions, the top betting sites in the UK will often write evens instead of 1/1, which is what it is in fractional odds. Being familiar with the term is thus very important, especially for new punters scanning the market for the best promotions around.

Those who have placed bets on a betting site before might be familiar with the term Yankee Bet, but knowing how it actually works is a different story. A Yankee Bet consists of four selections, similarly to a Lucky 15 bet, but it differs from there on as these selections are spread out over 11 different parts:

A Placepot, also known as a Tote Placepot, is one of the most popular pool bets on horse racing betting sites, as this type of bet offers punters a chance to win large payouts from relatively small stakes.

Pick 7 is a free-to-enter competition in which you select seven horses from chosen racecards, using your Sky Bet or Sky Games account for the chance to win large cash prizes. It is thus similar to Sky Sports Super 6, which is a free-to-enter predictions game for football, though horse racing enthusiasts will find that the jackpot between the two greatly differs.

Goal Difference - often referred to as GD for short - is a way to rank football teams based on their attacking and defensive performance. It is calculated by taking the difference between the number of goals a team has scored and conceded. It is not unusual for bottom-placed teams to have a negative goal difference, therefore.

If you have only seen a few matches or none at all, this is a quick guide to help you understand the basics of tennis. Simply put, tennis is a game between two (singles) or four (doubles) players on a rectangular court with a net in the middle. Players stand on opposite sides of a net and use a racket to hit the ball back and forth.

A Trixie bet is a system betting method (read our guide on system bets here) that consists of four bets on three different selections combined into one. The four bets comprised three doubles and one treble, and players must choose three sections (from other events) to place a Trixie bet.

Ante-post betting simply refers to placing wagers on events that will happen in the future. For example, while a lot of horse racing fans like to place wagers on the day of their chosen meeting, others prefer to take a more advanced view by checking out ante-post markets.

Handicaps are used to level out the playing field for a sporting event with one clear favourite. UK online betting sites offer handicap bets for a range of sports, but football and tennis are probably two of the most popular where the handicap can be used to achieve value bets.

It goes without saying that American odds are how prices tend to be displayed in the US. However, many of the biggest and best UK betting sites will now also let users see American odds. These look very different to how the same price would look as decimal or fractional odds, though the potential profit is always the same.

Arbitrage betting is a way for punters to make guaranteed profits, or at least guarantee no losses, by pouncing on odds irregularities between bookmakers. More specifically, this is done by betting on all of the possible outcomes of a game, which requires rather high stakes and the profit can sometimes be minimal per bet.

As the name suggests, win both halves bets involves predicting that a team will score more goals - in football, or points in rugby - in both the first half and the second half of the match. However, although this type of bet is available on all of the best football bookies, it has quite a low profile. And many people might not even realise that it is also commonly used in rugby union betting.

Best Odds Guaranteed is a standard promotion among the best horse racing bookmakers and plays a vital role. Essentially, it gives punters the chance to take the early price, but if the starting price (SP) is higher, you will get paid out at the higher odds. This is not only the case for horse racing, but also on some of the best greyhound racing sites.

SP stands for 'Starting Price' but it is usually shown as just SP on most online betting sites. The starting price refers to the odds that are being offered at the time a horse race gets started.

A patent bet is a multiple bet consisting of 7 bets placed on 3 different selections, 3 singles, 3 doubles and a treble. This method, which is categorised as a system bet, is mostly used by punters on the big horse racing betting sites. However, it is available across all sports and offered by most prominent bookmakers, growing in popularity because punters only need one winner from three selections to see a return.

Understanding how betting odds work can be a headache for anyone new to sports betting. After all, without a clear knowledge of how betting odds work, people can feel quite lost. The first thing to note is that odds are usually shown in one of three main formats:

Each-way betting is a betting type in which you place two bets on the same horse: one bet for the horse to win, and one for the horse to place. This means you can win a return on your bet if your horse wins, but also if it just places in the race.

In sports betting, the stake is simply the term that is used to describe the money that is put on a bet. The size of a stake is therefore the sum of cash being put down in the hope of a winning wager.

An acca bet is a single bet that combines two or more individual wagers and requires all those wagers winning, to get a return. Accas will pay out more than placing the bets separately, but, if one selection loses, the entire bet loses. Most punters will know the acca bet from its other names such as an accumulator bet, multi bet or even a combination bet. Acca - sometimes called parlay - betting is very popular in the UK, and the potential payoffs can be huge.

We wanted to test the withdrawal time at BetUK ourselves, rather than relying on the information on the website, so we decided to withdraw the minimum amount of £10. We used a Visa debit card as the method and it should be mentioned that we tested the process on BetUK's app which, by the way, is decent.

CopyBet is not exactly known for lightning-fast withdrawals, nor does it claim to be the fastest, but we decided to put its withdrawal process to the test anyway. Although the bookie now accepts Instant Bank Transfers, we decided to withdraw the minimum amount of £10 with a Visa debit card, as many punters will still want to use that method.

For customers at Lottoland, the fastest way to withdraw betting winnings is via debit card, which instantly tells you that withdrawals are not fast. Indeed, it is stated on the site that the processing time for withdrawals is 2-5 business days, but it could even take longer than that for the funds to arrive. In fact, when we made a withdrawal test on the site, we got a confirmation email which said 5-15 business days (see more below).

We put Parimatch's withdrawal time to the test, withdrawing the minimum amount of £5 with a Visa debit card. Seeing as Paypal isn't available, punters must rely on the Visa Direct feature for fast withdrawals but our result was a bit disappointing.

Bet Builders have become more or less a must for UK punters in recent years, especially football fans, as the tool provides more freedom with the selections and can result in higher winnings. bet365 was one of the first to launch such a tool, simply called Bet Builder, and we judged it as the bet builder tool around.

Free bets have become increasingly popular among UK punters in recent years and almost all betting sites have jumped on the train. In fact, those who are looking for free bets will not have to look for long, with several great welcome offers available in the UK. Naturally, the different types of free bets have also increased.

Punters who like to place bets on snooker can try their luck with frame betting, which mainly is who will win the next frame but also includes some other markets. Snooker games are won on a best-of basis, divided into separate frames, and the number of frames could range from anywhere between 5 to 35. For example, in a best-of-35 game, a snooker player would need to clinch 18 frames to prevail.

Those who have placed bets on horse racing before will be very familiar with the Lucky 15 bet, or will at least have heard the term before. This bet consists of four selections, usually which horses will win certain races, and these are spread out over 15 individual parts:

Live in-play betting has been around for a while now, with sports fans often placing wagers on a big match or the top game of the day to make the action a little bit more exciting to watch.

A Lucky 31 bet is made up of five selections and, being a very popular bet on horse racing betting sites, this is usually five horses to win a race. It gets more complicated than that, though, as these five selections are then spread out across 31 individual parts of the bet:

A Lucky 63 bet is made up of six selections and these are usually six horses to win a race, seeing as this type of bet is very popular on horse racing betting sites. However, It gets more complicated as these six selections are then spread out across 63 individual parts of the bet:

Bet365 is one of the biggest betting sites in the world, having made a name for itself with a plethora of markets, excellent betting features and comprehensive live-streaming options. In addition to the in-play excitement, with a nice live interface, bet365 customers can stream over 600.000 events every year on their computers, phones and tablets.

The Cheltenham Festival is one of the most significant horse racing events of the calendar year. This guide will teach you how to watch Cheltenham for free on TV.

The William Hill Plus Card is a fantastic solution which allows instant access to your winnings. Previously known as William Hill's Priority Access Card, it was launched back in 2015 and aimed to cut down the delay of withdrawals.

NRNB stands for non-runner no bet, which is just what racing fans might be able to guess. If a horse that has been backed does not end up running in the race, the bet is void. That means that the customer receives a refund on the wager, getting the cash they laid out back, which they can opt to use on another racing bet if they want.

A bet builder allows punters to combine several markets from one game to create one bet. For example, in a Premier League game between Arsenal and Liverpool, you could decide to place a bet builder bet with the following selections: Arsenal to win, a certain player to score, a certain Liverpool player to be booked and over 7.5 corners.

Like many of the best betting sites in the UK, Unibet offers a live-streaming service for its customers and it is considered to be one of the best in the business. Sports such as football, tennis and horse racing are available to watch and the bookmaker even offers some prominent games, such as La Liga action for football punters.

As several of the best betting sites in the UK now offer live streaming, punters now have a lot of different options on this front. William Hill has placed a great emphasis on horse as well as greyhound racing, offering streaming of the events with its service William Hill TV. Not all of them are bet-to-watch, though, which makes the bookie stand out.

Just like many of the best betting sites in the UK, Betfred offers live streaming for selected events and only a funded account is needed to access this service. This is partly why the bookmaker has become so popular among UK punters, with sports such as horse and greyhound racing, NBA, snooker and tennis available to stream.

The Tote Scoop 6 is a once-a-week horse racing betting pool that runs every Saturday, and occasionally on Friday evenings. Having run since 1999, it has become one of the UK's most famous horse racing bets.

Sometimes referred to as a Super Yankee, a Canadian bet is made up of five selections, such as five football teams or five horses to win. It gets more complicated than that, though, as these five selections are then spread out across 26 individual parts of the bet:

While online betting is a fairly harmless hobby for a lot of us, some people struggle to keep a grip on their spending and want to learn how to block all gambling sites in the UK as a result.

Firstly, an eWallet is an electronic card that allows transactions online through a computer, phone, or tablet. eWallets are a fast, secure, and convenient way to move money online.

Virtual sports betting sections are now available on many of the online betting sites and cover several sports including horse racing, football, tennis, and more. Football fans who want to be on the real deal, though, can check out the ten betting sites we have named the best for football. The same goes for horse racing punters, advised to take a look at our top ten bookies for the sport of kings.

The UK is known for having some of the most relaxed rules and regulations for the gambling industry. This is partly due to the UK's Gambling Act 2005, a key piece of regulation that opened the door for a large increase in activity in the sector.

The first betting exchange was set up by Betfair in June 2000. They do not accept bets per se but instead match backers with layers while taking a commission (5%) on the winning bets.

An Asian handicap is a football betting market in which teams are handicapped according to their form. It first originated in Indonesia and has grown into one of the most popular betting markets.

William Hill provides two free racing radio stations in the UK with commentary, racing news, interviews, daily racing podcasts, and more. All of the major horse races in the UK have live commentary through William Hill's Racing Radio service and some meetings in Ireland.

Betfair set up the first betting exchange back in mid-2000, and they currently offer the largest sports betting exchange available. If you do not know what a betting exchange is, check out our betting exchange guide for beginners.

In short, syndicates are a type of pool betting involving two or more players combing their stakes for a chance to win (share with other winning players in the syndicate) huge prizes.