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Betfair UK - Is it Legit? December 2024

Avoid Awful user rating and fined by the UKGC for marketing to vulnerable cunsumers.

We do not currently recommend joining Betfair after several UKGC fines, a large amount of concerning reviews and marketing to vulnerable customers.

New customer offer. Place a min £10 bet on the Sportsbook on odds of min 1/2 (1.5), get £30 in Free Bets. Rewards valid for 30 days. SMS verification required. Only deposits via cards or Apple Pay will qualify. T&Cs apply. Please Gamble Responsibly.
Steven Hubbard
Reviewed by Steven Hubbard
Last updated: 31/10/2024
Why Trust Our Reviews?

At BettingLounge.co.uk, we believe that trust is earned through transparency, experience, and expertise. Our team of experts has over 20 years of experience in the sports betting industry, and we follow a rigorous review process to ensure that our reviews are accurate and up-to-date.

We are partners with bookmakers, but we will never accept money to adjust the reviews or purposely write positive content. We are committed to providing our readers with honest and impartial information so they can make informed decisions about their betting activities.

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Betfair UK Sports Review (2024)

Betfair is a well-known brand that has been online since mid-2000 and is part of the Flutter Entertainment Group which is a company that was founded when Betfair and Paddy Power completed a merger in 2016.

Betfair offers a complete online gambling product with a sportsbook, the world's largest online betting exchange, casino, live casino, poker, arcade, vegas slots, bingo, virtual sports, football jackpots and more.

Betfair Free Bet Welcome Offer - Get up to £100 in Free Bets

Betfair has several fantastic signup offers for new customers out there right now, in which you can get up to £100 in bonus funds, a £20 risk-free bet or a 30 free spins no deposit bonus.

However, you can only claim one signup bonus across all of the Betfair products. We recommend comparing our exclusive Betfair promo codes & offers before deciding which bonus to take advantage of.

To qualify for this offer you must:

  1. New customers only (The UK and IRE only) using promo code ZBBC01.
  2. Place 5 x £10 or more single bets at min odds 1/2 (1.5) to receive £20 in free bets.
  3. Repeat up to 5 times to receive a maximum of £100 bonus. Min odds 1/2 (1.5).
  4. Exchange bets excluded.

New customer offer. Place 5 x €/£10 or more bets to receive €/£20 in free bets. Repeat up to 5 times to receive maximum €/£100 bonus. Min odds 1/2 (1.5). Exchange bets excluded. T&Cs apply.

Promotions and Rewards

Betfair is regularly updating its promotions to offer more value for its existing customers. Also, they have a reward scheme for referring friends as new customers or collecting points on every horse racing bet.

Betfair Acca Edge - An innovative accumulator insurance that covers almost all sports and betting markets.

Appearance and Navigation

At first glance, Betfair can appear to be quite cluttered. A lot is going on, with lists, quick links, moving images, race countdowns, and promotions slowly loading below the menu tabs.

You can select by sport/section along with a horizontal tab at the top to navigate easily. Here you will see the sportsbook, exchange, casino, poker, etc that Betfair offers.

We will focus on the sportsbook in this review. Once you are on the sportsbook page, you will see all the sports to the left in a drop-down menu. Followed by in-play, cash out, promotions, and popular sports.

Below this, you will find quick links on the left, featuring popular football leagues and current sporting events from golf, tennis, horse racing, baseball, and more. The horse racing is in the middle of the page with the York Ebor Festival currently on.

Then, you will see their selected odds boost to the right, with some tasty looking bets having their odds enhanced. Finally, the sports highlights, which shows live games and highlighted matches coming soon. You can filter the events by sport or select betting markets.

Betfair's design is user-friendly and fast in bet selection for multiple bets. The font can sometimes be hard to read, with it being slightly small, but it's only a minor issue.

Selecting different bets has never been easier with Betfair. You will see quick links to popular competitions, featured matches, and more as quick links. This allows you to find, compare, and place bets in no time at all.

You can even filter matches by betting markets. Choosing overs/unders, BTTS, and other betting markets available to build your acca's or simply compare odds easier.

Betting Markets

Betfair has a list of 26 different sports and a politics/special bets section in their drop-down menu. More than enough sports for most punters out there. If you want to bet on football, there are not many bookies better.

They have a massive range of markets with some of the best odds out there. But, their markets are considerably smaller for other sports. In today's tennis matches, we could only find match winner markets in pre-match betting. Yet, the in-play matches have 20+ markets to choose from.

It seems they prioritise in-play on many sports, but it isn't a bad thing. The vast majority of tennis bets are placed in-play, so it makes sense to have more markets available during the match.

Notably, Betfair has a huge range of markets available throughout the footballing world. A glance at Palestine U23 vs Syria U23 and we could find pages of betting markets. It's rare to even find this match as an option, but to also have a ton of markets is impressive.

Live Betting and Streaming

Once again, you can view live events by choosing the sport or betting market you are after. When betting in-play, speed is key.

Betfair has seen the importance and used its design, quick links, and filters to great effect. As well as getting access to hundreds of live markets during football events.

The free live streaming on select events is available on Betfair as long as you have a bet on the event or a positive account balance. For horse racing and greyhounds there is a minimum £0.50p stake per race.

In the UK you can get access to select football, tennis, horse racing, greyhounds, NBA, Cricket, and Snooker events. However, there are many competitors and we actually prefer a few other sites for cricket, for example.

Mobile Betting on Betfair

Betfair has one of the best mobile betting apps out there. Their App has 27.3k reviews on the App Store and still boasts a 4.6-star rating.

If you don't have access to a compatible device, no worries. The mobile optimised site is identical to the app and still runs flawlessly. If you have a chance, we recommend using their mobile platforms.

It has a much better design, navigation, and user-friendliness for all users. You will still get access to every market, sport, and be able to place in-play bets, watch live feeds, and all you can do on their desktop site.

Virtually everything you need is either on the first page or just one click away. It is easily one of the most efficient experiences when it comes to finding, building, and placing bets.

Overall, Betfair offers a reliable, secure, and responsive mobile betting platform that is easily in the top five. The app is updated around once every month to fix any bugs and keep it updated and competitive.

Customer Service

Betfair has a top of line customer service for any issues that may arise.

The live chat is a 24/7 service as well as access to a telephone number from 07:30 to 00:30.

Also, they are quite responsive on social media with Twitter and Facebook accounts. Most of your issues can be resolved in their help section with FAQ.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Betfair offers a very decent betting experience via their sportsbook or exchange.

You will find plenty of awesome promotions, high odds on several top sports and thousands of betting markets to choose from. A free live streaming service is always appreciated, and their 24/7 live chat service is great.

We would like to see more pre-match markets for sports other than football, but overall it is more than enough for the average punter.

User Reviews

Average score of 4.3 by 9 users

Jack

6 July 2020

Betfair is great for a lot of things and I mostly use their exchange. But recently been making a killing on the Stats Betting market they have. Betting on players to have 1 or 2 shots on target and the odds are often miss priced if a player if playing higher up the pitch than usual. Bouncing between bet365 and betfair has worked for me in the past couple of years

Jake

27 November 2019

Best betting exchange I have tried

Luke

10 October 2019

Why do they not offer asian handicaps Not on the exchange either. Sort it out betfair

Josh

22 August 2019

Read the comments and tried really happy with this one

Pete

9 August 2019

One of the few betting sites that always have high odds which is a huge plus in my book. Can recommend it to anyone who have not yet tried Betfair.

Dale

14 July 2019

Really like the odds exchange

Chris_top

8 July 2019

Tried for the free bet stayed for high odds

James

8 May 2019

Used their sportsbook for quite some time but use the exchange now. Both very good

Tom

10 December 2018

One of the best always offering high odds. I often use their acca edge feature meaning a little bit lower odds but your stake back in cash if the acca losses by one leg Overall big fan and I am glad they brought Beat The Drop over to Betfair too

What are your thoughts of Betfair?