Betfair

New customer offer using promo code ZBBC01. 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.

Introduction

Before we begin with our Betfair review, we feel it is important to mention the Betfair “Casino Happy Hour Bonus” scandal. Back in late 2010, Betfair thought it would be a great idea to offer a three-hour bonus where you could deposit £200 and receive a 50% bonus.

Sounds like a pretty decent bonus right? It gets much better. This bonus was unlimited for all players. You could deposit up to £200 as many times as you wanted during the three hour period. The rollover requirement was only 10x and they had 12 hours to unlock the bonus.

For obvious reason, this was a very popular bonus, that attracted a huge amount of attention from punters everywhere. Betfair was estimated to have lost several hundred thousand from this bonus, but this is where the scandal starts.

Soon after the bonus ended, Betfair went on a banning and locking streak for players that won using the bonus. Their accounts and winnings were confiscated.

Even worse, Betfair took all the winnings but refused to refund any losses that players incurred during the promotion. Betfair released an email claiming potential bonus abuse due to unusual gaming and deposit activity.

Whoever came up with the bonus made a pretty huge mistake. Instead of honouring their mistakes, they punished players in a terrible manner. But, since this huge, hard to forgive, mistake. Betfair has had very few other issues. Almost all affiliates, reviewers and customers now rate them highly, praising their plentiful promotions and consistently high odds.

Welcome Offer

Betfair has one of the biggest welcome offers out there right now, in which you can get up £100 in bonus funds.

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 maximum £100 bonus. Min odds 1/2 (1.5).
4. Exchange bets excluded.

T&Cs Apply 18+

If you want to join Betfair’s exchange, the welcome offer is a risk-free £20 free bet offer. Check out our exchange guide for more details.

1. New customers only,
2. bet up to £20 on the Exchange and if your first bet loses, we’ll refund you £20 in Cash.
3. The bet must be placed in first 7 days of account opening.

T&Cs apply 18+

Promotions and Rewards

Betfair are regularly updating their 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.

Win up to 50% more on your first acca of the week- This promotion applies to Acca bets of three or more legs. Three legs will qualify your acca for a 5% increase up to 50% with 10+ acca’s. T&Cs Apply

Best odds on the Premier League- Here Betfair claim to have the best odds on PL matches. “Betfair Sportsbook offered the lowest average match over rounds since 1/1/18 on EPL, compared to leading UK bookmakers”. T&Cs apply

Up to £25 Free Bet with every winner at 3/1 or more (ITV Racing)- Placing a single bet on any live selected ITV races at odds of 3/1 and if it wins. You will receive a free bet to the same value of your stake up to £25. T&Cs apply

Best odds on Tennis ATP World Tour, Cricket and Rugby- Again, Betfair claim to have the best odds on a number of different sports. They back it up with the same lowest overounds statement. To be fair, they often have the best odds and almost always have the lowest betting margins.

Appearance and Navigation

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

To navigate easily, you can select by sport/section along a horizontal tab at the top. 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 boosts 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 be hard to read sometimes 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 the pre-match betting. Yet, the in-play matches have 20+ markets to choose from.

It seem’s they prioritise in-play on a number of 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 quick 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 clearly 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.

One noticeable omission, there seems to be no infographic during live events. Usually, you will find some kind of pitch/court showing where the ball is with some other details and effects. But, I cannot find any on the events that are in play at the time of this review. It’s not really a big miss, as you can now focus more on the odds and betting markets.

Yet, it feels rather empty without it. How do you know if a team is in a dangerous attack (just near their opponents final third) or not? There is a serious lack of information on display. No line-ups, match stats, or any useful information to aid your betting decision. Maybe, the events that are on aren’t seen as a priority for this. But, it feels like there should be something.

The free live video’s on select events are 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. Check their help section for more information.

Mobile Betting

Betfair has one of the best mobile platforms out there. Their App has a huge 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 the 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 which 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 the line customer service for any issues that may arise. Funnily enough, at the time of this review, they are experiencing technical difficulties with their live chat. But, usually, it 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 has come a long way since it’s 2010 scandal. It will still put off a number of punters, and we do not blame them. But, they offer a very decent betting experience via their sportsbook or exchange.

You will find plenty of awesome promotions, high odds on a number of 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.