Betzone

Betzone UK Review (2023)

Founded in 2021, Betzone is one of the UK's newest sportsbooks, but does this young upstart have a chance of being competitive when there are so many other top betting sites available?

Betzone might be a new betting site but it is part of Bet21 Limited, a company with a long and proud history of offering sports betting in the UK. Bet21 Limited operates 47 shops across the UK under the name of Megabet, which has been rebranded from its former name - Stan James.

Many sports fans in the UK will be familiar with Stan James as a trustworthy betting brand, but it is not immediately obvious there is a link between the old SJ shops and the Betzone site.

We do not currently have a welcome bonus for Betzone, instead, check out our list of exclusive free bets & betting offers worth over £2000.

People thinking about whether or not to join Betzone will probably have questions about the value of the odds on offer, as well as what sports and markets there are available on the site.

Our full review of new UK sportsbook site Betzone has all the answers, so read on for more.

Introduction to Betzone

Betzone was launched in 2021, becoming one of a number of new UK online sportsbooks that was released in a bid to capitalise on the recent boom in online gambling interest of late. Partly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting bricks and mortar bookmakers for a time, more people are now opting to bet online, with Betzone having a sportsbook and an online casino.

The Betzone site is owned by Bet21 but it is operated by Playbook Gaming Ltd, which is licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission. This means that it is fully legal in the UK. Playbook is the company behind various other UK online betting sites, such as Rhino and more.

Betzone has a range of online betting options including a variety of virtual sports. However, at the present time, it does not host a separate online poker room. While a lot of new UK online betting sites have ensured they have bingo available, this is not yet the case at Betzone either.

With 24/7 customer service in place, Betzone users can get any help or support at any time of the day or night, while the site runs social channels on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook too. Responsible gambling is taken very seriously at Betzone, which devotes a large area of its website to provide advice, support and tools for its customers to stay in control of their play.

Betzone also has both iOS and Android apps available for users to download on to all of their preferred devices, making it easy to place sports bets and play casino games on the move.

But what will Betzone users see when they do decide they want to join the site to bet on sports?

Betzone Sportsbook Review

Betzone uses the same platform as the new UK online sportsbook Rhino, so anyone who has used that site to bet on sport will feel at home here straight away. There are some key differences, however, such as the fact Betzone has a far more comprehensive list of sports to bet on. While Rhino is missing areas such as esports betting and markets for some of the more minor sports like badminton, cycling and volleyball, these are available to bet on in decent depth at Betzone.

There are also some political markets, with Betzone customers able to place wagers on the outcome of reality television shows such as Dancing On Ice as well. With the virtuals section having a choice of virtual racing, virtual speedway and virtual football, there is a lot to pick from.

Football is the top sport to bet on at Betzone, which is in line with most of the best football betting sites in the UK right now. Both racing and football have their own hub page on the main Betzone site, which highlights exactly how important they are to Betzone. Football fans will find countless markets for games such as those in the Premier League, with Betzone promising it has special markets and price boosts on every single match. For example, during the process of compiling our full review of Betzone, it was possible to get a boosted price of 10/1 on Southampton's set-piece expert James Ward-Prowse to score a direct free-kick goal.

Racing fanatics will find plenty of price boosts too, which helps to ensure Betzone has decent value when it comes to odds most of the time. Best Odds Guaranteed - BOG for short - is also in place for UK and Irish horse racing, which is great news for all people who love the sport of kings. One thing missing when it comes to racing coverage at Betzone is live streaming, which is in place at the biggest and best horse racing betting brands in the UK. However, as Betzone was only launched in 2021 it is fair to give this UK sportsbook site a pass in this area - at least for now.

One of the intuitive things about the Betzone sportsbook site is it will remember the areas a user has visited and bump them up to the top on the left-hand menu. This means football fans will always be a click away from the top markets on offer if they visit the football betting page often.

New UK sportsbooks like Betzone often have large betting bonuses in place, both to tempt new users into signing up for an account, as well as to reward loyal customers who return regularly. A big welcome bonus is in place here and Betzone is competing well with some of the top online betting brands in this area, but aside from the BOG bonus, there is not much else on offer here.

Coverage of live-in play betting is solid enough at Betzone, where cash out is available on all major sporting events. This gives Betzone players a chance to lock in some guaranteed profit, for example in the event the football team they have backed to win a game takes an early lead. Overall, Betzone has made a strong enough start to be considered one of the better new UK online sportsbooks out there right now. A lack of live streaming is a problem the site will need to resolve in the future, but good odds and a strong range of markets make Betzone one to watch.

Betzone Customer Support

Customer support is an area where some new UK online sportsbooks have been known to fall short. When budgets are tight, the CS department is one that often falls in the spotlight for cuts. However, at Betzone, a priority has been made to ensure that this does not have to happen.

With 24/7 customer service provided, it means - theoretically at least - that users who join Betzone will be able to get any queries or questions answered at any time of the day. But 24/7 customer support does not necessarily mean rapid response times, with Betzone stating that it could take up to 72 hours for a member of the service team to get in touch with a customer. That is obviously a long time to wait if the issue is an urgent one. Betzone does not have a live chat option in place at the present time, with email the main way that users can get in touch for help. Most sports fans in the UK will be used to popping on to the live chat service on betting sites to get an immediate response, so having to wait quite a while to get an email back is far from ideal.

Betzone does at least have an FAQ area. Here, customers of the new UK online sportsbook will find detailed answers to a lot of the common problems that typically come up, such as regarding payments like making a deposit or a withdrawal. The FAQ is good, but live chat is really needed.

Betzone Payment Methods

Payment methods at Betzone are unfortunately limited, especially when compared to the large raft of options that are in place at a lot of this newcomer's rivals in the online betting world. UK players will know by now that credit cards cannot be used to make deposits for online gambling anymore, but Betzone does not allow e-wallets like PayPal, Neteller or Skrill to be used either.

Anyone hoping to use a mobile payments solution such as Apple Pay or Google Pay will be disappointed as well, especially if they are using the iOS or Android betting apps to access Betzone. It is not a surprise that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin cannot be used to make payments at Betzone either, with the number of online betting sites in the UK that offer this option still relatively low.

All that means debit cards such as Mastercard, Visa and Maestro are the main way Betzone customers will make deposits into their account. While this will not be a problem for a lot of UK sports fans, not being able to make payments via an e-wallet could be a big issue for others. Bank transfer is an alternative means of making payments at Betzone, but that is now widely regarded as a rather old-fashioned method compared to a lot of the newer options out there.

Betzone says that a withdrawal out of a customer's account that is made to a debit card takes around two to five working days to go through due to normal banking procedures. This may be the case, but almost a week for players to get their hands on their winnings will be frustrating, especially for those who have become used to nearly immediate payouts via a top e-wallet. Users may also have to provide identification documents and proof of funds to Betzone as part of the site's verification process. Documents like a passport and a recent bank statement may be needed to satisfy Betzone checks for Know Your Customer that must be made these days.