Having switched from Playbook Gaming to the Altenar sportsbook, McBookie is now a sister site of the likes of LuckyMate, Lottoland, Dream Vegas, 247Bet, 7bet, FanTeam and more.
McBookie used to operate under Star Racing Limited's UKGC licence (9177), but the bookie decided to move at the start of 2026. Now, the domain is listed under Playquarry Limited's UKGC licence instead alongside playquarry.com, a non-existent site at the time of writing.
The licence is still provided with a white-label arrangement, so the actual owner of McBookie is McBookie Ltd. The licence switch was a pretty significant move for the site but, above all, it's the platform switch that has had an effect on the sister sites front.

The first thing to note with McBookie is a strong site layout and powerful colour scheme. Two shades of blue and white complement one another well, making the site look smart. Navigation around it is excellent too, with markets easy to explore and bets easy to place.
Referencing the colour scheme as a first point of order was deliberate by us too. We have already cited a niche that McBookie performs well in.
That is one tailored towards the Scottish sports markets. Alongside the national colours, expect to find targeted sports offers and sorting rules tilted towards Scottish events.
If located in Scotland, that's great. If part of the wider customer pool, it's arguably not ideal. It is also not a deal breaker. McBookie offers worldwide coverage across the sports it offers, even if the market depth isn't always the best.
McBookie is a decent betting platform, however, its tilt towards the Scottish sports betting market won't appeal to everyone whilst other areas of the site don't quite hit the right notes.
With that in mind, is there a better alternative out there for you? We put a handful of McBookie sister sites under the spotlight.
LuckyMate is a relatively new site, just like McBookie if you count its time since the relaunch. Both use the Altenar sportsbook, making them very similar in the fundamentals, but we would say that LuckyMate takes it up a notch.

The sportsbook and casino sections just look a lot fancier, while there are also more promotions to make use of. The addition of a customer support chat icon, which indeed leads you to a live chat, also puts LuckyMate above McBookie.
We would suspect that the actual market offering is roughly the same, but that's also why the details like design, promotions, live chat and overall feel make a big difference. LuckyMate is definitely a site worth trying, at least in our opinion.
Most will be familiar with FanTeam thanks to the fantasy betting, which is ultimately what has put the site on the map. However, in late 2025, the owner decided to add a sportsbook as well and teamed up with Altenar to do so.

Once again, like with LuckyMate above, we have to say that we prefer FanTeam's design to McBookie's as it looks a lot more polished. Boosted odds are listed at the top in a similar fashion, but there are also promotions and big games scrolling across.
Equally, the fantasy element means you have more options when betting with FanTeam. It's a very nice site overall, but it remains to be seen if the sportsbook will gain any notable popularity, or if fantasy betting will still be THE thing for FanTeam.
Lottoland is a safe bet in many ways. Not just because it has been around for quite some time now, building a very strong brand, but also thanks to the quality of the product. Indeed, the Altenar sportsbook has ensured that the move to betting has been seamless.
In addition to betting, you can also find casino, lotto (of course), scratchcards, and bingo sections. This proves the wide scope of Lottoland, and the impressive part is that all of these are well taken care of. Is the sportsbook as good as bet365? No, but it's pretty good still.
The mobile apps have also been received well, while Lottoland was the pioneer of £1 deposits in the UK. You can tell that the site is focused on offering as many benefits as possible to its customers, as such, which is never a bad thing.

Ashley, an Ipswich Town fan, is an experienced content writer in the sports & betting space, who also has an extensive background in data analytics. Those skills combine here to allow for unique angles to be taken across a host of topics.