Paddy Power is rapidly approaching its 40th anniversary having first launched in 1988. Having shown great adaptability to not only survive but thrive through a ferociously changing landscape during that time, the brand is now widely thought of by punters and sports fans alike.
Should it be though? We conduct a thorough Paddy Power sportsbook review to answer that question.
Rating | 4.7 |
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Rating | 4.4 |
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Sportsbook | 4 |
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Casino | 4 |
Customer Support | 5 |
Payment | 4 |
Licensing Safety | 3 |
Design and Usability | 5 |
Overall | 4 |
Paddy Power might be a well-known name in the sports betting industry with their whimsical adverts and significant sponsorship of events putting them front and centre of many people’s minds, but is it more than just a brand with a good marketing team?
The sportsbook is certainly extensive in volume, with plenty of sports covered, whilst it is also intuitive and easy to navigate from a layout perspective.
In addition to those couple of factors, the sportsbook is also creative in respect of some of the special offers it awards to their customers with their daily “Beat the Drop” game, which is a serious of questions that can see bettors win funds of between £5 and £1m, and their “Super Sub” safety net perhaps two promotions that stand out as differentials to other bookmakers.
The other thing we must touch on before we delve deeper into our Paddy Power sportsbook review is the betting margins on offer. Betting margins are a critical aspect of any sportsbook. During our test, Paddy Power betting margins came in at 7.63%.
This isn’t a complete disaster, but it is certainly pushing towards the boundary of not being ‘okay’. There are bookies out there with much stronger margins, that is for sure.
Paddy Power is safe and legit from a regulation standpoint with four different companies underpinning their online presence, all of which are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission:
This in addition to the fact you have strong customer service options and secure banking methods gives it a pretty stable base. Simply being present and regulated though doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story.
Part of being regulated by the UKGC means that you have to obey a strict code of governance and operation. Paddy Power have fell foul of that governance in the past with the Gambling Commission taking strong regulatory action against the operator.
In May 2023, Paddy Power, under licence 39439, was awarded a financial penalty to the tune of £490k for failing to comply with Social Responsibility Provisions, namely by actively marketing to customers who had opted for self-exclusion.
The bookmaker hit the headlines again earlier this year when the High Court ordered them to pay out £1m to a customer that had scooped a jackpot that it initially refused to settle; this was on the casino side of their offering but, again, is not a great look for what is supposed to be one of the market leaders.
It is worth stressing that the Paddy Power Trustpilot score takes into account a lot more than just its sportsbook offering, but it is still a good gauge of what awaits punters.
On the surface, a rating of 3.4 out of five from over 5,000 reviews looks like a marginally above average performance.
When you contextualise it against ratings of 1.3 for Bet365 and William Hill respectively, and 1.2 for Ladbrokes, all of which are fellow household names in the industry, it very quickly becomes clear that 3.4 is a superb performance.
Admittedly, 58% of the reviews award the operator just one star. We cannot claim to have been through every one of those, but from the dive we have completed, the majority of complaints focus around the casino side of the site – not the sportsbook.
The upside is that 35% of reviews award Paddy Power five stars. The standout theme among those reviews being the excellent customer service people received.
If you judge bookmakers based on a pure count of sports on offer, then Paddy Power is some way off the market leaders. It only offers around 30 sports in total, but importantly, those 30 sports cover a decent range of sports.
All the biggest sports are offered to punters, with football and horse racing the big two alongside slightly lesser sports such as greyhounds, golf and tennis. You can then strip that down another level with niche offerings like surfing, volleyball and handball.
The other point we should stress is that the market depth within these sports is strong – and not just on the mass-followed sports.
You will find worldwide events, multiple markets within each of them and instances of in-play betting, live match engines, highlight packages, cash out options and live streaming as well.
A good example of this being the fact bettors can delve into Uruguayan volleyball markets, whilst live, and place a bet in around 20 different markets on any given match.
Football betting is the biggest sports betting market in the UK, and Paddy Power’s football coverage is in keeping with that; it is excellent.
As you would expect, the top European leagues and cup competitions are the headline grabbers, but the competitions covered literally touch pretty much every corner of the globe.
That does not mean simply offering markets on the top league on each continent either; for example, you will find seven different competitions covered in Brazil alone, including league and cup action as well as offering markets on the women’s leagues.
To give that some added context, Paddy Power offer markets across a staggering 147 football competitions at the time of our test.
The market depth within those competitions is phenomenal as well. Premier League matches offer in the region of 200 different betting markets for punters to choose from ranging from bog-standard match result markets all the way through to more obscure markets like shots from outside of the box.
This market depth remains fairly consistent across the higher-profile leagues in Europe and within the footballing pyramids of the top countries.
Even the aforementioned obscure leagues contain multiple markets, albeit not at anywhere close to the same depth. Regardless of the competition in question, though, you can combine selections into bet builders to enhance your potential returns.
On that subject, bet builders are a big selling point for Paddy Power. It highlights popular bet builders, highlighting how many people have wagered on certain combinations whilst also offering up combinations suggested by big names in the world of sport, mainly former football personalities.
There are a number of football specials offered by Paddy Power as well. They include:
Horse racing is one of the main acts where the Paddy Power sportsbook is concerned and, as such, it is of little surprise that their coverage is very strong. Actual market depth, of course, doesn’t run as deep as it does in football, but the event coverage is first class.
You can easily flick through race calendars both for imminent races and those well in advance with the meetings covering both UK and Irish meets and from elsewhere around the world – both Europe and beyond.
A host of these races come with live streaming as well. This is another string to the bow whilst a collaboration with Racing Post re tips and stats is also a welcome addition, as is the vast array of ‘Specials’ it offers.
The strong Paddy Power horse racing offering ends with the fact that it operates Best Odds Guaranteed and regularly pays out market leading extra places. This is particularly the case when big race meets come around.
E-Sports is a rapidly expanding part of online sports betting and Paddy Power have enough of an offering to ensure their fingers are firmly “in that pie”. It’s not a wild range of games they boast but the likes of Call of Duty, FIFA, Dota 2 and Valorant amongst others.
With a range of different virtual markets also offered across horses, football, greyhounds and motorsports there is a decent offering to be explored.
The navigation around the Paddy Power sportsbook is probably one of the biggest selling points and that remains true whether you are betting on the app or on its mobile friendly website.
The layout, which is presented on a sleek white canvas, is clean with the top section a scrollable list of offers and bonus features; all of them are bold with a clear title and enough room to give a brief overview of what each one is.
Underneath that you have a set of white and green circular icons that are all perfectly sized for a finger touch. These icons are your fast-track options into the different sports.
What’s more, this set of icons can be customised. Locate the grey ‘+’ button and you will be presented with a list of all available options.
You can configure your “favourites” section as you see fit with up to five icons; this means your favourites remain accessible without the need for a scroll bar to appear.
From here, you quickly get into the “Power Prices”, which is Paddy Power’s boosted odds section, popular bet builders and then, into more general sports betting markets.
All of these sections see odds presented in an easy to read manner and placing a bet is super simple with just three touches needed, including entering your desired stake.
We are not actively encouraging our readers to join Paddy Power right now, but the choice is still yours, of course.
If you think the pros outweigh the cons then you can follow our step-by-step Paddy Power sportsbook sign up process below:
First things first, navigate over the paddypower.com. In the top right corner, select the ‘Join Now’ option.
The first step of the sign up process is to enter your personal details; the details you need to provide are:
Once these details have been provided a green button will appear at the bottom of the screen containing the wording “Continue to step 2/2”. Hit it.
The next stage of the sign up process requires you to input your email address and create a password, along with setting up a security question.
Next up, within the same screen, you have the option to configure a deposit limit as part of Paddy Power’s responsible gambling assistance. If you don’t wish to do this, simply set the drop down to ‘No Limit’; you can come back to it at a later stage via your account section. If, however, you wish to set a limit, this will activate a second box where you will need to enter what your desired deposit limit is.
Last but not least, check and, providing happy, tick the “Funds Protection” notification before hitting the green “Sign Up” button.
The penultimate step in your sign up process is setting your contact preferences. This is done by sliding a series of on/off toggles to your desired positions for what and how you want to be kept up to date with certain things. Once done, hit “Accept All”, or alternatively “Skip” altogether.
Finally, we get to account verification. You’ll receive an email from Paddy Power giving you a six digit code to be entered onto the site; this should arrive instantly. Enter the code and hit “Confirm”. Repeat this exercise with the text received to your mobile phone.
You are now good to go.
Average score of 4.0 by 7 users
29 October 2022
Never ever received my free spins but good site
26 February 2022
Easy and good enough for a beginner like me
7 January 2020
Does what it is supposed to do.
25 November 2019
Easy and good enough for a beginner like me
1 November 2019
Paddypower is by far my favorite bettingsite atm. Smooth and easy to use dont hurt that i actually won money for once aswell but welcome offer is pretty meh in my opinion some sites offer way better welcome offers.
19 November 2018
Great site but annoyed I got the other welcome offer 20 risk free bet is pretty bad compared to the new one they have..
29 October 2018
Signed up for a PaddyPower account a couple of weeks ago and now I cant understand why I havent had an account before even if its one of the most well known bookies... At the moment the only bookie I use