Full BetStorm Bookmaker Review
Progress Play brings BetStorm, a fun bookie that has a familiar feel and layout to its other sites. The odds, across the board, are very good, also, and regardless of the sport that you’re betting on you should be happy with what you’re offered.
There is an absolute tonne of sports here. You’ll be hard pushed to find as many at any other bookie, especially things like kabaddi, sailing and squash. There are also loads of payment options and a decent selection of promotions.
On the downside there is no live streaming, very little in the way of stats or tips, or additional info to help inform betting, but I wouldn’t be surprised if these came in the future. Overall, it’s a very solid bookie for the UK market.
BetStorm Review Summary
Fun sportsbook that has a tonne of markets on niche sports, on top of an already impressive standard offering.
Advantages and Disadvantages
All explained in greater detail in this review, these pros and cons allow users to scan and understand where BetStorm's strengths lie quickly.
Pros
- Lots of cash back opportunities across different sports
- Great coverage of minor sports
- Good esports offering
Cons
- No live streaming
- No bet builder feature available
Who are BetStorm?
BetStorm launched in the UK in 2022. It uses a ProgressPlay licence, something shared with the likes of BetMorph, JeffBet and Q88Bets. It’s a bookie known for an expansive range of sports and markets, ranging from the very popular, to the very niche.
First Impression of BetStorm
My First Impressions
There are a number of different bookies operating with a ProgressPlay licence, although they don’t all look the same, necessarily. If you have used BetStorm, JeffBet, or a couple of others, you’ll recognise BetStorm (branding aside) and how everything works. There is plenty here and sometimes things feel a little cramped, but generally the UX and feel is pretty easy-going.
- Luke Bradshaw Lee, Senior Sports Betting Editor
Live Betting
From the homepage, just flick the toggle from “Sport” to “Live” and you’ll have all the in-play markets at your fingertips. There is a drop down menu with all the sports with open markets, and all list the number of markets to bet on at the time. The selection here is exceptional, with major sports covered – football, basketball, tennis etc. – as well as some very niche sports such as futsal and beach volleyball. There aren’t tonnes of in-play markets per event but the stats are pretty good. You can check if they make it into our best bookmakers for in-play betting here.
Live Streaming
BetStorm doesn’t offer any live streaming at the time of this review.
Betting Odds
Comparing BetStorm’s odds to other bookies across the industry, as well as checking some comparison sites, BetStorm is right in that sweet spot.. We checked tennis, football and basketball for in-play odds, plus horse racing, and cricket for pre-match and antepost odds. There’s nothing that jumps out as incredible, but most odds, regardless of sport, are nice enough. What’s worth highlighting is that BetStorm offers odds on some very minor sports (beach football, for example), so will be one of the few places you can find odds on such sports at all.
Also, remember that it is always worth checking alternative betting options, including best spread betting sites and betting exchange sites, depending on who you are as a bettor.
Betting App or Mobile Site?
As mentioned, there is no BetStorm app, so this will strictly focus on the mobile version of the site. This sounds obvious, but the mobile version works very much like you’d expect an app to. Maybe the reason for not having one is how the mobile version of the site has been designed, because things like the menu placement, navigation and product features suggest that this is absolutely a mobile-first bookie.
Compare to the best betting apps in the country.
⚽ Football Betting
We rank every bookie, at every sport, and BetStorm is just a bit off our best football betting sites in the UK, but it’s still very good. The menu panel is telling me that there’s nearly 500 different games that I can bet on at this moment in time, evidence that it covers the sport in terms of event coverage as well as most other bookies. Beyond that, you can’t argue with the market depth per event, which is also very impressive. There’s no live streaming, however, and the in-play betting isn’t as good as some others, which is why it doesn’t quite make our top 10.
You can see in the chart below, in greater detail, why certain bookies rank among the top for football betting sites, and what BetStorm is up against.
Tap or mouseover chart elements for more info. Pinch to zoom.
Bet Builder
As much as I try I can’t find a dedicated bet builder feature. Now, you can add multiple bets from an event into a multiple, or opt for some of the pre-made combos, which essentially does the same thing as a bet builder, but isn’t quite as you’d like. Even though the result is pretty much the same, it feels like a miss.
Bonuses
This is pretty impressive, with multiple promotions offered across different sports, mostly involving cash back if you bet loses (and this, again, is across multiple sports), with 10% of your stake back up to £500. There is als a Free Bet Mondays offer that gives people a free £20 bet if they stake £50. This latter offer requires an opt-in and code, but it’s easy to find on their promotions page.
Cash Out
Cash out is a very important betting feature for punters these days so it's crucial that bookies integrate this feature into their mobile betting apps. BetStorm have done this well, allowing their customers to instantly cash out their bets on any device they like.
🏇 Horse Racing
The horse racing at BetStorm is pretty good. The layout displays all the information that you need, and that you’d expect from a good racing bookie. The odds are right where you want and there’s a choice between Winner, Forecast and Tricast markets. BetStorm displays odds changes from the day and markets for meets and courses far beyond just the UK and Ireland, including Argentina, South Africa and the United States. On the downside there is no live streaming of any races, no tips and no Best Odds Guaranteed, but it’s quite a solid offering overall. This isn’t bad at all, and you can see how they compare to our top 10 best horse racing betting sites.
🇺🇸 US Sports Betting
A full range of American Sports is available, including all the major leagues, plus college games and the same sports across the globe.
🏈 American Football Betting
The American football betting at BetStorm is okay. In terms of product design, it’s exactly what you want, with moneyline, spread and total markets all listed on the main page, before all other markets once you click on a specific game. There are some outrights listed, but there are some things missing here. There’s next to nothing when it comes to player props, and in terms of outrights, nothing in the way of player markets again, so no MVP odds, Defensive Player of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and so on. In conclusion, it starts well, but tapers off a bit the longer you’re there. It’s worth checking out our best NFL betting sites to see how BetStorm compares.
🏀 Basketball Betting
BetStorm has a brilliant selection of basketball leagues to bet on, there are hundreds and hundreds of competitions. There’s obviously the NBA, but BetStorm covers a wide range of EuroLeague and domestic world competitions, including competitions in Brazil, Puerto Rico, Morocco and Libya, among others. There are also plenty of markets per game, with game, team and player markets covered impressively. Take the WNBA, for example, with a fantastic range of markets – match, halves/quarters, points, player probs on points, rebounds, assists etc. – right across the board. It’s quite impressive. You can also compare BetStorm to the best basketball betting sites.
⚾ Baseball Betting
BetStorm obviously covers the MLB, but they also have markets for the Dutch, Japanese, Mexican and Korean leagues. The markets, and the odds, especially on the outrights, look pretty good. The MLB season is well underway and there are loads of things to bet on, including individual awards, which aren’t represented here unfortunately, but the number of markets per game is good enough. Keep tabs on the top baseball betting sites though, to see why they make it onto our list.
🏒 Ice Hockey Betting
The NHL takes up the bulk of space here, as expected. But there are also some Australian, Finnish and German fixtures included, among others. I selected an upcoming NHL game and there are loads of markets listed – more than pretty much anywhere else. For the smaller leagues that reduces a bit more, which is understandable. It’s quite nice to see some odds on the NHL Draft, also, that’s definitely something that you won’t get everywhere.
🐕 Greyhound Betting
This isn’t bad, although we’ve already mentioned that BetStorm doesn’t have Best Odds Guaranteed or live streaming, so it may struggle to attract punters for greyhounds specifically given how many other bookies do, especially for live streaming. Beyond that there markets for all races today in the UK and Ireland, with Winner, Trap Winner and Forecast options available. It’s pretty solid, without being anything more than that, and a bit off the best greyhound betting sites.
🎯 Darts Betting
Matthew Edgar
Darts Editor and WDF Professional
BetStorm does some very good things here, compared to other darts betting sites in the UK. The outrights on future events are great, and once you click through to the match ups the number of markets is probably more than most. Most major competitions are covered – there’s outright markets on the World Championships, despite it being way off – and each match has markets for result, legs, checkouts and handicaps.
Compare to the best darts betting sites in the UK.
Snooker Betting
Steve Madgwick
Editor-In-Chief
As with the best snooker betting sites, most major competitions are listed here. The Championship League has a number of markets per match, offering frame handicaps and points markets on top of result. There are also outrights for events later in the year. This is pretty good, doing as much as it should, even if it doesn’t blow me away.
Compare to the best snooker betting sites in the UK.
🏉 Rugby Betting (Union & League)
By Luke Bradshaw Lee - BetStorm splits union and league into different categories which, I think, makes sense. For both, there is pretty much every competition that you’d want to be included here, which is really good to see. The one omission to that is the Japanese domestic league (in Union), but that’s being very nit-picky, because overall the coverage of competitions is fantastic. Definitely for NRL games in rugby league there are loads of markets per match. See how they compare to our best Rugby betting sites.
🏏 Cricket Betting
James Banting
Tipster Competition Assistant
BetStorm offers all the competitions that I’d expect to see, plus a couple of extras that I wasn’t with some domestic events and leagues all over the globe. I also really like how many markets are available here for each game, assuming it’s not miles away in the future before teams are announced etc. Take the player markets, for example. For most matches you’ll get top batter, top bowler (plus the same again per team), man of the match, player to score a 50/100 and individual player markets for the top players. For matches that are a bit of a way off, there are still some good futures and antepost markets to take advantage of, even if the number of markets per game drops off a little, but overall I’m pretty happy with the cricket betting here.
We list the 10 best cricket betting sites here.
🎾 Tennis Betting
By James Banting - At the time of review their tennis section has nearly 200 different tennis markets to bet on, which is great. These games obviously cover the world, with the Grand Slams right down to smaller Challenger events. The odds are good, and there’s plenty of markets, and that includes in-play markets. There’s no live streaming,and pretty limited stats, which is a bit disappointing given a lot of bookies have these things as standard for tennis especially. See if they make it into the top 10 tennis betting sites on OLBG.
🏌️ Golf Betting
By James Banting - BetStorm’s golf offering is about par for the course I reckon. There are futures markets on all the majors (including the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup), and there is a selection, around six or seven, of upcoming tournaments of varying importance. Yes, you’ll find a bit more at some other bookies – and it’s worth checking our best golf betting sites to see how BetStorm compares – but generally this is fine.
🏎️ Motorsports Betting
Andy Powell
Content Editor
Everything here is split up on the main menu nav bar, so Formula 1, Speedway, NASCAR, motorbikes, plus a few others all have their own homes which is fine generally, but feels a little bit messy here. For Formula 1, this is better than a lot of other bookies, with plenty to bet on for the upcoming Grand Prix next weekend, and this is on top of outrights. What’s particularly good are the markets for practice and qualifying, which are far greater than other bookies. You’ll also find Formula E, Supercars, plus other motorsports mentioned above, and these diminish quite quickly in terms of coverage, which is fair enough.
Compare to the best motorsport betting sites.
🥊 Boxing Betting
Frank Monkhouse
Boxing Editor
There’s a decent enough amount of boxing to get stuck into here, and the markets look dependent on how far away the actual fight is. Those this weekend and over the next few weeks have an okay offering, whereas the further away they get the less markets on offer. That’s understandable, and I wouldn’t expect to find round by round and the like for fights that are months away, but I would definitely like more options for big bouts this weekend, and that’s definitely limited based on my experience with BetStorm.
Compare to the best boxing betting sites.
Other Sports Betting
Whilst these sports might sound very niche, there is still a large enough market for fans, and millions of them in the UK, so good coverage of niche sports and events is key to be reviewed on OLBG; let’s dig in a bit further.
Other Sports at BetStorm 🌍🏀🏐🚴🎮
BetStorm offers diverse betting options: handball 🏆, volleyball 🏐, cycling 🚴, Aussie rules 🏉, and esports 🎮. Explore global matches, detailed stats, and infinite markets.
BetStorm offers extensive betting options for handball, volleyball, cycling, AFL betting, and esports. Handball includes global competitions; volleyball,covers European Championships and various tournaments; cycling features future tours and current races; AFL betting has comprehensive stats and esports offers all major games like League of Legends and CS:GO.
🗳️ Political Betting
Nigel Skinner
Blog Content Manager
BetStorm has its political betting under its own tab in the menu. The political betting is okay, but a bit limited in parts. This is essentially split into UK and US politics, with a decent amount on the General Election, next party leaders and majority, but nothing in terms of It’s a similar offering for the US, but there is nothing from anywhere else around the globe apart from one market for the Republic or Ireland.
Compare to the best political betting sites.
🎭 Entertainment and Specials Betting
Jake Ashton
Senior News Editor
Be aware that the markets here are divvied up under TV Shows and Movies. The former has a couple of markets on awards ceremonies like BBC Sports Personality of the Year, while the TV and Movie betting focuses on events like X Factor in Italy and Denmark. There’s nothing in the way of the Oscars or BAFTAs but it’s not awards season and I can see them adding to this depending on seasonality. It’s reassuringly not very UK-centric – although there some British markets – which is good to see.
Compare to the best entertainment betting sites.
Casino
BetStorm does have casino. Despite the name of the brand, it's incredibly easy to find their casino offering from their sportsbook, with banners across the top. They also have some bonuses and offers that lead to casino spins should you win sportsbook bets. Check our Casino Sites page for dedicated new online casinos and slot sites.
You can also check out OLBG’s latest addition; our Best Bingo Sites. All of which are, obviously, sites fully licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.
Account Opening Process
A reassuringly easy process. At the top-right of the screen BetStorm has their “Join Now” button. Bettors just need to select this and follow the simple steps as guided through. You’ll be asked for the usual information – name, date of birth, address etc – and once complete be sent a verification email. Clicking this from your inbox will redirect you to the site, and then you’re free to get betting.
Navigation and user experience [desktop v mobile]
There is no BetStorm app, but the mobile version of the site is exceptional and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s been built with that in mind – it does exactly what you want and that is not to feel too far removed when you switch from one device to the next, but also being product-led, and designed to suit its purpose as a proper mobile version.
Placing a bet
This section should only really highlight if there are issues, as the process is almost identical on every site. Within a few minutes of signing up to BetStorm I placed a couple of bets on different sports, one of which took advantage of the welcome offer, and I used their bet builder feature, which was very indeed.
Managing your account
As mentioned above, the design really helps this along. On the desktop version, it’s stuff to the left of the screen. On the app, it’s all at the bottom, with just the login at the top. I haven’t experienced any issues logging in, or finding customer service options, either. Overall, it feels like BetStorm has got this part nailed.
Responsible Gambling Features
You can set your deposit limit while you’re signing up; long before you’ve got close to actually making a bet.
There is also a Settings tab at the bottom of the page, no matter what page you’re on, that allows you to make changes to limits, as well as odds formats, or odds change preferences/notifications.
There are the following measures within its functionality:
All are explained in further detail on their safer gambling page. As well as this, on the same page they list links to the likes of the National Gambling Helpline, Be Gamble Aware and the National Gambling Treatment Service.
Responsible Gambling
There is a full suite of responsible gambling tools for your protection and may request further identification after certain depositing levels are exceeded or stakes are increased quickly.
Bookie Review Expert Contributing Team
OLBG Expert Review Team
This review was conducted by our expert team. Our dedicated review process guide provides a full description of the undertaking.
How OLBG reviews betting sites
Opinion, research and data collection for this review by
James Banting (Horse Racing, Golf and Tennis)
Nigel Skinner (Football and Politics),
Matt Edgar (Darts)
Frank Monkhouse (Boxing)
Andrew Powell (Horse Racing, Ice Hockey and Motor Sports)
Jake Ashton (Entertainment and Specials)
🛂 Fact Checked - Sam Darkens - Commercial Manager
✍️ Written by - Luke Bradshaw Lee - Commercial Content Manager
✏️📚 - Steve Madgwick - Editor-In-Chief
Please note: Betfair, Paddy Power and Skybet do not partner with us. As a result we do not have sufficient up-to-date information to provide accurate product comparisons with those specific sportsbooks.
