Betting Sites UK list. Online bookmakers listed in order of rating from user reviews so that you can see the best betting sites and explore new bookies. We only list licensed, regulated and trusted UK online sports betting sites. To see a list of sign up offers head to our page for free bets.
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Showing All Bookies
The best betting sites in the UK are
These are the highest rated betting sites in the UK from ratings collected at OLBG. Members of OLBG have been reviewing the best online betting sites since 2002. Who better to ask which the best online bookmakers are, than those who use them day in day out?
Our members have tried and tested many uk bookmakers over the years and here they share with you their honest thoughts. Each time we add a new bookie to OLBG we ask our users to try it out and review it.
Below is a summary as to why each of these best betting sites have been rated highly. Visit the individual bookmaker review pages for each bookies full review and to read the thoughts of the OLBG members.
The biggest online bookmaker in the World with a reported 35million + customers. bet365 has consistently been rated as the best online betting site by OLBG users for years. In our guides we review betting sites based on many different criteria. bet365 comes out top as the best football bookmaker, number one betting site for request a bets, the best cash out product and top bookie in many more categories.
Betfair is well known for providing excellent odds through the betting exchange part of the site but it also rates highly in other areas. Ranked number one in our analysis of best football accumulator bookies, Betfair also offers great in play betting options and great starting prices for racing if you place your bets on the sportsbook. One of the common themes from our reviews is that users who have been limited for winning on other betting sites will often move their betting activity to Betfair exchange.
BetVictor rates highly in many of our betting site research guides, consistently providing good odds for both horse racing and football. Mobile bettors seem particularly pleased with BetVictor which is backed up from our analysis of the best betting apps where they come out on top.
Paddy Power have always been generous with their early payouts and money back specials which has definitely won them praise in our bookie reviews. Happy punters also mention the rewards club and generous football odds. They also came first in our analysis of the best football acca insurance bookies.
The Unibet betting site is easy to use, easy to sign up to and has a low minimum deposit. The range of in play bets available are strong and supported by live streaming of many sports. The reviews commented that they are an easy to use bookmaker, reliable and straight forward. So perhaps it is much about doing the basic things well that has put Unibet right towards the top of our best betting sites list.
A lesser known betting brand (although one of our reviewers pointed out they have been around for 17 years) that hasn't spent millions on branding. The OLBG user ratings are all very strong. Perhaps not surprising when you realise that behind the alternative branding the backbone of the site is similar to BetVictor who are also highly rated. Great esport coverage, great in play offering and according to our users, very good customer service.
Betway come out top in our betting sites guides for best Esports bookmaker and best free bets club. They also excel in the fields of basketball betting and have a top NFL bet builder feature. An all round good international betting site covering many markets and events, consistently picking up 4 and 5 star ratings.
SMarkets brings a betting exchange and raps in nicely in a modern way to bring a very user friendly betting exchange app. Commission rates are lower than some exchanges but it really is the ease of use that stands out in our user reviews. If you are looking for your first exchange then weigh up SMarkets v Betfair. If you have used the Betfair exchange and are looking for something different, SMarkets will appeal.
Aside from looking at the overall best betting sites in terms of user rating, we have also dug deep into many other factors. So if you are looking for a new betting site for a particular reason, perhaps you place most your bets on one sport or you like to place certain bet types or use certain features, then we will have a guide for you. Here is a summary showing the best betting sites for some of these areas, please explore the guides for more detail.
The best football betting sites are
bet365 stand out in our review of best football betting sites for their huge range of worldwide markets. They claim to be the home of the in play and with the popularity of in play betting now, this really makes a difference to the regular football bettor. Marathon Bet were noted as consistently offering good odds month in month out whilst William Hill offered some niche markets and an excellent BetBuilder product. Read the full analysis here.
The best horse racing betting sites are
bet365 have always been popular with horse racing bettors at OLBG, offering consistently good odds, a great best odds guaranteed promotion, ITV racing free bets and extra places in big races. Odds seem to be key for a betting site to get a good rating from horse racing bettors as BetVictor are also recommended in this category. Betway don't consistent fair so well for odds but their free bets club which includes horse racing is highly attractive and they offer a range of tote options as well as a good all round betting experience. You can read more about the best betting sites for horse racing here.
The best betting sites for casino games are
If you like to play casino games alongside placing bets on sports, you may be looking for a strong betting site that offers a solid casino option too. The betting sites appearing highest in our best casino sites listing are 32Red, Quinnbet and VirginBet. You can separately look at our list of best casino sites.
The best mobile betting sites are
The growth in mobile use has been huge, so much so that the vast majority of UK sports bets are now placed on betting sites through mobile phones either through a browser or app. So the easiest and quickest to use mobile betting sites and apps are highly attractive. We review the top 25 betting apps here.
The best betting exchange sites are
Betting exchanges will always feature high up on our overall list of best betting sites as they offer good odds and don't restrict customer bets. Comparing them often comes down to the range of markets, degree of liquidity and rates of commission. If you are looking to start betting on an exchange site or are thinking of swopping sites, take a look at our detailed guide to UK betting exchanges.
The best sports spread betting sites are
Sports spread betting sites are few and far between, perhaps because spread betting is a rather complicated and potentially risky way of betting online. If you are an experienced bettor and would like to try it then take a look at our guide to help you to choose the best sports spread betting site.
Most betting sites provide a welcome offer when you register an account with them. This is sometimes called a free bet or a bonus. We discuss these in more detail on our free bets page but for your convenience here are some of the best betting sites offers available now.
We have a specific page for users from Virginia. Check it out!
£30 BONUS
Deposit + place £5 qualifying bet at odds of 2.0+ within 7 days of opening a new account; no cashed out bets. Receive 2x £10 Free Sports Bets, valid on set events only at odds 2.0+ + £10 Casino Bonus, expires in 7 days. 35x wagering. Card Payments only.
£20 BONUS
New members. £10 min deposit & bet on sportsbook, placed & settled at 1.5 min odds within 14 days of sign-up. Win part of E/W bets. 2 non-withdrawable £10 Free Bet Tokens: accept in 7 days, valid for 7 days from acceptance (ex. E/Ws & Multiples), stakes not returned. Click here for Rules & Exclusions. Bet Responsibly.
£40 BONUS
Register using the promo code BETFRED40, deposit and place first bet of £10+ on Sports (Evens+) in one bet transaction. £40 in Free Bets credited within 10 hours of bet settlement and expire after 7 days. E-Wallet & Prepaid Card restrictions apply. SMS validation may be required. Full T&Cs Apply.
Best new online bookmakers are
In terms of the best rated online bookmakers that have been more recently added to OLBG. This list of online bookmakers UK is updated all the time with new bookmakers being added every week.
These betting sites may not consider themselves as new bookies as they have all been established a good length of time either in the UK or elsewhere, but users may see them as being a new bookie compared to some of the bookmakers which have been around for decades.
At the time of writing we have 47 licensed UK bookmakers listed but there are more new bookmakers to add. At last count when we looked at the full uk online bookmakers directory we noted 85 UK licensed bookmakers for online betting.
If you are new to online betting, perhaps previously using high street betting shops to place your bets, then we recommend one of these better known brands for your first online betting account. These betting sites are all easy to use, offer a good range of betting opportunities, a good range of deposit methods, great customer service and an all round easy online betting experience. Make them your first port of call and once you are used to betting online, take a look around at other alternatives based on what sports you like to bet on or types of bet you like to place.
If you are looking for a new betting site to open, we suggest that you consider you look for the following
We'll take a look at each of these in more detail to offer some help for choosing your new bookie.
There are over 80 online bookmakers licensed to operate in the UK. We only list UK licensed bookmakers to UK traffic on this site and if you live in the UK we would advise that you dont bet with any bookmakers which arent licensed here.
If you live outside the UK or are visiting another country where you plan to bet online, we advise that if gambling is regulated in that region that you only bet with locally licensed operators. We have separate pages for Irish betting sites, Australian betting sites, Canadian Betting Sites and US sports betting sites. For the US we also have separate state pages as sports betting is licensed on a state by state basis. For example NJ sports betting sites or Michigan sports betting sites.
Non licensed betting sites may not adhere to the strict regulations laid down by the Gambling Commission, but also you may have trouble if you ever have a dispute with them. So point one, pick a UK licensed and regulated online bookmaker. We list the main ones on this page but you can check if betting sites hold a license by following this link for a full list of online bookmakers licensed in the UK.
We don't list every licensed UK bookmaker on this page. Some we don't consider to be trustworthy and reliable. This could be for a number of reasons including failing to pay what is owed, changing terms and conditions, having a poor record of customer service.
We prefer to list bookmakers along with the poor reviews where there we have seen that customers have had bad experiences. However sometimes the bookmakers are so poor in terms of trust that we don’t list them at all.
There are many new online bookies, some very small companies investing in growing a business in the UK. There are risks betting with small companies as they could potentialy come into cash flow problems. However if they are registered with the UK Gambling Commission then there will be certain critiera they need to meet to ensure that they can pay out their customers. The risk is lower with larger more established companies.
Whilst some bookmakers on this page may not be well known in the UK, they may be long established global businesses. Our reviews will tell you more.
Whilst we have to mention it as a risk, it is though very rare for bookmakers to close and not honour bets. Recent closures of bookies have typically been where other bookmakers have bought them out. Typically with these betting sites, balances have been returned to customers and bets have been paid out.
However there have been occasions where ante post (long term market) bets have been cancelled and stakes returned. This of course can be extremely bad for punters who have obtained great value prices on events far into the future. We recommend that you are cautious about which betting sites you use to place your ante post bets. Do so with a bookmaker which is larger and less likely to go out of business or be taken over. Or even better, consider splitting your bet around several betting sites.
So rather than say have £20 with one bookmaker, make 4 £5 bets with different bookies. This same advice is often made on our forums when users are discussing how to avoid having their stakes limited by bookies.
The best way to see this is from user experience. This is why we have collected over 500 user reviews across the different UK betting sites from the members here at OLBG. Read their experiences and how they rate each of the bookies before deciding if you will open a new account with that online bookmaker. Our users will often talk about their experiences with customer services and how any issues they had were dealt with.
We have spent hundreds of hours trawling through terms and conditions, withdrawal policies, depositing terms and so on for each of the betting sites we list, so that we can provide you with all the details. Some bookmakers do make charges for certain withdrawals.
Some hit you with charges for not using your account (be careful here as some conditions can eventually clean out your funds if left for 6 months +). We dont want to scare you as most the bookmakers we list have fair terms and conditions and dont go too far away from what would be industry standards. However there are a few to watch out for.
Our users may well have highlighted any in their reviews, or our researches will have found some in their hours of painstaking research. As part of our process we also look at other review sites such as trust pilot to identify any areas where customers aren’t happy with their bookmakers. Of course this also helps us to see positives and reasons why you may want to consider betting with the bookie being reviewed.
Check our bookmaker reviews before opening your next betting account to see if there are any terms and conditions, charges or withdrawal policies which you should look out for. If you have found something we haven’t highlighted then please let us know through adding a review. You can join OLBG for free if you aren’t yet a member and review all the bookmakers listed here.
Think about what you want from your bookmaker and read the reviews to find users who have found that. Ask yourself, why would I open an account with this bookmaker AND bet with them regularly? That is the key.
There are many free bet offers available to encourage you to open a new betting account online. But these offers shouldnt be the reason why you choose that bookmaker to bet with regularly. If you just want some free bets, then sure take a look at our free bets list and work your way down, taking the free bet offers and trying out each bookie. But if you dont want to go through all that, then see what others are saying about the bookies and where they highlight the key things that you are looking for from your online bookmaker.
Some online bookmakers have better coverage for some sports, some even specialising in offering a good range of markets and competitive offers for particular sports. We have written some detailed guides to help you to choose a new betting site should you want one that is particularly good for a sport. So if you are looking for the best online bookmakers for horse racing or maybe the best football bookmakers then be sure to check out our online bookmaker comparison guides.
These guides will help you to choose the best betting site for you based on the sports you bet on or the features you are interested in. Further recommended reading would include
At OLBG we gather reviews and ratings for all uk licensed bookies from regular sports bettors so that you can compare and understand which betting sites may be best for you. You can read through the hundreds of bookmaker reviews and see what real users say about the bookies which they use.
Our members are asked to rate each of the bookmakers out of 5. You will see that we have listed 100s of reviews for UK Sportsbooks and we add new betting sites all the time. The most popular bookmaker reviewed has over 200 reviews and at the time of writing a rating of 4.7/5. This is the average rating for this betting site from all the user reviews.
If you go to the specific bookmaker page, for example bet 365 bookmaker review you will be able to read each of the individual reviews which make up this rating. You will see for this bookmaker that most of the reviews are 5 star.
At the time of writing there isn't even one review for this bookie with a 1 star rating, the minimum that can be allocated. Read the comments to understand if this bookmaker will be the best for you.
We publish all betting site reviews unedited as long as they do not contain any swearing, potentially libellous content or individual specific dispute content. Where users have individual and specific disputes with online bookmakers we feel that they should discuss these direct with the bookie, rather than creating a review. OLBG has always been happy to offer help and advice in dealing with such disputes
There are many discussions on our forums where fellow members also offer their help and advice. We do however always encourage intital dialogue with the bookmaker concerned. IBAS can help with disputes with online bookmakers , they are the independent betting adjudication service to go to when users dont feel that their complaint has been resolved by talking directly with the bookmaker.
We recommend only signing up with UK licensed betting sites if you are from the UK, so you will always have a method of resolving a dispute.
These are some of the factors which our in house team review for each betting site we list at OLBG
We have reviewed all the bookmaker reviews submitted to OLBG to try to understand why our members may rate a UK betting site highly. These are some of the key reasons.
These are some of the key reasons given by OLBG members for giving low bookmaker review ratings.
Make sure you are familiar with the terms and conditions when you register with an online bookmaker. Here is a selection of questions you should consider when looking through online bookmaker terms and conditions.
The minimum deposit is often £5 but for some bookies it can be a lot higher. Check out our review pages for information on minimum deposit amounts for online betting sites. As well as varying by bookmaker this can also vary by deposit method used.
Bookmakers will normally return any winnings to the same card or payment method used to deposit unless instructed otherwise. Sometimes you will be asked to provide details to help the online bookmakers comply with money laundering regulations. Please understand that the online bookmakers are not being difficult, they are simply following legal guidelines. This will be even more likely to happen if you choose to withdraw to a different payment method than you used to deposit.
With most online bookmakers listed here you may be able to easily transfer money between the bookies other products such as poker, casino and bingo. Transferring money between accounts is often very simple and if you only want to play the sportsbook you can just ignore this function.
Many people use payment providers such as Skrill (formerly Moneybookers) for depositing into, and withdrawing from online bookmakers, as these can be faster, more convenient than bank or credit cards. However sometimes using these methods may exclude you from bookmakers welcome offers. If so this will be mentioned in the terms and conditions of the welcome offer. For more info on which payment methods are accepted by which bookmakers please read through our bookmaker reviews.
In recent years the regulations for bookmakers have tightened as the Gambling Commission have looked to increase the protection of the user. This is fantastic news for the industry and all who use online betting sites but you need to be aware that you may have some small inconveniences when trying to open a new online betting site or if you are wanting to place large bets with a bookmaker. ID verification is very strict and sometimes you may be asked to send off copies of documents for ID and address verification.
Also if you are placing large bets and or making large deposits then online betting sites have a responsibility to ensure that you can afford to do so. You may be asked affordability checks such as showing your pay slips and or you may be asked for proof of funds for money laundering checks. Don't take such requests personally, all licensed online bookies must follow these regulations or they can face huge fines.
bet365 is the highest rated sports betting site licensed in the UK according to the OLBG user ratings. The betting sites on this page are ordered by their user ratings so you can see the full list from highest rated to lowest rated.
New betting sites are starting up all the time and you can see which are good by looking at the user reviews & ratings at OLBG. Our in house team also review all new bookmakers in detail before we add them to the site. So read their reviews too by clicking on the links on this page.
The biggest online bookmaker in the World is thought to be bet365. The company claims to have the Worlds largest online gambling community with a reported 35million + customers.
Based on global revenue of all betting brands controlled, Entain (includes Ladbrokes, Coral, Bwin) is larger with Flutter (includes Paddy Power, Betfair) next largest.
The big three bookmakers in the UK of Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill are often referred to being the largest due to having the most retail outlets (high street betting shops).
It is rare for an online betting site not to offer a welcome bonus to encourage customers to sign up. You can see a full list of offers on our free bets page.
We actually time this as part of our review of all new bookmakers we add to OLBG. Typically it takes between 2 and 5 minutes to complete the online registration and deposit funds and place our first bet. This can be delayed if the bookmaker needs to verify identification or funds.
Typically not much more than your name, address and payment details. This is why it is so quick and easy to open an online betting account. The exception though is if paperwork is required to verify your identity. This is understandable though and should be expected on occasions by customers. Bookmakers have very strict ID verification, money laundering and affordability checks which they must adhere to.
For every single bookmaker listed on OLBG we also list all the deposit methods available. Just go to the review page to find out. The vast majority of UK customers deposit funds through debit cards. Many bookmakers do also accept other online payment methods such as PayPal and Skrill. Bookmakers are not allowed to accept credit cards as a deposit method. Make sure you check any welcome offer terms and conditions as the use of some payment methods may mean that you don't qualify for a free bet or bonus.
According to OLBG ratings, bet365 is the most trusted UK betting site. According to trust pilot ratings 10bet has the highest trust rating followed by BetVictor.
