Betfred Reviews and User Ratings

Full Betfred Bookmaker Review

Overall, Betfred is one of the best bookmakers available in the UK. As mentioned, they make our top nine for 11 different categories – this puts it just outside the absolute top scoring bookies, but still very high. 

Betfred is brilliant for some sports. Tennis, football, cricket, plus a few more. The downside is the complete omission of other smaller sports – if you like betting on smaller sports such as handball, or Aussie Rules football then there is nothing here for you, which is a shame to see. Even if it was just a token offering, it would mean not having to find other bookies if you’re going from your usual football or racing betting and want to dabble elsewhere. That aside, the promotions on Betfred are elite, proper industry-leading stuff, particularly for football. 

Advantages and Disadvantages

All explained in greater detail in this review, these pros and cons allow users to scan and understand where the strengths lie quickly.

• Established in 1968

• Petfre (Gibraltar) Ltd

• UKGC licence number - 39544

First Impression of Betfred

My First Impressions

At OLBG we collect data on every bookmaker’s service, compiling the best bookies in a variety of categories, so that we can determine which bookmaker is the best at what. Based on this data, Betfred makes our Top 10 in nine different categories, making it one of the better bookies in the country.

- Luke Bradshaw Lee, Senior sports betting editor

Live Betting

Live in-play betting is of course featured on Betfred but their in-play side of things feels a bit clunky and outdated compared to the rest of the site. The statistics given for in-play betting aren't anywhere near as clear as other bookmakers and due to that they really struggle from the live betting side. This forms part of the reasoning why Betfred don't feature in the top 10 best bookmakers for in-play betting.

Live Streaming

Streaming is available on Betfred across a whole range of events including horse or greyhound racing betting on their app. It isn't just the standard Racing viewing that is on Betfred with other sports including Snooker and Tennis also offering streams. To view these streams on their site and app you just need to have an active Betfred account with balance of at least £0.01.

Betting Odds

Above are details on which sports Betfred were most competitive last month. The percentage figure demonstrates how often they were best odds, or joint best odds for each sport when compared with other bookmakers EG: 60% means if you used only this bookmaker for a sport, you would have got the best odds 60% of the time. Betfred are regularly one of the top bookies for competitive odds. You can see from the table above that they are regularly at, or near, the top, when compared to other UK bookies.

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 

Betfred promotes their app and mobile pages while positioning  themselves towards the recreational punter. Betfred Games, Betfred Casino, Betfred Live Casino, Betfred  Virtual, Betfred Lotto, Betfred Bingo cover most bettors’ needs, and I found the app fun to use.

The Betfred app includes all the regular features you associate them with, including some long-running promotions. Definitely take a look at the Betfred promotions page, it was one of the best layouts of all the bookmakers we reviewed, very simple to access, and easy to understand. 

Their football offers are the mainstay of promotions on Betfred. Live streaming is obviously available on the Betfred app, with a bet of just £1 required to watch a horse or greyhound racing event on the app. If your Betfred acca is doing well then the cash out facility can be utilised.

Compare to the best betting apps in the country.

⚽ Football Betting

With the vast majority of bets placed on football being accumulators even a small increase of odds over other bookies is massive. Slightly different odds when it comes to bets in your acca's can make a massive difference in your overall winnings. To dive into things a bit deeper, head to our best bookmakers for football betting to see whether Betfred makes our list.

Bet Builder 

You’ll find Betfred’s bet builder through their #PickYourPunt. You can use this hashtag on their social media pages if you can’t find markets that you're after, but they’ve got plenty of markets covered, especially for football. There is a great balance of game markets, team market and player markets, and this continues through to other sports, also.

Bonuses

In short, Betfred is great for bonuses. The bookmaker were the innovators of the bonuses on multiple bets with different bonuses given on Lucky 15s Lucky 31s and even more. One of several promotions on Betfred is their treble odds on Lucky 15s when all your bets run but only one of your selections wins. The promotion applies to both horse racing and greyhound racing and all your selections must run to achieve the bonus odds.

They also have their Double Delight and Hat-Trick Heaven, meaning greater payouts on first goalscorer markets. Their Acca Flex promotion gives bettors up to a 50% bonus on winning football accas and on top of that there are plenty of regular price boosts.

Acca Insurance

BetFred Acca Insurance has come out on top of our comparison of best acca insurance sites thanks to the unique cash refund that no other acca insurance offer from the analysed betting sites can match. All other bookies refund with free bets with limited shelf lives and despite the minimum five picks and odds of 7.59 to qualify across a five selection acca, overall, the cash refund swings the decision in BetFred's favour along with the low £0.50 minimum stake, rising to a max £10 refund.

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Cash Out

Cashout is a very important betting feature for punters these days so it's crucial that bookies integrate this feature into their mobile betting apps. Betfred have done this well allowing their customers to instantly cash out their bets on any device they like.

🏇 Horse Racing

Betfred are also ranked highly when it comes to racing and they feature as one of our best bookmakers for horse racing betting. You get fantastic horse racing odds with Betfred, with the bookmaker utilising Racing Post content and horse racing tips which has enhanced their daily horse racing cards, they are now packed with helpful racing info and stats.  

Betfred Best Odds Guaranteed offer is available daily on all UK and Ireland horse racing bets, from 8.00 am. For example, if you get a tip for horse racing, take the 6/1 Early Price and your selection wins at 8/1, Betfred will pay you at 8/1. The Betfred BOG applies to single and multiple bets placed and has a no limit set on the maximum benefit.

You can see, in more detail, how BetFred scores against the other top horse racing betting sites in the chart below.

Best bookies for horse racing betting

Score by selected category (hover over chart for details).

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🇺🇸 US Sports Betting

A full range of American Sports is available. At the time of writing, only the MLB season isn’t up and running, with the other major leagues in full swing. Beyond that, and maybe somewhat surprisingly given its lack of international racing coverage, there are lots of international markets for these sports, particularly for basketball.

🏈 American Football Betting

Line shoppers should absolutely head to Betfred when hunting around for the best value on NFL betting because they regularly have the longest odds for American football, that goes for college football, as well as NFL games. It’s worth checking out our best NFL betting sites in more detail to see how Betfred compares.

🏀 Basketball Betting

Not only can you also create your own bet builders on basketball games, there are supporting statistics on screen to help inform your decision. Betfred is a solid option for basketball betting, overall. Keep tabs on the top basketball betting sites though, to see in more detail why they top our list.

⚾ Baseball Betting

Betfred’s selection of markets for each game is pretty good – you’d struggle to find a market that you can’t bet on and they should absolutely be a first port of call when it comes to baseball betting. Their stats offering is right up there, and while they don’t run any baseball promotions, their in-play offering is great and you can get cash out on a number of different baseball markets. 

🏒 Ice Hockey Betting

Like the basketball offering, as well as the biggest league in the sport, the NHL, there are a huge number of other leagues around the globe. You can bet on games in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and more. There are good outright future markets for NHL betting, and the markets within games are loaded.

🐕 Greyhound Betting

BetFred has one of the best greyhound betting sites in the industry, but whether you choose to use that, or bet online through their desktop version, the experience is fantastic either way. Widely known for their promotions, it’s more of the same when it comes to the dog track. For example, for any races that are shown on Sky TV, bettors get a free bet matched to their stake if they bet on a winner at odds of 2/1 or longer. For live streaming punters must place at least a £1 bet on the race to watch, but live commentary is completely free.

🎯 Darts Betting

Matthew Edgar

Darts editor and wdf professional

Great live streaming, cash out and in-play options, fantastic odds and, to top it off, darts-specific promotions. You can often get odds boosts across lots of different darts markets, including the World Championships, Premier League and The Masters, so make sure you have a look when hunting around.

Compare to the best darts betting sites in the UK.

Snooker Betting

Steve Madgwick

Editor-in-chief

Although they don’t run snooker specific promotions throughout the year, they do when the World Championships are on, leaning into their old partnership with some excellent specials that are well worth checking out and understanding why it ranks so high on our best snooker betting sites. They have brilliant market depth throughout the snooker season.

Compare to the best snooker betting sites in the UK.

🏉 Rugby Betting (Union & League)

Betfred is a pretty solid rugby betting site in terms of event coverage, everything from the Rugby World Cup and the Six Nations is included, down to domestic club games, and markets offered. There is a high premium to pay on the exchange, but given the sheer range in markets, the competitive odds and the consistency in their promotions, the overall package more than makes up for it. It’s also worth noting that the stats provided alongside the live streaming are excellent. 

🏏 Cricket Betting

James Banting

Tipster competition assistant

New members can benefit from one of the better welcome offers in our top 10 cricket sites list. Betfred’s cricket section is vast. Among the in-play matches and upcoming games, there are future markets on every major tournament for the rest of the year, plus the World Cup and Ashes series more than 12 months from now.

We list the 10 best cricket betting sites here.

🎾 Tennis Betting

By James Banting - Betfred is great for promotions and bonuses. It’s always worth keeping an eye out on tennis related promotions for some extra value, and this should be a first port of call. In addition, they have bet builders, cash out, live streaming and cover as many markets as anyone else in the UK. On a few markets they may not have the very best odds, but that’s where the promotions come in to make up for it. They are the 10th best tennis betting site according to our OLBG data.

🏌️ Golf Betting

By James Banting - Golf odds tend to vary from bookmaker to bookmaker and finding the best odds for your golf bet won't necessarily be from the same bookmaker each time you place a bet. Golf odds will generally be pretty similar across all bookmakers and the small fluctuations will be down to the discretion of the bookmakers' traders. The one exception to this tends to be the Betfred Exchange which pits punters against punters.

🏎️ Motorsports Betting

Andy Powell

Content editor

Like many sportsbooks, Betfred split their markets into Formula1, and then other motorsport grouped together (NASCAR, Superbikes etc). It’s worth remembering, however, and not all sportsbooks do, but they cover speedway markets also. The website is so clear, easy to move through, and all markets are easy to find. If they could throw in the same boosts here that they do to other sports they’d rocket up our list, but even without those, it’s still brilliant.

Compare to the best motorsport betting sites.

🥊 Boxing Betting

Frank Monkhouse

Boxing editor

Betfred has garnered a reputation for bonuses. This is a bookmaker that is constantly offering punters a variety of specials, boosts and promotions that are impossible to ignore. Given the number, and the variety, there is normally something that you can find to keep you interested. Their standard service can’t compete with the top ten, so punters may not head here for everything, but you can’t not consider them because there are promotions on Betfred that you simply won’t find anywhere else. Always worth a look. Because of these, across the UK’s best boxing betting sites, Betfred is a solid option that suits beginners and more experienced bettors and ranks ninth in our best boxing betting sites.

Compare to the best boxing betting sites.

Other Sports Betting

Whilst these sports might sound very niche, there is a massive 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.

Betfred 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

Existing customers can expect exactly what they’re used to from other sports, while newcomers will find the section easy to navigate. As well as the big markets that you’d expect to find, Betfred offers a decent selection of markets on UK and US politics, but nothing beyond that.

Compare to the best political betting sites.

🎭 Entertainment and Specials Betting

Jake Ashton

Senior news editor

Jump onto Betfred’s “Specials” section and you can get action on anything from Love Island winners, to who will pick up gongs at the next Oscars. From odds on who will perform at the next Super Bowl halftime show, to an entire section on who will headline Glastonbury and Next James Bond markets. It caters to a wide range of users, all with the same slick and reliable interface that we’ve come to expect across its sports markets.

Compare to the best entertainment betting sites.

Casino

Betfred has a fantastic casino with all players from small to large stakers given the best experience possible on the platform.

A huge range of slots and interactive promotions are on Betfred Casino to keep the most demanding of players happy and consistently able to use the services available.

You can see further information in our Betfred Casino review which takes a look at each individual section on there.

Betfred Account Opening Process

If you have decided to open and create a Betfred new account this Betfred sign up guide will answer all your questions.  

If you are already fully informed, and ready to open a Betfred new account just follow the simple bullet points below.

1. Click the Betfred sign up banner on this page.

2. Click the bet now tab, this will take you to the registration page.

3. Complete all the requested information, including any Betfred Promo code/Referral code (if applicable).

4. Tick that you agree to the terms and conditions.

That is it.

Navigation and user experience [desktop v mobile]

The Betfred site and app both have a similar layout, but I definitely enjoy the app more than the desktop version. Betfred's design is well-structured and the design overall is efficient despite its interface absolutely crammed full of info. I found myself using the app over the desktop more and more, which is no sleight on the desktop version, but the app definitely feels more intuitive. Our user reviews point towards the reliability of the site being impressive plus the app being good due to the fast sign-in process there.

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 Betfred 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. Placing a bet on Betfred is straightforward with the betslip instantly appearing on your screen when you click a selection.

Managing your account

As mentioned above, the design is solid. On the desktop version, it’s stuff left and right of screen (menu and search to the left, account and bets to the right). On the app, it’s at the bottom, with search, account and bets at the top, with a main nav bar at the bottom that can get you to different sports, in-play options and casino (plus return to the home page).

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: 

• Deposit Limit

• Loss Limit

• Session Limit

• Wagering Limits

• Reality Check

• Time-Out

• Self-Exclusion

• Support Groups & Organisations

• Advice on Keeping in Control

• Parental Controls

• Self-Assessment

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.

Bookie Review Expert Contributing Team

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