Find the best betting sites UK offering top odds, specials, sports markets, bonuses and more. Our comprehensive reviews make you a vet before you bet!
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These are currently the highest rated betting sites in the UK.
Let’s get straight to the point – you are here because you like to place wagers on sporting events. Safe Betting Sites is a new initiative launched in 2020 that’s designed to help you find the best UKGC-regulated betting sites, and to make sure your online betting experience is 100 percent secure. It’s our job to keep you protected, and to inform you of the best betting sign-up offers and available site promo codes.
Free bet offers and promo codes are introduced by established UK bookmakers and new betting sites in the UK on a regular basis. While the full T&Cs involved make some promotions worth avoiding, the following betting site offers are well worth checking out. Each offer comes from a different safe and trustworthy betting site, providing punters with the chance to place bets using the bookmaker’s own funds.
Safe Betting Sites may be a ‘new’ venture, but the experts whose advice you’ll be taking on board have each been involved in the sports betting industry for at least a decade. These people really know what they are talking about, being lovers of sport and frequent sports bettors themselves.
What you will find below is what our people consider to be the ten best betting sites available in 2021 for eager sports bettors in the UK and beyond. We’ve included a mix of new UK betting sites and sites you may already be familiar with.
Since being introduced in 2018, Bet UK have slowly been taking the steps to become one of the top bookmakers in the business. Originally starting as an online casino, Bet UK has expanded seamlessly into the world of sports betting. A number of high profile sponsorships have only cemented Bet UK’s place amongst our top UK bookies.
From a layout perspective, Bet UK stands out and is one of the easiest bookmakers to use. Odds are clearly available on a range of different sports, as well as an easy to navigate in play market. A clean look adds to the appeal of Bet UK as well, with a simple colour scheme making the best parts of this site clearly stand out.
As well as a wide range of markets available, there are also regular price boosts at Bet UK. For all major events, you’ll be sure to find some sort of promotion available. So if you’re looking for the Premier League, Wimbledon, Cheltenham Festival or the Masters, then Bet UK will have exactly what you need.
What we like:
What we don’t:
If there’s one site that qualifies as being ‘in with a bullet’ into our top of the wagering pops considerations, it’s Spreadex. If you prefer spread betting to fixed odds betting, then this UKGC-licensed site is most definitely for you. All major sporting events are covered in depth, plus eSports including Liga Pro, DoTA and CS:GO. The site also stretches into an online casino, plus financial markets too.
If spread betting is something of a mystery to you make sure you check out our spread betting guide. If you don’t want to get involved in spread betting then don’t worry, fixed odds betting is available at Spreadex too.
The interface at Spreadex is unique and somewhat workman-like. Don’t expect too many thrilling and amusing animations as this is definitely a site that takes its sports betting seriously. If you are a dedicated sports bettor who makes serious efforts in getting the most out of their sports betting, then Spreadex is definitely for you.
If you’ve been watching TV of late, you may have noticed Betfred adverts featuring some old geezer imploring punters to gamble responsibly. Well, that ain’t just any old geezer, it’s Mr Fred Done himself, a billionaire, founder and chairman of Betfred. Fred in a legend in the sports betting world, creating Betfred (as Done Bookmakers) in 1967 and keeping the company well in profit for over fifty years while rival UK bookmakers floundered.
The Betfred of 2021 remains an outstanding betting platform that’s backed by the UK’s 1,500 real-world Betfred betting shops. The Betfred online sportsbook has an excellent sports betting section that is genuinely user-friendly, plus additional gambling sections for casino, lotto, live casino, vegas (slots), virtual, bingo, poker and totepool, which is a jackpot game where you can win £££s if you’re an expert sports predictor.
BetBull is a leader among betting sites and has a top class ambassador in former Manchester United and English Premier League legend Eric Cantona. The French attacking maestro enjoyed playing to the crowds – so much so that he once ended up in one when he kung fu kicked an abusive Crystal Palace supporter! The good news here is that BetBull will not send King Eric around if you are not depositing enough at the site!
Not only is BetBull a truly excellent sports betting site, it also has a truly excellent welcome offer – up to £50 in free bets plus 100 percent in odds boosts plus ten free spins at the attached BetBull casino. It also has some unique features such as the ‘Odds Boosts Wheel’ which you can spin every time you create an acca with more than two wagers. The wheel will grant you either an overall boost of your odds (up to 100%) or acca insurance which will return your acca stake if one, two or three (depending on where the wheel lands) or your acca legs fail.
It’s unique features such as this that makes BetBull really stand out from the crowd and makes it, as Eric would say, “très bon!” (It also has Darren Bent and Ray Parlour as ambassadors, but … er … yes, exactly!)
Mr Mega has long been in the casino game, and has always been a favourite amongst punters. But, with the addition of an online sportsbook, Mr Mega has opened up a whole new world of possibilities.
Mr Mega opts for a simple but effective layout on their site, which might not be the most appealing to the eyes, but it does make the site incredibly easy to navigate. You can easily see a huge range of sports available to bet on, along with a regularly updated section of the top leagues and events.
When it comes to betting markets, there’s an extensive range that can match any site around. That’s for both pre match and in play, with updated and unique markets available as events take place. With up to 77% extra winnings on accumulators as well, there’s plenty of reasons to give Mr Mega a try.
BetTarget is one of the new betting sites on the markets, but is already looking like a site to keep an eye on. Unlike some other sports betting sites, BetTarget is a sportsbook led brand that happens to also operate a casino, rather than the other way around.
The site initially offers one of the sleekest looks of any online betting website. As well as being visually appealing, the site layout means navigating to your chosen betting market is easier than ever. There’s a list of key events, popular sports and live events all easily available on one screen.
One of the more unique features that BetTarget offers is the TargetTip. TargetTip offers recommended bets for leagues and events from around the world. The feature is driven by stats and is a refreshing feature that is rarely seen on betting sites these days.
People in the UK should need no introduction to the ‘Virgin’ brand. Famously begun as a record shop by Richard Branson, Virgin have expanded and expanded and are now even venturing into space tourism. They’ve also expanded into online sports betting, with the Virgin Bet sports book. Virgin Bet did used to be owned by Virgin, but now its owned by a different company who use the Virgin logo and name under license.
The Virgin Bet sports book has the usual ‘look and feel’ of the Virgin brand, and is one of the many sites that combine a sports book with a casino, which includes a live casino. The sports betting site does look surprisingly basic though, but that in no way should put you off from using it. Most things you could possibly want from a sports betting site are available, including price boosts and some innovative promotional features.
While not quite qualifying as a new bookies on the scene, QuinnBet is a UK-based online sports book that operates with a UKGC license. This is a betting site that keeps matters traditional in the British sense of the word as it concentrates upon the holy trinity of UK betting – football, horse racing and greyhounds.
It’s not all Brit-based though. The NFL is covered, as are all the other major US leagues (MLB, NBA, NHL and NCAA). You’ll also find comprehensive coverage of the leading eSports as you’d expect to find at new bookmakers, plus a Virtual Sports section.
The main key feature of QuinnBet is the site’s love of horse racing. This is not too suprising, as the site was founded in 2017 by Irish businessman Sean Quinn, who once held the title of Ireland’s richest man. QuinnBet has racecards available from the UK and Ireland on a daily basis, plus other racing-living countries as diverse as France, the USA, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
One of the most generous aspects of this sports betting brand is their daily enhanced odds deals. If you head to their dedicated ‘enhanced odds’ section you can see the deals that are on offer – popular bets that have boosted odds if you choose to place a wager upon them. If your enhanced odds bet wins, you’ll receive between 10 and 20 percent more in winnings that you would if you placed the same bet at a different site.
The online bookmaker section of Kwiff marries convenience with style but without the fuss of lesser sites. The biggest competitions such as the Premier League and Serie A in football are but a single click away, along with the latest match-ups in the worlds of tennis and basketball.
Kwiff is more a betting app than a betting site, but you can use it on desktop too. To get you used to the surprise bet concept new customers here receive a £10 surprise bet, plus 30 bonus spins at the Kwiff casino.
Originally called Vivarobet and targeting countries around Eastern Europe, VBet have of late decided to expand their focus meaning that this online betting site is finally available in the UK. VBet has actually been around since 2003, but only available to the UK since 2021. Trivia fact – VBet is the number one provider of real-world betting shops in Armenia!
Thankfully, people in the UK do not have to travel all the way to Armenia in order to wager at VBet, as it can be done online. Offering a payout in advance of 94% on major markets and an exceptional 96% on Europe’s top football leagues, you won’t be left disappointed by your winning margins here if your bets are successful. VBet averages 40,000 betting options per month, and an impressive 1,000 live betting events every day. It also offers multiple payment options, quick withdrawals and no fees.
21.co.uk is one of the newest bookmakers on the market, but that doesn’t mean you should be avoiding it. This UK betting company has gone from strength to strength since entering the market in 2019 and there’s plenty to look forward to in the future for 21. 21.co.uk is fully deserving of a spot in our top UK sportsbook.
When looking at 21.co.uk straight away, you can see it’s a very smart site. This not only makes it easy on the eye, but it also helps with navigation and finding the exact betting market you are looking for. With a range of top sports and events available to look at straight away, you are never more than a couple of clicks away from finding what you’re looking for.
In terms of betting markets, there are few sites that can offer the same range that 21.co.uk can. On some events, you’ll also find a Bet Builder feature that is becoming more and more popular in the world of online betting. When it comes to the biggest events, you’ll also find regular promotions on 21.co.uk, including price boosts and free bets available to all customers.
MansionBet have been around for a while now, and have built themselves up a fantastic reputation for the way they treat their customers, including stringent security measures and extra added value via ongoing promotions. Licensed in the UK, MansionBet are known for their support of UK football having had sponsorship deals with Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Bristol City and Millwall.
Check out their ‘bet £10, get £20’ deal to really get your use of their betting facilties up and running. New bookmakers tend to have more generous deals, but that does not mean this MansionBet offer should be ignored.
MansionBet are one of the most generous sports betting sites out there and will offer keen price boosts on specific events, such as Harry Kane scoring a brace in Tottenham’s next match. Other enhanced deals include daily doubles available on that days’ race card, and ‘all teams to score’ deals on selected combined football matches. Excellent range of the exotic bets, such as Love Island betting, makes this brand a favourite among TV shows fans too.
William Hill are one of the elite online bookmakers in the UK after starting life on-course, then building up a vast empire of betting shops. They moved with the times when the digital revolution changed gambling forever, however, and kept themselves are the forefront of the industry. That journey has brought about the William Hill sportsbook, packed with offers and promotions.
As well as sister Bingo, Casino, Poker and Vegas platforms, William Hill run a daily Scratch of the Day, Win £200 Free Bets and Free or 4 predictor game that don’t cost you anything to play. Flash Odds pop up for limited times only, massively enhancing prices on fancied outcomes. There is also the Acca Freedom deal to celebrate, where you choose between increasing the odds or insuring against one leg letting you down, and horse racing deals which include a daily Bet Boost. William Hill once billed themselves as “the home of betting” and it’s clearly more than an advertising slogan or catachphrase.
We’ve already established the criteria by which we rank the best UK sports betting sites, but when it comes to choosing the best UK sports book for you, the final decision is yours and yours alone. How can you be sure that you are making the correct choice?
Below, you’ll find a few tips that should help ease your path to finding a UK sports book that suits your wagering needs perfectly.
If you are based in the UK, then any sports betting site you use must have a United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) licence. This is legally binding – you are not allowed to be resident in the UK and place bets at any site that does not have proper licencing. Rest assured that all sites mentioned on Safe Betting Sites have valid UKGC licences.
Virtually every UK sports betting site and especially every new bookmakers UK based will offer new customers some kind of bonus as a reward for signing up with them. It could be a no-risk bet that returns your stake as bonus cash if you lose, or a free bet that pays real cash if you win. Such welcome offers are an invaluable way of evaluating a site before you start parting with your own money, and you can check the best welcome deals by refereeing our free bets section.
Quinnbet – £25 Free Bet + 100 Free Spins
PariMatch – Bet £5 And Get A £30 Bonus
Spreadex – Get up to £30 in Free Bets
While a welcome bonus is a ‘nice to have’, a series of regular promo codes and ongoing promotions is an even ‘nicer to have’. Sites that offer a regular series of bonus offers for their regular clientele think more highly of their customers than those that don’t. Find a site that goes beyond the standard ‘welcome offer’ to be made to feel a little bit special, and make sure you check out our betting offers page for the latest and greatest deals.
BoyleSports – Free Bet Up To £20 If One Leg Loses In Your 5+ Acca
Betfred – Horse Racing Free Bet If Your Horse Finished 2nd
VirginBet – Great Virgin Bet FIVES promotion
Placing a bet on Barcelona v Real Madrid (as an example) should not be a chore that makes you feel like hammering your PC keyboard against the nearest convenient wall. If it takes more than three clicks to place any specific bet at a sports betting site, then perhaps you need to find a different place to bets.
Thanks to the creation of HTML5, all UK online sports books now offer a mobile-optimised version of themselves that should look great and work perfectly well on all iOS and Android-based phones and tablets. However, just because something is mobile-optimised that does not mean it’s properly mobile-optimised and some mobile ‘apps’ create nothing but bad betting vibes. Check our betting apps page to see which sites offer the best mobile betting experiences. Some sites also still offer bespoke apps that you can download and install onto your devices.
Ok, so there’s no doubt that football is the biggest betting market in the UK, but that does not mean all other sporting events should be relegated to the background. Imagine going to a restaurant and finding they only had steak & chips on the menu (albeit with a range of different sauces). Variety is the spice of betting and the more markets a sports betting site has, the merrier.
Horse racing, greyhounds, tennis and golf all deserve extensive levels of coverage as well as US sports (baseball, American football, basketball and ice hockey), MMA and UFC. The growing popularity of eSports betting is something that needs to be taken care of too, and you’ll find the best new UK betting sites have sections for pro video gaming.
When you place sporting wagers, you ought to be completely free to choose how much you want to bet on a specific event. If you just fancy a ‘quick quid’ on Harry Kane scoring the opening goal in Tottenham’s next match, it’s a bit of a downer if you find the minimum bet size stipulated by your chosen betting site is £5.
The top betting sites always remember that it’s your money, even if it happens to be ‘resting’ in your online sports book account. When the time comes for you to cash out, sites need to get their act together and blast your cash back into your bank account without undue delays. The worst sites add on ‘pending’ and ‘processing’ periods that may see you have to wait a whole week for your money, or even longer.
Although Visa is by far the most popular payment method available (UKGC rules mean that you cannot use credit cards to make deposits at both established and new betting sites, which means no MasterCards, Amex, Diners Club etc) not everyone is comfortable in using a debit card at a sports betting site. The best online betting sites in the UK are the ones with a large amount of options, including eWallets such as Skrill, Neteller, PayPal and ecoPayz, and cryptocurrency options like Bitcoin and Litecoin.
Of course, it goes without saying that the top betting sites in the UK do not make charges for deposits and withdrawals.
No matter how seasoned a sports bettor you become, there is always the chance something will happen that leaves you adrift in the sports betting sea. Perhaps a deposit is not showing up in your account, or a withdrawal seems stuck, or you won a wager and it simply did not pay out.
Customer support is essential in all these circumstances, and we’re not talking about an unmanned email inbox. Dedicated and proper live support 24/7 is a must as far as we are concerned, as is a telephone line to a real person available during the core hours of the day.
Both established and new UK betting sites have streamlined the process by which you can sign up for an account at their site. Indeed with some, you only need to sign up via PayPal, Facebook or Google to create your account.
With other sites though, the process is a little more engaged. Here is how to sign up for an account at one of our favourite UK sports betting sites, QuinnBet.
Head to the QuinnBet site here and click on the green ‘Register’ button.
Fill in the ‘Personal Information’ section, click the check box to state that you are over 18 and click ‘Join Now’.
Fill in the ‘Address’ Section and click ‘Save Address’.
Fill in the ‘Payment Method’ Section. Add your credit or debit card (eWallets are not available for your first deposit at QuinnBet), choose a deposit amount and click ‘Submit’.
That’s it! You now have a funded sports betting account. The process may differ at your chosen UK online sports book, but the steps involved are basically the same.
As you are based in the UK, you will more than likely have to provide identification documents before you can start placing bets. You will need to provide a proof of ID, such as an image of your passport or driver’s licence, and a proof of address such as an image of a recent utility bill. The provision of these documents is a legal stipulation decreed by the UKGC to help prevent illegal gambling by minors.
Now you have opened your new bookmakers UK account, you will want to start betting. The best betting sites now make it extremely easy to place bets, but we are going to walk you through the process, step-by-step. We are going to place a bet at QuinnBet, one of our favourite betting sites.
Here you can see ALL the available markets for the match, including Over/Under, BTTS Yes/No, Asian Handicap, Clean Sheets, First Goalscorer, Anytime Goalscorer, so on and so on. As we are just going to bet on City winning, we’re going to pop back to the previous page …
To bet on Manchester City to win, all we need to do is click on the ‘2/11’ button. The ‘2/11’ refers to the price that Manchester City are at to score victory. If you prefer decimal odds then that’s 1.29.
Enter the size of your wager. We have set the bet at £10, so our estimated returns are £11.82. When all looks good, hit the ‘Bet Now’ button to confirm your wager. Job’s a good ‘un and come on those boys in sky blue!
When you sign up for the first time at a specific online sports book, you are more than likely to be offered a deposit bonus. This is a great way of ‘testing the water’ at a site to see if it’s all you’re expecting it to be. There are three main kinds of sports betting deposit bonuses, and we’re going to run through the processes involved to enable you to claim each kind.
A ‘free bet’ is genuinely a free bet – a wager you can place without spending of your own hard-earned cash. To obtain a free bet (and you can check the latest free betting sites offers here), you will probably have to make a minimum deposit once you have signed up for your account.
888Sport are a UK sports book that offers new customers £30 in free bets. To obtain your free bet money, you need to complete your registration at the site and make an initial deposit of £10, and then a minimum bet of £10 at odds of a least 1.5 (1/2). No matter if your bet wins or not, once it is settled within 72 hours you should receive £30 in free bet tokens.
Each bet token is worth £10 and must be used in its entirety. If a bet made using your free bets wins you only receive back your winnings, and not the free bet stake itself. Your free bets must be used within seven days of you receiving them.
New customers only • Min deposit £10 • A qualifying bet is a ‘real money’ stake of at least £10 • Min odds 1/2 (1.5) • Free Bets must be claimed within 7 days upon qualifying bet settlement and expires after 7 days • Free Bet stakes not included in returns • Deposit balance is available for withdrawal at any time • Withdrawal restrictions & full T&Cs apply.
A ‘risk-free’ bet is one that you cannot lose. New customers at the best betting sites are often offered risk-free bets. The requirement is that the customer makes a minimum bet on a chosen event, a range of events or any combination they desire. If that bets wins, they take the money. If it doesn’t, then the customer receives back their stake as bonus cash.
New customers at Paddy Power can obtain a risk-free bet when they sign up, worth up to a maximum of £20 and unlike many other risk-free bet offers your money, if the best loses, is paid back as CASH and not as bonus money, which is a fabulous deal.
To claim your risk-free bet open an account at Paddy Power using the promo code ‘YSKAEE’ then place ANY sports book bet. If that bet loses your stake will be returned to your account (maximum £20) as cash that you can use to bet on other markets, or withdraw. Note you must use a debit card or Apple Pay to make your initial deposit or you will not receive your risk-free bet.
New customers only. Place your FIRST bet on any sportsbook market and if it loses we will refund your stake in CASH. Max refund for this offer is £20. Only deposits made using Cards or Apple Pay will qualify for this promotion. T&Cs apply. Paddy’s Rewards Club: Get a £10 free bet when you place 5x bets of £10+. T&Cs apply
If you receive an enhances odds offer, then that will allow you to bet on a specific event but with much better odds than you would normally receive. This means that you will receive back much more if the bet wins than you normally would. There is usually one ‘catch’ though – money in excess of what you would have otherwise won is paid as bonus money that you cannot withdraw, and not as real cash.
Say – for example – you are offered an enhanced odds offer on Manchester United beating Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. The normal odds are 2.0 (Evens) but you are offered 5.0 (4/1). If you were to take up the offer, bet £10 and the Red Devils won, then you’d receive back £10 in real money (your winnings at 2.0) and £30 (your enhanced winnings at 5.0) as bonus cash, plus your £10 stake.
Enhanced odds offers are usually tied to specific events, so you need to be quick to take advantage of them. Keep an eye on our enhanced odds page to find the latest bonus deals.
If you’ve been around online casinos or slots sites, then you’ll be familiar with the concept of a matched deposit offer as that is the most common type of welcome bonus made by such sites. A matched deposit offer at a UK online sports book works in exactly the same way, and you’ll find the best matched deposit betting sites offers available here.
10Bet is a superb relatively new bookmakers with an amazing sports betting bonus. It is worth 50 percent of the first deposit you make at the site, up to a maximum of £50.
To claim your matched deposit offer sign up at 10Bet and make a minimum deposit of £15 (not via an eWallet such as Skrill or Neteller) using the code PLAY10. You will be awarded 50 percent of your deposit up to £50 as bonus cash.
To cash out any winnings made via your bonus cash you need to wager the amount eight times over on single markets with minimum odds of 1.80 (4/5) or acca bets with odds of at least 1.40 (2/5). You need to do this within sixty days of receiving your bonus cash.
18+. New bettors get 50% of deposit up to £50, once per household, Min deposit £15 (no Skrill/Neteller); Wager 8x deposit and bonus in 60 days to convert into real money, betting min odds of 4/5 on singles, or min 2/5 per leg for acca, max. stake contribution to wagering = initial bonus, some bet types excluded; See full terms; 18+.
Most people bet on sporting events in order to add a little excitement to their lives. Others treat it a little more seriously in the hope that their expertise generates them a little bit of extra income. For others it’s just a source of entertainment.
Whichever of these betting types describes you, there are certain ‘rules’ you need to follow in order to get the most from your new sports betting sites, and here are a few of them.
There are dozens of online sports books out there, and as long as you stick to the top 10 betting sites or any site as recommended by our experts you are free to open an account at any or all of them. As most sites will offer you some kind of welcome deal such as a free bet or enhanced odds, you can take advantage of all of these deals to power up your sports betting experience.
As the UK sports betting market is so competitive, the leading sites will offer ongoing promotions in order to satisfy their existing clientele and to attract people to the idea of opening accounts with them. Again, this is something you ought to be taking advantage of, so pay a visit to our betting promotions page as often as possible.
Here is how to sign up for an account at Paddy Power and use the promo code available for new customers. FIrst, head to the Paddy Power site and click on the ‘Join Now’ button. A new screen will pop up where you fill in all your necessary details, as well as selecting a password and providing an answer to the security question. You may find that the promo code is filled in for you, but if it is not then just add it to the relevant box where indicated. When all is okay, tick all three check boxes and click the ‘Join Now’ button. That’s all there is to it!
With this deal your first bet at Paddy Power (up to a maximum of £10) will be returned to you as cash if it loses. This is an amazing deal as commonly, ‘no risk bet’ promo codes return your stake to you as bonus money (which has to be used for wagering), and not real cash that you can withdraw if you want to. The only stipulation is that you must use a debit card or Apple Pay to make your qualifying deposit – eWallets such as Skrill and Neteller and eVouchers like Paysafecard are ineligible.
You can learn more about this great deal from Paddy Power and other promo codes and bonuses from the notorious Irish bookie here.
If you are betting at at a UK online betting site, then the chances are you are flat betting (using the same stake over and over again). Even the best online betting companies factor in a ‘win margin’ when setting odds, which helps them maintain a profit no matter the outcome of any event. You’ll do better at UK online bookies if you calculate your stake using a formula that’s known as the ‘Kelly Criterion’, after its creator.
Say you have a bankroll of £100 and think that Arsenal have a 40 percent chance of drawing with Chelsea. However, the odds given for this are 3/1 (or 4.00), which is a probability of 25 percent. This is, in your opinion, a value bet, but how much should you stake. £1? £10? The whole £100?
You can use the Kelly Criterion at the UK’s top betting sites to work it out. The formula is this:
((Probability * Odds) – 1) / (Odds – 1)
Don’t worry if you suck at maths, as the more you use the formula the more you will get used to it. In our example, the probability is 0.40 (40%) and the odds 4.00 (you have to use decimal odds, not fractional). Plugging all the numbers into the formula we get:
((0.40 * 4) – 1) / (4 – 1)
Now, let’s (gulp) get crunching those numbers:
((0.40 * 4) – 1) / 3
(1.6 – 1) /3
0.6 / 3 = 1.80 %
The answer comes out as 1.8 percent of your bankroll, therefore your stake should be £1.80. If you want to test out this formula, why not try it at one of the new betting sites in the UK using a bonus? That way you can ‘risk’ your stake without it being any of your own money.
Unless you deem yourself a professional sports bettor and are willing to put the hours in to become successful at it, then you’re very unlikely to develop your new sports betting sites skills to the point where you can count on wagering being a steady stream of income.
Your bankroll is the amount of money you put aside each month for your sports betting endeavours. You need to keep this separate from your other financial considerations such as mortgage payments, rent, utility bill payments and the money you need for food and your day-to-day expenses.
It is recommended that you never gamble more than one tenth of your overall bankroll on any given day, and no single bet should be more than one tenth of that. So, if your monthly bankroll is £100 then your single day bankroll is £10 and your single bet maximum is £1.
The most important aspect of bankroll management is this – should you have a bad run and your bankroll dwindles to zero, stop betting until next month’s bankroll is available. Do not ‘borrow’ from future bankrolls, and do not spend money that you need for your daily financial responsibilities.
Another great tip about bankroll management is to stop betting for the month if your betting chops are really coming up trumps and you manage to double your monthly bankroll. Good runs are all-too-often eaten away by immediate bad runs. Instead of spending your gained wealth on betting, consider treating yourself to a nice meal, a new outfit or paying off some of your credit card debt instead.
We’ve all done this – Liverpool have been drawn at home to Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup and the Accrington boys are quoted at 100/1 (101.00) to snatch victory from the Anfield mob. You think ‘that’s worth a quid’ so you slap on a pound for an Accrington win … and Liverpool win 9-0 with Mo Salah scoring five. You could have just as well flushed that quid down the toilet for all the good it did you.
True – long shots (such as 5,000/1 Leicester City winning the EPL in 2016) do sometimes pay off but mostly they are as likely to happen as Donald Trump admitting that he’s wrong about something.
The people who get the most out of their sports betting are those who bet with their head. Even the most fervent Accrington Stanley fan would not have put money on their team in the example we gave above if they used their grey matter, as opposed to what pumps in their chest.
The most successful sports bettors are those that understand one particular betting niche better than any other. It could be horse racing, or it could be drilled down further and just be about the EPL. It may even be the Estonian U23 Ladies Volleyball League – as long as you bet on what you know and leave the guesswork behind, you’ve more chance of being successful in your sports betting than not.
Having said that, the more markets that are available to you, the better the chances you have of finding the best prices on a large number of events. If you’re an EPL expert, then as time goes on you might want to expand that knowledge to La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga. As soon as you become an expert on European top flight football, you’ll be able to expand into the UCL and the Europa League too.
Despite the online betting market in the UK being dominated by familiar names such as Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and Betfair, new online betting companies emerge onto the internet all the time. Interest in sports betting seems to increase on a daily basis, meaning there’s a growing number of potential sports bettors out there for betting sites to attract as their clientele.
If you are of a cautious nature, then whenever you go looking for a service provider you probably hunt for one that’s been successful in their particular business niche for several years. If the company has been successful in doing what they do for a decade and beyond, then surely they must be doing something right?
This rule applies to the sports betting world too, although that does not mean that new betting sites in the UK for 2021 should be dismissed out of hand. If you’d prefer to place your sporting bets at a site that has successfully withstood the test of time, then here are some of best ‘established’ sports betting brands:
Get £20 in Free Bets When You Bet £5
Cashout is something that has only been available at the best betting sites since the advent of the internet. At sites such as Betfred, Ladbrokes and BetVictor you can cash out live bets that currently are winning bets, albeit for reduced odds. Most new betting sites are now cash out betting sites.
Say you have bet £5 on England to beat the Czech Republic in UEFA Euro 2020. Jack Grealish put England ahead on the hour but with 15 minutes to go, Harry Maguire was been sent off leaving England down to ten men. You are not confident that your winning bet will hold, so you decide to cash out. You’d bet on England at 5/4 (2.25) but the cash out odds offered are 4/5 (1.80). As it turns out, Tomas Soucek blasts a last-minute penalty past Jordan Pickford for the equaliser so your bet would have returned nothing if you had not cashed out.
The best betting sites in the UK are those with live streaming. Established sites such as Ladbrokes, bet365 and Paddy Power all have live streaming of sports events, plus new betting sites such as QuinnBet have live streaming of horse racing.
Football, horse racing, tennis and golf are the most popular sports available for live streaming at live stream betting sites. You won’t though be able to see major sporting events and leagues such as the English Premier League or the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships via betting site streaming, due to existing broadcasting deals signed with terrestrial broadcasting companies.
Getting money into and out of the best betting sites is not as simple as it used to be. For example, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission outlawed the use of credit cards at sports betting sites in 2020, to discourage problem gamblers from running up credit card bills that they then simply could not afford to pay.
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