In Vbet, we find a remarkable success story. This bookmaker had humble beginnings in eastern Europe, in the early 2000’s. It quickly expanded to own hundreds of brick-and-mortar betting shops, before launching its online sportsbooks. Nowadays it operates across the entire continent, and Vbet UK has also become an increasingly popular option in Britain.
In this Vbet UK review, you’ll learn everything you need to know about this fascinating brand. We’ll cover its bonus offers, betting markets, special features, safety measures, and plenty more. Most importantly of all, we’ll let you know if Vbet is worth your time and money.
Sign up & Unlock a No-strings-attached Free Bet Up To £20
Sign up & Unlock a No-strings-attached Free Bet Up To £20
Vbet was launched back in 2003, which actually makes it a relatively old sportsbook in modern-day terms. The company was first founded in Armenia, under Vigen Badalyan, who remains the CEO to this day. It was known as VivaroBet back then, and focused exclusively on physical betting shops.
VivaroBet made the move online in 2006, branded its digital platform as ‘Vbet’ shortly afterwards, and never looked back. Its expansion has been incredibly impressive, with the brand now having customers in over 120 different countries. In 2017, Vbet UK was licensed and launched. The following year, Vbet managed to secure a massive sponsorship deal with Arsenal, which saw its brand awareness in Britain go through the roof. It has also formed partnerships with Monaco FC, Portsmouth FC, and Kempton Park racecourse.
What we can see – through all of this – is a betting company with incredible ambition. Vbet has come a long way in two decades, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down yet.
Player safety is our main concern with every single brand we evaluate here at Safe Betting Sites, as our name suggests. Naturally, this was the case with Vbet too.
Like most betting sites, Vbet UK doesn’t provide a huge amount of detail about the specifics of its security measures. We did find enough information to reassure us, though. SSL encryption is not only in place, but is 256-bit rather than the industry-standard 128-bit. There’s also a state-of-the-art firewall protecting Vbet’s network, to help keep your personal data safe. Any third-parties Vbet works with are also vetted for their security.
Providing the most peace of mind, however, are Vbet’s licenses. Its collection is exceptionally impressive, with licenses being held with over 10 different regulatory bodies. These include the Malta Gaming Authority, Curacao Gaming Control Board, and – most importantly – the UK Gambling Commission. In each case, Vbet will have been thoroughly analysed for both security and fairness.
Brands don’t expand as quickly as Vbet by accident. They do it by ensuring a steady stream of new punters is constantly signing up, and welcome bonuses are a great way to help with this.
Vbet actually have an entire ‘Welcome Bonus Bundle’ in place for their new customers, which covers both sports betting and casino games. On top of that, there’s also a separate casino welcome offer available.
Let’s get a brief overview of what these deals include, before digging into the details afterwards.
Vbet Offer | Offer Description | Qualifying bet selection | Minimum Qualifying Odds | Offer Expiry | Minimum Deposit |
Welcome Bonus Bundle | A no-strings-attached £20 Free Bet | x3 | 1.30 | Free Bets Valid for 14 Days | £10 |
Casino Gold Rush | Up to £50 Bonus, + 50 Free Spins | 35x Rollover Requirement | N/A | Bonuses valid for 7 days | £10 |
Stripped down to its bare bones, the Welcome Bonus Bundle represents a pretty standard ‘Bet X, Get Y’ deal for sports bettors. To qualify, you must deposit and bet at least £10. Do so, and you’ll be rewarded with £10 in free bets. That’s hardly exceptional value, but it does meet our minimum ‘1:1’ requirement for stakes versus rewards from a welcome offer.
There are also a couple of nice details which we specifically enjoyed about this deal. Firstly, the minimum qualifying odds of 1.40 are entirely fair. Secondly, and more importantly, your rewards are split evenly into two £5 free bets. This allows you to spread your exposure across a pair of wagers, rather than risking your reward on one, single bet.
If you like casino games, the Welcome Bonus Bundle will also give you a £10 bonus to use in that section, plus 20 free spins. Do be aware, however, that a hefty 30x rollover requirement applies to any bonus winnings.
Backing up its respectable welcome offer, Vbet also provides a full range of ongoing promotions for its sports customers. These are the most interesting trio, in our eyes.
Vbet provides not one, not two, but three separate acca insurance deals.
The first is a regular ‘4 Fold Acca Insurance’ promotion, in which – if one leg of your multiples lets you down – you’ll get a free bet of up to £25. Your stakes can be between £2-£100, and the minimum odds for your entire acca are a generous 1.80. You only actually get 25% of your stake refunded, though.
The second is a full 100% refund acca insurance deal. It’s available on all football markets, applies to stakes of £2-£50, and has lower minimum qualifying odds of 1.60. You will, however, need six selections to qualify.
Finally, we have ‘5 Fold Acca Special. This represents the middle ground, giving you a 50% refund, and covering stakes of £2-£100, but requiring five selections.
This is the closest Vbet UK comes to a ‘free bet club’. To trigger this offer, you must place at least five singles bets of £5 or more on horse racing, at minimum odds of 1/2. Do so, and you’ll be rewarded with a £5 free bet.
We rate this offer very highly. Any deals which dish out regular free bets are valuable, whether for matched betting strategies or regular gambling, and this is a very straightforward example.
Few things are more frustrating for football bettors than not only losing a bet, but also suffering through a bore draw in the process. This burden is somewhat licensed by Vbet’s Boring Football offer.
This deal applies to Correct Score bets on all Premier League matches, with stakes of £2-£50. If your wager loses, but the game ends 0-0, you’ll get 50% of your stake refunded as a free bet.
Special offers and player safety are likely to be two priorities for most bettors, hence why we’ve stuck them on top of our review. Now though, it’s time to get stuck into the details of Vbet’s offering.
Vbet’s market selection is simply excellent. Most bookies will provide around 20-25 betting markets nowadays, but Vbet smashes this, with well over 30 different sports being covered. These include real-world, video game, and virtual options.
Leading the way – as you’d expect – is football. There were over 800 pre-match football markets available at the time of writing, with approximately 30 more in-play choices. For domestic, continental, and international tournaments, the coverage is simply faultless, in terms of both the breadth and depth of betting opportunities.
Pleasingly, Vbet have also licensed horse racing. This subsection is also packed with markets, numbering a massive 350+ when this review was written. Courses across not just the UK and Ireland, but the USA, Canada, France, and even Japan are all covered here.
100+ markets are also available in the tennis, greyhound racing, and table tennis areas. Elsewhere, you can wager on everything from golf, cricket, and rugby, through to Gaelic games and chess.
One of the classic ways to judge the quality of a bookie’s odds is by looking at its margins. This is the percentage baked into all betting odds, which basically represents the bookie’s ‘cut’, and can range from 1% (excellent) to 7% (terrible).
Vbet has improved dramatically in this area. Its margins used to genuinely be some of the worst around, but nowadays it’s squarely in the middle of the pack. As elsewhere, these margins vary from market to market, but typically sit between 3-4%. The football markets actually tend to be at the top of this range, and sometimes exceed 4%, but that’s not terrible by any means.
Helping out enormously here is the frequency of Vbet’s boosted odds. These are extremely commonplace, particularly on football. They’re also easily distinguishable, with the odds shown in green, and a little lightning icon next to them, and – wherever they’re in place – significantly enhance the value of those markets.
Vbet plays things pretty safe with regards to its bet limits. The minimum stake is £0.10 (10p), which is the bog-standard industry amount.
The maximum limits vary considerably from market-to-market, but are clearly displayed within the ‘Sport Betting Rules’ section of the site. Again though, they’re generally average amounts, being set at £100,000 for major football competitions, £50,000 for British or Irish horse races, £25,000 for most other sports, and £5,000 for ‘other’ markets (such as reality TV shows).
In-play is given an entirely separate section on the Vbet betting site. There’s a pretty considerable drop-off here in the market selection, compared to that in the pre-match area, with only around 10 sports available at the time of writing. The football subsection was still impressive though, with 33 games being covered, and there still being plenty of bet types available for each one.
The actual quality of the live betting tool is high, usually allowing you to lock in the odds you want whenever you spot a good opportunity. The cash out tool is slightly less responsive, but – again – generally lets you bail at the price you fancy.
Live streaming is usually reserved for the biggest brands of all, so we were surprised and impressed to see it in place on Vbet’s site.
Both horse racing and greyhound racing are available to watch, and there’s no wagering requirement in order to watch along. Courses across the UK and Ireland are covered, and it’s easy to see which upcoming races will be streamed, courtesy of a ‘Live Video’ icon next to that event. The streaming is also very easy to access, being ever-present in the top-right of your screen on the desktop site, and the quality of the video is excellent.
In addition to those listed above, Vbet has some other tricks up its sleeve. These are headlined by a packed-out virtual sports section, which features horse racing, greyhound racing, football, cycling, and even marble racing (yes, really).
Elsewhere, Vbet has a handy ‘Quick Bet’ feature, allowing you to place speedy wagers, and a partial cash out option to compliment its main cash out tool. Intriguingly, there’s also an ongoing fantasy football competition, in which you duke it out against other users for real-money rewards, and the free-to-play ‘5Up’ and ‘Golden Shot’ games, which deliver both cash prizes and free bets.
There are three main components to evaluate with any brand’s customer service offering: speed, coverage, and actual helpfulness. We’re pleased to say that Vbet ticks all three boxes.
The most convenient way to get in touch is via live chat. This can be accessed at any time you like by hitting the ‘Chat Now’ button in the bottom-right, and you can actually choose to either have a text conversation or place an online call. Best of all, this live chat is available 24/7, as is Vbet’s telephone support. If your enquiry is less urgent though, you can send an email instead. We used the live chat option to make a test enquiry for this review, and received a response which was both quick and useful.
Elsewhere, Vbet also has a Help Centre in place. This is split quite intuitively into a few key areas, each of which contains a good selection of answers. We’d prefer it if a search function was in place to help find what you’re looking for, but this is still a solid section.
It’s very quick and easy indeed to get started on Vbet UK. From the first time you boot up the site, it should only take a couple of minutes until you’re signed up and placing wagers. Verifying your account thereafter, and making a withdrawal, are equally straightforward. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide on how to accomplish each of those goals in turn.
Unsurprisingly, your first task is to visit the main Vbet UK home page. If you choose to use the mobile site instead, you’ll broadly be following the same steps. Once you’re there, click the green ‘Register’ button in the top-right corner.
You should now see the first of the three main stages of the sign up process. At this point, you must enter your real name and email address, then set a username and password.
Click ‘Next’, and you’ll move on to Step 2. Here, you’ll provide some further personal details, namely your gender, date of birth, and home address. Strangely, you’ll also be asked for your occupation and salary level. You can set daily, weekly, and monthly deposit limits here.
At the third and final step, you will simply need to set your notification preferences. Once that’s done, just agree to the main T&C’s, and hit the ‘Submit’ button to finish the process.
Before actually placing any wagers, you’ll need some money to bet with. To get the ball rolling here, click the ‘Sign In’ button and enter the login details you just used. Now, hover over the ‘My Account’ icon in the top-right, and select ‘Deposit’. You’ll now see the payment options available to you. Pick one, enter the amount you want to deposit, provide the required payment details, then confirm the payment.
With your Vbet UK account funded, it’s high time to place a bet. Click ‘Pre-Match’ on the top menu to open all the upcoming markets, then pick a sport from the long list on the left-hand side (e.g. ‘Horse Racing’). Browse the imminent events, and choose the one you’re interested in. Find the precise bet type and selection you want, and click the corresponding odds to add it to your betslip on the right. Now simply enter a stake, and hit the ‘Place Bet’ button to confirm the wager.
As on all legitimate British sportsbooks, you must verify your identity on Vbet UK before you can make any withdrawals. Rather than using a document uploader tool, Vbet instead requests that you send the necessary documents directly to the support team. As always, these should include images of photographic ID (e.g. a passport), and proof of your address (e.g. a utility bill).
If all your documents are in order, your identity should be verified very quickly indeed, and you’ll be free to make withdrawals thereafter. To do so, open up the ‘My Account’ section again, then click ‘Withdraw’ along the top. Again, you’ll see all the options that are available to you. Pick one, enter the amount and any details which are required, and hit the ‘Submit’ button.
There’s something of a mystery surrounding the Vbet mobile app. We first used this brand several years ago, and there were high quality apps in place for both iOS and Android users. Now though, while these are still available for users elsewhere in Europe, they have disappeared from Vbet UK.
On-the-go British bettors will therefore need to use the mobile version of the main website. While we’d always prefer a standalone app – mostly for performance reasons – this is still a solid substitute. It’s very easy to use, generally following the same structure as the desktop site, but with certain concessions for mobile devices. There’s a dropdown menu in the top-left of your screen, for example, which allows you to instantly access all the most important sections – Pre-Match, In-Play, Promotions, and so on. We found the performance levels to be good, on both mobile data and WiFi connections, and the site seemed completely stable during our testing.
Like many modern-day sportsbooks, Vbet has chosen to get rid of bonus codes entirely. Both its welcome offers and ongoing betting promotions can be accessed with no need to enter a code.
If you are seeking these types of deals though, there are plenty of other excellent options out there. Keeping on top of all these can be tricky, which is why we’ve done the hard work for you. Below, you can quickly check out the very best bonus code offers available in the UK right now.
Your payment options on Vbet UK aren’t spectacular, but they’re definitely solid enough. There are only seven available, but these do represent a good cross-section of choices.
Leading the charge are Mastercard and Visa debit cards, as you’d expect, although – in this case – they’re processed by SafeCharge, a third-party service. Bank transfers are also available, although – again – they’re handled indirectly via Trustly. Elsewhere, all three major eWallets are included – PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller – as are MuchBetter and ecoPayz.
Prepaid cards like Paysafecard are the only notable omission here, but this is unlikely to be a dealbreaker for most punters. Ideally we’d like to see cryptos as an option too, but we wouldn’t consider this to be a big issue either.
Vbet UK also checks out pretty well for the details of its payment options. No transaction fees whatsoever are imposed, which is obviously great. The minimum deposit amounts of £5 and £10 are industry standard, and we were impressed by the unusually low £1 minimum withdrawal for most options.
Banking Method | Fees | Minimum Deposit | Minimum Withdrawal | Withdrawal Times |
Debit Card | 0% | £10 | £1 | Up to 72 hours |
Trustly (Bank Transfer) | 0% | £1 | £1 | Up to 72 hours |
PayPal | 0% | £5 | £1 | Up to 72 hours |
Skrill | 0% | £5 | £1 | Up to 72 hours |
Neteller | 0% | £5 | £1 | Up to 72 hours |
MuchBetter | 0% | £10 | £10 | Up to 72 hours |
ecoPayz | 0% | £5 | £1 | Up to 72 hours |
Like all betting sites, Vbet has both strengths and weaknesses. The former definitely outnumber the latter here, but we’ve still tried to provide a balanced picture throughout this Vbet UK review. To help summarise things though, here’s a quick overview of the pros and cons we found.
Even by modern standards, the range of betting markets here really is exceptional. Over 30 different sports are covered, with no major omissions at all. The depth of these markets – in both competition coverage, and bet type variety – is also excellent.
Vbet’s welcome bonus isn’t the most exciting, but the ongoing promotions greatly elevate the overall quality of the offers section. Each provides genuine value for users, and they serve a variety of different purposes, alternately reducing your risk of losing and boosting the size of your wins.
Again, the key here is variety, with Vbet giving enough payment options to ensure that every potential punter has at least one option available to them. These include traditional methods for old-school bettors, eWallets for those craving convenience, and more.
Both the desktop and mobile Vbet platforms are extremely user-friendly. The layouts are straightforward and intuitive, making it easy to find all major sections and browse the available betting markets.
The default prices on Vbet aren’t bad, by any means, but they’re average at best. As noted earlier though, the frequency of odds boosts here does help to offset this mediocrity.
This isn’t a major criticism, but it’s worth mentioning. More and more bookies nowadays are including cryptocurrencies among their payment options, but Vbet haven’t made this move yet, meaning your anonymity will always be somewhat limited here.
Even despite its rapid growth and big-time sponsorships, Vbet’s brand awareness isn’t up there with the industry titans yet. If it keeps not only providing such a good service though, but also continuing to add to this offering, this should change pretty soon.
Quite simply, Vbet UK is an outstanding sports betting site. Between its market selection, special features, and sheer user-friendliness, it really can rival the biggest names around. Even our complaints – such as the middling nature of the odds – barely detract from the overall appeal here.
In short, to answer our own question from the introduction, Vbet is certainly worth your time and money. We fully recommend signing up, claiming your £10 welcome bonus, and taking things from there.
Vbet started off as an eastern European brand in 2003, and has spread rapidly across Europe in the past decade or so. Nowadays it is a highly-modern and well-rounded online betting site.
It is a fairly modest ‘Bet £10, Get £10 in Free Bets’ deal. The qualifying requirements are fair though, and you also get some casino bonuses thrown in. Backing this up is a solid range of ongoing promotions, including several Acca Insurance offers.
No. Vbet provides neither Android or iOS apps for British bettors. The mobile website is a solid alternative though, containing all the main features and markets as the desktop version.
Vbet protects all data transmissions with especially strong 256-bit SSL encryption, and a powerful firewall is also in place.
You have seven options in total. These include debit card, bank transfer, and several eWallets. The minimum deposit and withdrawal amounts are £5 and £1 respectively.