Best Bookies For Football
Whether you’re new to the football betting scene or simply looking to change who you bet with, it’s hard work finding the best bookmakers out there. You’ll be looking for offers, odds, security and a decent pool of bets to choose from yet most of what you see when conducting research is ads that have been paid for and blatant attempts to get you to sign up so someone gets their cut – regardless of the service you’ll receive. Not here though, oh no, we’re going to run down the 10 best bookies for your football bets. No hard sell and, more importantly, no bias.
- Best Bookies For Football
- Best Bookies For Football Games
- Best Bookies Uk
- Best Online Bookie
- College Football Bookie Picks
- Best Bookies For Football Players 2019
However, Betfred is definitely one of the best bookies for Lucky 15 bets. If you’re already familiar with online betting, you’ll find this very easy. Because the good news is that placing a L15 bet is very similar to the way in which you place any other sort of bet. Is one of the top football bookmakers in the World, the largest Swedish bookmaker and one of the best gambling operators in Europe. They cover football leagues from all over the globe, including dozen of smaller leagues and even youth leagues. As a result of their origin, they have a great coverage of all Scandinavian, including lower football leagues, and we can freely say that.
Betting Sites 2021 | Key Features | Sign-Up Link |
---|---|---|
BET365 | Largest Streaming Portfolio | BET ON BET365 > |
WILLIAM HILL | Acca boosts | BET ON WILLIAM HILL > |
CORAL | Top odds on lower football leagues | BET ON CORAL> |
BETFRED | Premium App | BET ON BETFRED > |
LADBROKES | Price boost | BET ON LADBROKES > |
Contents
Top 10 Football Betting Sites Ranked
1. William Hill
We give the award for ‘best bookie’ to William Hill. The sign up bonus for new users is four £10 free bets when you stake £10 making it a very positive welcome and once inside you’re thrust into an experience that has been designed with the customer in mind. It’s quick and easy to find what you want and additional things like most popular markets and current top bets being immediately available are useful to see too.
The sportsbook itself consists of a whopping 30+ sports from all around the world. And while this is impressive, William Hill does have a strong focus on horse racing and football. Whether you want to make speculative accumulators on the Premier League, discover unique markets for the Champions League, or make live bets on all of Europe’s top leagues – William Hill has your back. It’s all the more appealing that William Hill provides streaming services and cashouts for football bets too.
2. Bet365
If Ray Winstone hasn’t drummed it into you yet, Bet365 excel when it comes to in-play betting. It is the thing that underpins this as one of the smartest platforms available on the web. It’s clean with clever menus and makes rattling through the available matches and bets so, so easy. They also have a monstrous selection of leagues to delve through too.
If you take a classic Premier League as an example, bet365 is a big fan of whipping up markets in excess of 150, and sometimes 200+ if top teams are facing off. While you can’t stream the Premier League due to viewing rights in the UK, you can pretty much stream games from any other league in Europe. All of this can be done through an absolutely fantastic mobile app, and you can also make use of other tools like bet builders and cashouts to truly take back control of your football betting experience.
3. Betfred
Here is another bookie doing a lot of things very well.
Although we’ve mentioned the number of clicks required to find key football events, this does give you an indicator of the depth of football that Betfred covers. Of course, if the site only supplied a limited number of football games and markets, you’d be able to see them all with one or two clicks. Now, this range means that there are almost zero football games around the world that Betfred doesn’t cover, and the odds are typically very reasonable too.
Betfred has a user-friendly platform with a unique design. They offer a moderate number of sports to bet on plus many betting options for popular events, like the Premier League in football. They also have a high-quality mobile app available for free.
They have a strong sign up offer of up to £30 in free bets (use the welcome promo code to ensure you get the top offer) if your first £10 wager loses and the ‘pick your punt’ builder was one of the first to market bespoke betting tool. They’ll even give you a free fiver in the form of a free bet if your first custom bet loses. Their icons are all smartly presented with the one thing keeping them out of the top three, the fact that the set up calls for a couple of unnecessary clicks now and then. It’s only a matter of an additional second or two but depending on your preferred betting strategy every second counts.
4. Ladbrokes
Football is evidently a sport that Ladbrokes has placed great emphasis on, and there are more features than what we’ve just mentioned too. One of the features that current members love to put to use on a daily basis is the odds booster that Ladbrokes provides. Whether you’re placing an accumulator bet or a single bet, you can use this tool once per day to drastically increase the odds. Another hot tool you might want to use for football betting is to open up the Ladbrokes betting exchange – where you can make back and lay bets for all kinds of events.
Ladbrokes are often perceived as the market leader in horse racing but that doesn’t mean their football offering is shoddy. In fact, it’s far from that. Like the majority, a wide ranging fixture list is available but with Ladbrokes many of the events are available to watch live if your account is funded. On top of that their 1, 2, FREE game is a great incentive to login each game week. Simply predict the correct scores of three games and win either free bets or £100 of money to bet or withdraw. Their platform is pretty smooth work too.
5. Coral
Coral are one of the better-known bookies given they’ve had high street presence for a number of years. Their web offering is pretty decent too though. Like everyone on this list, the selection of bets you can place are vast but they have quick-select menus that allow you to format what you’re looking at. It’s not a deal clincher by any means but certainly handy. A bet £5 get £20 in free bets is a nice welcome bonus and the other plus is their free to enter game ‘correct 4’. Unlike some pie in the sky games this gives you the chance to win £50 cash but also offers £1 and £2 free bets for, frankly, not doing a lot.
On the subject of bonuses, there are few football betting sites in the UK that even come close to the variety and regularity of sports betting bonuses that Coral provides. Of course, this means that once you’ve wriggled through the welcome offer, you can constantly unlock value through profit booster incentives and free bets. It’s not like Coral only offers a handful of markets for football either, as the site has hundreds of different betting options you can choose from for football games all around the world.
6. Betfair
Betfair has two elements to it when it comes to football betting. It has the traditional bookmakers side. That ticks most boxes with a decent variety of games covered and plenty of bet options. The sign up offer worth up to £100 in free bets is a sweetener too and, unlike 888, your qualifying stakes can be split over five bets I.e. five times £20 in freebies. The other side is the Betfair exchange. If you’re not familiar with how an exchange works then in a nutshell you place bets against other punters rather than the bookie. It means you lay the potential winnings of the other bet down but the upsides are big. They also facilitate ‘matched betting’, which can bank you tidy returns with next to no risk
Here’s another couple of factors that prove to be major advantages of using an exchange over a traditional sportsbook. First of all, Betfair is the one that sets the odds for the rest of the bookies in the UK, meaning that the odds for the various markets here are always some of the most competitive around. And rather than placing bets where you can only win with one outcome, should you make ‘lay bets’ you can be setting yourself up for a win on multiple outcomes.
7. 888Sport
If you’re looking for a huge sign up bonus and a ridiculous depth of fixture coverage then 888Sport may well be the site for you. For one thing, when you register they’ll match your first deposit for any value between £10 and £100. That means you can bag yourself a free £100 stake if you so wished! Not bad. Where fixtures are concerned, your choice is so broad you can’t possibly know all of the leagues. Unless of course you are an expert on the Iranian Premier League, in which case I apologise. Even then, you’ll still be able to flick around their site almost effortlessly.
Like the other brands we’ve mentioned here, 888Sport has put a lot of effort into offering as many markets as possible. Once again, this means you can switch things up at will and keep things super exciting, not to mention that this site is one of the most appealing in terms of the visuals that we’ve found. Finally, the 888Sport mobile app is fantastic too, rivalling even a site like bet365!
8. Paddy Power
Paddy Power offers a decent service for punters. Both their app and site are simple enough to navigate but it will take a little bit of getting used to. Once you’ve got to grips with it though you’ll find it more than adequate. Their odds aren’t market leading but they offer plenty of promotions and money back deals. One big thing keeping them at the back end of our top 10 is how quick they are to limit punters who clean them out on a regular basis.
There are a few more things that do make Paddy Power one of the more competitive football betting sites, however, and this is why they are inside the top 10. When browsing through the football markets, you’ll often find ‘power prices’ where Paddy Power has hand-picked a few markets to create huge odds. Of course, by backing these markets, if they win, you’ll enjoy some much larger returns. Paddy Power also has exclusive accumulators for leagues from all over Europe, which eliminates the need to make these accumulators and do all of the research yourself!
9. BetVictor
Does BetVictor offer the most stylish web and/or app design? No. Are their welcome offers the most compelling? No. Do they offer more range than anyone else? No. What sets them apart then I hear you ask. Well, when you’re choosing a bookie there is one key metric that should be considered the holy grail – the best odds. If you’re not into shopping around every time you place a wager then BetVictor is for you. It has been found to have the best average odds over an extended look at the Premier League. Given that the PL is the most watched league in the world it’s only fair BetVictor occupies the top spot.
To translate exactly what this means, it means that over time, your potential winnings at BetVictor will be much greater than other sites. This is dependent on your actual success with your football wagers in the first place, but having the best odds is obviously advantageous. It doesn’t stop there with BetVictor either – members can still enjoy their pick of 100+ markets for major events, and yes, BetVictor does serve up the odd cashout reward here and there.
10. SkyBet
Sky Sports have the rights to a whole range of football matches through their TV channels and it’s no surprise they have one of the most popular betting sites to go with it. It’s not without good reason. They offer 100% reliability, their site and apps can be navigated with your eyes closed and your settings can be managed with ease. On the betting side, you can bet on almost anything imaginable and you’ll get competitive odds too. To top it all off, you’ll get a sign up bonus of £20 when staking £5 and they offer a loyalty scheme. Oh, and let’s not forget they run the free to enter Super 6 that can pay out up to £1m with someone guaranteed a minimum of £5k every game week.
Compared to any other site in the market, SkyBet is one that arguably has the strongest focus on football. Besides the obvious competitions and bonuses that can be found with these guys, SkyBet also has one of the better ranges of markets available. You can bet on all kinds here, such as both teams to score, total goals, exact score, anytime goalscorers, and you can combine these bets to make accumulators for the same or multiple games.
11. NetBet – New Customers will Receive a £50 Bonus
NetBet has an extraordinary platform design, and they offer new customers an online welcome offer and a reward for the first wager placed from their mobile platform. They offer some betting features and many betting options in terms of markets and sports.
Although NetBet might be one of the new bookmakers in the market, they are certainly competing with the larger brands already. They’ve been able to do this by offering respectable odds, having a decent mobile app, and by covering an enormous number of football events both within Europe and around the world.
Free football bets
We’ve all heard the expressions ‘the house always wins’ or ‘you never see a bookie going out of business’. As annoying as those things are to hear they come with a huge dollop of truth. Why not give yourself a head start with some of the most generous free football bets in the business.
Offers over £50
Bet365
888Sport – Offering to match deposits up to £100
Fans Bet – 50% deposit bonus up to £100
Offers Over £30
William Hill – Bet £10, get £40 free bets
Betfred – Bet £10 get £40 free bets
BetVictor – Bet £5, get £30 free bets
Offers over £20
Coral – Bet £5, get £20 free bets
SkyBet – Bet £5, get £20 free bet
Ladbrokes – Bet £5 and unlock £20 free
Betfair – Get a no-risk £20 bet on sign up
Best Bookies For Football
Virgin Bet – Bet £10, get £20 in free bets
Mansion Bet – Bet £10, get a £20 free bet
Offers under £20
Vbet – Risk free £10 on sign up
Paddy Power – Risk free £10 bet on sign up
Betiton Sport – £10 free bet on sign up
Karamba Sports – Bet £10 get £10 free
The Best Bookies for Acca Insurance
‘Acca insurance’, as it is widely known, is simply another way that bookies try to either hook you in and/or keep your business. It won’t always be called ‘acca insurance’ but whenever there is an accumulator protection offer in place it’s generally the same sort of thing. There are a few elements of it that move. The key aspects to keep an eye on are how many legs need to be included i.e. the minimum number of selections in your bet, the stake you place and the odds. As you can imagine, bookmakers are going to be reluctant to refund you money when you’ve bet on four teams who are massively odds on if one slips up. Anyway, here are a few of the best bookies out there offering acca insurance at the moment.
William Hill – The bad news here is that William Hill have suspended the accumulator protection whilst Covid-19 is ongoing. The good news is that when it comes back, it’s a strong offering. The minimum legs is five and odds of 1/5 per leg is up there with some of the best around. Refunds are paid as free bets up to £20.
Betfair – Betfair offer you a cash refund when your accumulator loses by just one leg. The biggest draw of this offer is that the terms and conditions on offer means it also applies to treble bets.
Ladbrokes – This high street bookie prides themselves on their accumulator offering and their insurance element isn’t too shabby. They only offer refunds in free bets up to £10 on five-fold accas but their minimum odds – based on current terms – is just 3/1. That means each selection of a five-fold can be as short as 1/10.
VBet – Vbet offer a range of acca insurances. All of them are decent. If you’re a four-fold type of punter then you can get a free bet up to £25 whilst if you prefer bigger bets then six-folds come with the protection of a £50 freebie.
Paddy Power – Paddy Power offer to pay back your stake in free bets up to £10. Their minimum odds are pretty decent but not as generous as Ladbrokes. They will, however, allow pay out on four-fold bets.
Betsson – It’s the first time Betsson has been mentioned in this article but they’re worthy of a nod here. They offer up to three accumulator refunds per day with a maximum refund of £20 per accumulator. Refunds are in cash and a five-fold offering isn’t too stretching either.
What are the Criteria for Choosing the Best Betting Site?
There are various factors you should look into before registering for a bookmaker platform and betting with them. We created a list of all the important criteria:
Competitive Odds
But why is this a critical factor? Simply put, the more competitive the odds, the better your potential return will be compared to other betting sites. To highlight exactly how this works, let’s identify a quick example. Say you bet £10 on Manchester United to win a football game, and the odds were 2.0 vs 3.0 at site A and B, respectively. Your return with site A would be £20, whereas your return with site B would be £30. As you can probably imagine, doing this time and time again it can make a huge impact in the long-run.
The odds are one of the most important factors when it comes to sports betting, and you should check and see if customers are happy with the odds the bookmaker provides, especially for the sports you like to bet on.
Various Payment Options
Having the ability to deposit and withdraw via different methods is a luxury these days, so you should avoid sites with few payment options available. But if everything else on the site is perfect, you could adapt to the available payment options.
You might be thinking – well I only ever deposit by debit card anyway, so what’s the need to find a site with different options? This is a fair point, but there are certain benefits of finding sites with such a range of methods. For starters, the minimum and maximum limits for various methods tend to be quite different, so you then have the option to find the payment method which is most suited to your preference. On top of that, many sites use a ‘closed-loop’ system, meaning that you need to withdraw via the same method you used to make deposits. There are many methods that are much quicker than others in this regard, so it’s something you can take advantage of immediately when deciding on your deposit option.
Sports Betting Features
The best sports betting sites should always offer betting features, like cash-out, bet builder, and live streaming to their customers. Streaming is very popular because it attracts customers and allows you to watch the games you bet on for free.
While it’s not always guaranteed that the top sites will have all of these features, it’s important to find sites that support as many as possible. Basically, these kinds of features truly help to enhance your overall betting experience, and if they are all available on mobile, this is even better. If you’re unfamiliar with a couple of the other features we’ve mentioned here, let us explain. By using a bet builder, you can combine individual markets for the same event and effectively create your own market. Then if you find a site with cashout options, this helps you by offering the chance to take an early profit without waiting for the end of the game.
An added bonus is that there are certain sites that give you the chance to partially cash out a bet too. This means you can take an early profit, but still leave part of your stake in-play to maintain some interest and potentially bring home a bit more cash.
New Customer Bonus and Other Promotions
If you don’t have an account on the site, claiming the new customer bonus could benefit you. Another advantage is if the betting site offers regular promotions to customers and does not limit them to once a month or less often.
Concerning the new customer bonus, you want to make sure that the site in question is offering a competitive bonus. For example, if one site is offering a £5 free bet but another is offering £30 in free bets, you’re obviously going to want to choose the latter. But it doesn’t end there concerning welcome bonuses, for you also need to see what the requirements are to claim a bonus. Basically, the simpler it is to get your bonus, the better and less frustrating it’s going to be.
Then when you get into the classification of an ‘existing customer’, the only thing left to do is to keep on top of the ongoing and flash promotions to get a bit more value. Once again, football betting sites that offer more regular and larger promotions for current players are more preferable than the rest.
Sportsbook and Betting Options
Having a wide array of betting options and sports you can choose from is vital to all punters. That’s why betting sites with larger Sportsbooks, like the ones we mentioned, gain more popularity among customers.
Of course, if you are planning on betting on football at the top sites, the quality of the sportsbook and the range of betting options is a huge factor. Focusing on football here, the quality of the sportsbook relates to its appearance, how easy it is to navigate, it’s integration for mobile play, and more. As important as this is, the betting options that are on the table are what truly spices things up. While beginners might be happy to stick to the standard markets, as you progress into more advanced betting and strategies, having a great range of markets makes a big difference.
Steps for Creating an Account After Picking a Bookmaker Site
Creating an account is vital if you want to bet on these sites. You will have to follow the steps below:
- Open the betting site in your browser or click on the links in this article.
- Click on the button to start the registration process.
- Fill out the registration form with your account and personal details.
- Enter the promo code related to the welcome bonus (if they have one).
- Accept the terms, conditions, privacy policy, and rules of the site.
- Click on the final button to complete the sign-up process.
Before you have full access to the betting site, you will need to verify your e-mail address, identity, physical address, and payment method. Some platforms start the process online and only notify you to send specific documents if they can’t verify your identity online. Other platforms require you to upload certain documents via a feature in your account to complete the verification process.
Best football competitions to bet on
Premier League
Assuming you’re based in the UK, the Premier League is arguably the most popular event of them all. Of course, the league runs from August to May every single year, with games being played each and every week. This means you’ve plenty of betting action to get stuck into, and given that this is England’s domestic league, there is plenty of home interest too! Given that it’s also one of the most followed leagues in the world, football betting sites tend to create quite a few promotions around the Premier League too.
Champions League
Moving beyond simply domestic action now, the Champions League is definitely the top club event in Europe. This is the one where all of the country’s top teams get involved, with teams like Juventus, Manchester City, Real Madrid, PSG, and Bayern Munich all making regular appearances. Since these are the top clubs in Europe, it’s no surprise that the Champions League also displays some of the world’s best players.
World Cup
Just about everyone on the planet knows about the World Cup, so we won’t run into too many details on how the event works. But every 4 years, the world goes football crazy – as do the football betting sites. When the World Cup kicks off, we normally see bonuses galore, not to mention that the range of betting markets at the top sites just goes off the charts for the World Cup. You can bet on outrights, individual games, top scorers, and so much more when this competition is underway, and you get to cheer your nation every step of the way!
Europa League
While the Champions League is the top club competition in Europe, it is closely followed by the Europa League. Sure, the teams might not be as prestigious in this one, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a bunch of exciting action going on. Take this year as an example, the Europa League contains teams like Tottenham, Manchester United, Arsenal, AC Milan, Ajax, and many more.
Euro Championships
You might need to wait 4 years for the Euro Championships to roll around, but it’s worth the wait. With teams like Portugal, France, England, Spain, Germany, and many others competing, the drama is high, and the stakes are even higher. Besides the World Cup, this is the one that every nation in Europe wants to win, which naturally means that the best betting sites cover all of the action!
Questions and Answers About Best Sports Betting Sites UK
Are the best betting sites listed here trustworthy?
Yes, they are. All the betting sites have a UK Gambling Commission license, which means they are legal and trustworthy in the UK.
Is my personal and financial information safe on these football betting sites?
Yes, it is. All the platforms we mentioned use high-level encryption protocols to protect all the data on their servers.
If I already have an account on the betting site, can I benefit from the welcome offer?
No, you can’t. Only new customers can claim the welcome bonuses.
Can I play on these platforms from a mobile device?
Best Bookies For Football Games
Yes, you can. All sites are available via your mobile browser, and all of them have mobile apps available if you want to download and use them for free.
Can I make deposits via e-wallets and prepaid cards?
Yes, you can.
Can I play from outside of the UK?
On some you can, but not on all of them. Some of the betting sites we mentioned are available outside of the UK.
How do I place a bet on these betting sites?
Once you find a market you like, click on the odds, and the bet will transfer to your bet slip, where you can enter the stake and place the bet.
Do I have to verify my identity and address to bet on the site?
Best Bookies Uk
Yes, you do. If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to withdraw any winnings you may accumulate.
Do I need to pay extra for any of the features, like live streaming?
No, you won’t. All features provided by bookmakers are free for their customers, including live streaming.
Can I get another bonus if I am already completing the wagering requirements for the welcome offer?
No, you can’t. You have to complete all requirements for the welcome bonus before you can get other bonuses.
What Bookies Should I Avoid?
We’re not going to compile a list of places you shouldn’t be wagering your money. What we will say though is that we recommend being smart when signing up, particularly if it’s a company you’ve not heard too much about. There are a number of different ways bookies can be licensed. All of them should have a licence number. If in doubt, check them out.
Who Offers the Best Cash Out on football?
This question is a little subjective. Our answer is Bet365. We’re comfortable with that answer too. Why? They offer full cash out (as do most), partial cash out and, the thing that sets them apart from everyone else, auto cash out meaning you can set a point where you’re happy to claim your winnings before things have even kicked off meaning you won’t need your phone at hand all day long. Happy days.
Who Offers the Best Football Odds?
Where the best odds in football betting are concerned there are a few ways you can look at things. No bookie offers the best odds on every single football betting market, although there are services out there that will allow you to find the bookies offering the greatest odds for each event. Where a stand out bookie is concerned though, it’s all about BetVictor. They’ve been found to offer the best odds across the Premier League for several years now. Given it’s the league that pulls in the most stakes in the UK market then what’s not to like?
New Bookies Worth Trying?
Football continues to grow at a rapid rate. Money pours into the game every second and, as a result, it’s a great avenue for others to take their slice be it as a bookmaker or a punter. Here we look at a couple of new football bookies that are worth trying out.
Mansion Bet – These guys have been tipped to compete with the biggest names in the sports betting industry over the next couple of years. Their site is super slick and a £20 free bet when you bet £10 is a welcome way to start.
STS Bet – STS has made waves on the continent for a little while and now they’re in the UK. You can get up to £40 in bets on sign up and adapting to their site is easy.
VBet – VBet come backed with a Premier League big boy in Arsenal, which immediately alleviates any concerns over how legitimate they might be. On top of that you get a risk free bet on sign up and a host of other ‘insurances’ on accumulators, correct score bets and then some.
Most Common Football Bets?
Best Online Bookie
If you’ve ever scrolled through the available options on a football match, it will not be a surprise to you that there are a ridiculous number of markets for you to wager on. Here we look at a few of the most common markets used by punters.
Match result – a match-result bet is simply wagering on what the outcome of a game will be i.e. home win, away win or draw. It’s the most popular bet in the UK football betting market.
Accumulator – an accumulator is where you combine four or more selections from different events. It allows for greater odds and is a staple of modern-day football betting.
College Football Bookie Picks
Correct score – A correct score bet is exactly what it sounds like. A punter tries to predict the score of a game.
Best Bookies For Football Players 2019
There you have it, the 10 best bookies for all your football needs with a few other gems of wisdom shared along the way. You should now be well equipped to make some smart sign up choices.