Bookmakers
If you look for the best tip for online betting, it is to bet only at the best online bookmakers. These are betting sites that have proven time and time again that they know what the modern punter wants, and always have a betting offer for the bet you want to place.
However, finding the top online bookies is easier said than done. There are tons of online bookmakers claiming to be the best ones, and finding the honest ones is quite a challenge. This is especially true if you are new to online betting.
That’s where we come in. At Betpack, we are dedicated to providing our readers with only the best and latest sports info. We love sports as much as you do and always try to be ahead of the curve with the news and sports pieces we give you.
But we don’t stop there. We also specialise in providing our faithful followers expert betting advice. And top of that list of top-tier betting advice is telling our readers which betting sites they should visit and which they should avoid.
Read on to find out what makes a top-quality online bookmaker, and where to find one. In this article, we listed all the crucial criteria you need to analyse to find your ideal sports betting partner and gave you a few tips and tricks of the betting trade along the way. Let’s start!
Finding the Best Online Bookmakers is Easy with Betpack
Experienced bettors know that if they want to keep the success rate of their bet slips high, they have to bet at the best online bookmakers. They are aware that placing bets at unreliable betting sites will backfire sooner or later, so they want to nip that possibility in the bud.
You will easily recognise top-notch betting sites. For starters, they always have a license from a reputable regulatory body, like the UK Gambling Commission or the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA).
In addition, they usually have the largest number of sports and betting markets on offer. These include leagues and competitions from popular sports, but also feature obscure events from distant corners of the globe.
Lastly, the best online sportsbooks always give you the best bonus offers with the fewest turnover requirements. Triggering these bonuses is as easy as you want it to be, and the bonus rewards are frequently higher than you had expected.
Reasons Why You Should Only Play at the Best Bookmakers
There are several reasons why you should always bet at the best betting sites. First of all, if you want to focus on compiling winning bet slips, you don’t want to be distracted. And an inferior sports betting site can give you your fair share of distractions.
A second-rate betting provider can block your account for no reason, can freeze your winnings without any explanation, and then disappear as instantly as it appeared. Needless to say, this will hurt the punter as he will have to worry about losing his funds, instead of focusing on the success of his bet slip.
Another reason why you should avoid unreliable bookies is the quality of the sports betting offer. Bookmakers with dubious credentials usually give you low odds on account for them working with high bookmakers’ margins. The punter is the one who loses in this scenario, so steering clear of these betting sites should be a priority.
Lastly, a subpar betting site never delivers on its promises, especially when it comes to bonus offers. Inferior betting sites always boast of having the best promos in the industry, but that’s seldom the case. Their bonus offers usually come loaded with wagering requirements, and unlocking them often proves to be a monumental or impossible task.
How Can You Recognise a Quality Betting Site?
Now that you know the pitfalls of playing at mediocre betting sites, it is time to find out how you can recognise a quality bookmaker. Finding a trusted and reliable sportsbook is paramount if you want to have a carefree betting experience at all times.
Here are some of the qualities that a top-tier betting provider should exhibit. If the bookmaker ticks all of the boxes we will list below, then it is a perfect option for your next sports bet.
License from a Reputable Regulator
The online bookmaker that you choose should have a license from a reputable regulatory body. When we say reputable, we mean trustworthy gambling authorities that always uphold the rule of law. These include names, such as the UK Gambling Commission, the MGA, the Swedish Gambling Authority, and so on.
Whether you are looking for online bookmakers in the UK or betting sites that operate in other parts of the world, a license is always a nice assurance that things will go well for you.
A valid license from a reputable regulator guarantees that the betting site is a legitimate one, and will give you some much-needed peace of mind when betting.
The Best Bookmakers are Safe and Secure
The biggest fear that new punters have when it comes to betting online is how secure their deposits are. This concern turns them off from placing bets online and stops them from making the most of their online betting experience. And we have to say that these fears are justified, but only if you are playing at dubious online bookies.
If you are playing at reputable online betting providers, you have nothing to worry about. At Betpack, we have seen our fair share of betting sites and can tell you, for a fact, the security levels that the best online bookies utilise are very high.
The best betting sites have the latest security certificates and use data encryption technology to make sure that your private information, stays just that, private.
Moreover, the encryption technology that top online betting providers use scrambles all sensitive financial data that you enter while on the site. As a result, people who like to get their hands on your payment info have no chance to do that.
To check the type of security that online bookmakers use, click on the padlock symbol in your browser. There, you will be able to see the security certificates the betting site has, as well as the level of encryption it uses.
Excellent Selection of Sports and Extensive List of Betting Markets
The best betting providers always have the largest selection of sports, as well as the most bet types. This is what differentiates them from inferior betting sites and is what most punters are looking for when choosing a bookmaker.
Sure, the gambling license, security certificates, and customer support online bookies have are important, but nothing is as exciting as a top-quality sports betting offer.
As Many as Forty Different Sports to Choose From
The best betting sites give you more than twenty or thirty sports to bet on. These include popular sports such as football, cricket, boxing, basketball, and horse racing.
However, they also include obscure sports that some players don’t even know they exist. Sports such as bandy, curling, table tennis, snooker, and darts are also part of the betting offer top bookmakers have.
As a rule of thumb, if you see that a sports betting provider doesn’t have these lesser-known sports, then it’s probably not a very good betting site.
Hundreds of Bet Types
In addition to that large number of sports on offer, top-rated bookmakers allow punters to bet on hundreds of different betting markets.
A single English Premier League football match can come with as many as 600 different betting propositions. And that’s just the pregame bets.
Factor in the hundreds of live bets that bookmakers offer, and you start to see how voluminous the sports betting offer at the best online bookies is these days.
Great Customer Service
You can gauge the quality of online bookmakers by looking at the customer service they have. An excellent sports betting site always have round-the-clock customer support, and you should be able to reach the service via several communication channels.
The ability to talk to help-desk staff at any time of day is crucial when it comes to having an excellent online betting experience. UK punters who bet on South American football competitions know how terrible it is to experience a problem in the middle of the night and have no one to fix it for you. At the best betting providers, this is never a case as there is always someone on the other side of the chat or line.
Similarly, you want to be able to reach customer service seconds after you have experienced your problem. It can sometimes take ages to get an answer via email, so it’s much better if the bookmaker also enables live chat as an option. If the betting site also allows you to phone the service 24/7 or gives you access to a comprehensive FAQ section that’s even better.
Variety of Payment Methods
One last thing that players need to check before they start placing sports bets is the number of payment methods a bookie offers. The rule here is – the more varied the payment methods, the better your betting experience will be.
Ideally, you want to bet at bookmakers that let you deposit and withdraw using credit and debit cards, e-wallets, prepaid cards, bank transfers, cryptocurrency, and so on.
You also want to check the deposit and withdrawal limits that all of these banking options have. If the bet limits are flexible enough to make it easy for both budget players and high-rollers to bet on sports, that’s a good betting site in our books.
A Superior Betting Experience at New Online Bookmakers
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of new online bookmakers? You will probably say fresh and full of new ideas. Well, you are right, particularly if you are referring to the best new online betting sites that are getting rave reviews from our experts here at Betpack.
New online bookmakers haven’t been around for a very long time, but that doesn’t mean that you should judge them only by how long they have been operating. Instead, players should evaluate new online bookmakers on the betting offer they have and the markets they boast.
When you start looking at those things, you see that new online bookmakers have tons of sports to choose from and even more betting markets.
New betting sites try hard to compete with the existing players in the betting industry. As such, they always aim to improve the betting offer that their competitors have.
At Betpack, we have an extensive list of new online bookmakers. We analyse and review these bookmakers all the time, and tell you which ones you should pick and which ones you should avoid.
How do we decide that? Well, we examine every aspect of bookmakers and list them accordingly. Let’s look at some of them you should consider when choosing a new online bookmaker.
Check the Odds
The first thing that you should do when choosing new online bookies is to see the odds they give you. This is an excellent litmus test that will instantly tell you whether you are dealing with a bookie that cares about you or one that wants to exploit you.
If a bookmaker gives you higher odds than other betting websites, that’s a great sign. It means that the bookmaker is working with smaller margins than the competition. That, in turn, means players get higher odds.
To see whether a new online bookmaker works with lower or higher house edges than the competition, do this simple test.
Choose an equal chance betting market such as the point spread one and see the odds the bookmaker gives for the home and away team.
For example, in an LA Lakers (-7.5) – NY Knicks (+7.5) point spread market, one new bookmaker might give the LA Lakers and the NY Knicks the same odds of 10/11 (1.91 decimal odds) to win.
If other bookmakers give lower odds for the same game and market than that new bookmaker, ignore them and go with the first bookmaker. This means the bookmaker works with smaller margins than competitors, and that is beneficial for you as you get higher odds.
Ideally, you want to play at bookmakers that work with a house edge between 1.5% to 3%. If a bookmaker applies higher margins, then it should have lots of bonuses and betting offers to compensate for the low odds it gives you.
Consider the Bets You Can Place
In the past, players could only bet on the match winner market and not much else. However, as the betting industry evolved, new bet types started becoming options for players too.
Back then, the new bookmakers were the ones that were driving the change, and it is similar these days too. New bookmakers bring a lot of fresh energy to the betting scene, but they also introduce lots of new bet types that players can use.
Sports markets such as goal/point totals, point spread options, betting lines, correct score propositions are all part of the betting offer that new online bookmakers have.
In addition to these sports bets, top-notch new bookmakers offer niche bet types such as the goals or points a player will score, the number of corner kicks in a football match, or which team will win the coin toss in a cricket match.
You want to find a bookmaker that has any sports market that you can think of when complying your bet slip. For instance, if you are betting on the winner of the Champions League before the competition has started, you want football bookmakers that offer CL futures bets. If you find betting sites that have these outright bets, you have found what you need.
Does the Bookmaker Have a Betting App?
The last thing to check before you choose a new betting provider is whether it has a decent app. Almost all bookmakers these days have betting apps, but only the best ones have excellent mobile betting options.
But what makes a betting app great? Well, there are several qualities that a top-tier betting app exhibits. These include but not limited to things such as:
- Easy to navigate and place bets;
- Live betting and live streaming options;
- Variety of mobile bonuses;
- Easy to reach customer service;
- Deposit and withdrawal money.
You can find some of these features only at the best betting apps. For instance, there aren’t many mobile betting solutions that let you watch games using the live streaming option, which could be a significant drawback for the ones in favour of watching the teams they backed any time.
The Most Comprehensive List of Bookmakers Online
Experienced betting enthusiasts know that placing a winning bet is only half the job. The other half is finding a reliable and trustworthy bookmaker. To help our fellow bettors with the search, we have created a comprehensive list of bookmakers that you should visit. These are betting sites that have passed all our tests with flying colours and have topped any bookmaker ranking we have compiled.
When you bet with the help of these bookmakers, you can expect to get the best odds, the most enticing bonuses, and the largest selection of sports and bet types out there.
Moreover, all of these bookmakers have a proven track record when it comes to offering top-notch sports wagering service. They are all licensed by reputable regulatory bodies, such as the UK Gambling Commission, and conduct all of their operations guided by the book of the law.
They never even think of freezing your betting funds or closing your betting account if they don’t have a good reason for that. Plus, they process the withdrawal request you make instantly, and will also guarantee the safety of your deposits.
Lastly, the best bookmakers for sports betting that we have reviewed here all have decent betting apps. These make placing bets easy but also come with tons of other features that can improve the betting experience as a whole. Live streaming options and mobile-friendly bonuses are just some of the features that can take your betting to a new level.
Get More From Your Bets By Using the Best Online Bookmaker Promotions
Betting on sports is much more exciting if you do it with the help of the best online bookmaker promotions. Online bookies have various bonuses and promos that players can use to double the excitement of their sports bets.
The most popular promotions that bookmakers offer to their players include new customer offers, free bet promos, reload bonuses, cashback offers, and unique offers like birthday bonuses. All of these promotions can make betting on sports twice as exciting as they give you extra bet credits that you can use on your next sportsbook bet.
Therefore, instead of only betting with the funds you deposited, when you activate a welcome bonus, you can also wager with the bet credits that the bookmaker has given you. This means that you can double the chances of having a winning bet without doubling your bet stakes or increasing your deposit. However, you must always keep an eye on the wagering requirements while opting for these bonuses.
Let’s look at the most popular online bookmaker promotions and how you can use them to your advantage.
Sports Betting Welcome Offers
Welcome bonuses are the most enticing of all bookmaker promos. Online bookies create these promotions to reward new customers, so they always try to impress by coming out with lucrative betting offers.
But how do these offers for new customers work? Here are two different welcome promos that we found online that can help us explain new client bonuses and how you can make the most of them:
- New Customer Offer: Get Up to £100 in Bet Credits (Min Deposit £10, Qualifying Bet – Min Odds 1/2, New Customers Only, T&Cs Apply, 18+);
- 100% Match Bonus Up to £500 (Min Deposit £10, Qualifying Bet – Min Odds 2/5, New Customers Only, T&Cs Apply, 18+).
In most cases, bookmakers will match your deposit up to a given amount when rewarding you with a welcome bonus. For instance, in the first bonus, the bookmaker pledges to give you up to £100 of its bet credits for new customers. Similarly, in the second promo, the bookmaker promises to match any deposit new customers make up to £500.
However, for that to happen, you will also have to meet the terms and conditions of the bonus. This usually means making a minimum deposit, placing a qualifying bet, and meeting the minimum odds requirement.
For example, in the first bonus, you must make a minimum deposit of £10 and bet at minimum odds of 1/2, among other things. Similarly, in the second promo, players have to make a deposit of £10 and bet at odds of 2/5 or higher to activate the new customer offer.
Enticing Free Bet Promos
There aren’t many betting offers that come close to how enticing welcome bonuses are, but free bet promos come quite close to that. Bookmakers give free bet offers to both new and existing customers. As such, they are an appealing proposition that can help players make all those risky bets they wanted to make but didn’t want to risk their bet stakes in the process.
Let’s look at several free bet offers and see how they work:
- Bet £10 Get £20 in Free Bets (Min Deposit £10, Qualifying Bet – Min Odds 1/4, Free Bets Expire After 7 Days, T&Cs Apply, 18+);
- Bet £10 Get £30 in Free Bets (Min Deposit £10, Qualifying Bet – Min Odds 1/4, Free Bets Expire After 7 Days, T&Cs Apply, 18+);
- Get £10 Free Bet When You Place 5 Bets of £10 (Min Deposit £10, Qualifying Bet – Min Odds 1/2, Free Bet Expires After 14 Days, T&Cs Apply, 18+).
As you can see, all of these promos reward customers with free bet credits after they have met the bonus terms and conditions. In the first and second examples, the player will get £20 and £30 in free bets respectively.
However, for that to happen, the player also needs to meet the minimum deposit and odds requirements, as well as the other provisions listed in the T&Cs.
In the third bonus, though, the player can get a £10 free bet, but only after making five qualifying sports bets of £10 each. For instance, if the player made a £10 accumulator bet and 4x £10 single bets with minimum odds of 1/2, he qualifies for this free bet promo.
Conclusion
People who have been betting for a long time know that choosing the right online bookmaker is crucial. A top-notch bookmaker can pave the way for an excellent betting adventure and facilitate a successful wagering experience. It can give you all the bonuses that you have ever dreamed of, as well as serve you the highest odds and the most bet types.
In contrast, a second-rate betting site gives you none of those things and may throw in a couple of headaches for good measure. And we are sure you don’t want that to happen.
These mediocre bookmakers may sometimes block withdrawal requests or go back on a bonus promise for no particular reason. As such, all self-respecting punters should avoid inferior betting sites. But how can you recognise a decent bookmaker from an inferior one?
At Betpack, it is our goal to help you with this. We rank and review bookmakers for a living, and know all the ins and outs of the trade. In other words, we tell you which betting sites have the best betting offers and highest odds and which ones you should avoid.
Our experts teach you how to recognise an excellent betting site and where you can find one. The Betpack list of bookmakers features betting sites that have cleared all hurdles we have thrown at them, and have passed all our tests with flying colours.
So, instead of spending hours browsing the Internet for reliable and trustworthy bookmakers, why not go with the betting sites we have recommended in our reviews? You can register any of them, grab a lucrative bonus, and have an immersive betting experience at the top-rate bookies at Betpack.com.
FAQ
1. Which is the best online bookmaker?
– The best online bookmakers have several things in common. First, they all have a valid license from a reputable gambling regulator such as the UK Gambling Commission. Secondly, they have the best sports betting offer and boast betting events from all sports. Lastly, they have a wide range of bonus offers and promotions.
2. What are the best online bookmakers for football?
– The best football bookmakers are the ones that always let you bet on a variety of football leagues and competitions such as the English Premier League and the UCL. They also boast lots of betting markets both in the pregame and live betting sections.
3. What is the best online betting app?
– The best online betting app lets you place bets instantly and navigate smoothly. Also, the best betting app allow you to bet both on pregame and live events, as well as activate all bookmaker bonuses.
4. What is the best online betting site for horse racing?
– The best online bookmaker for horse racing has a variety of horse racing events, as well as tons of betting markets. These markets should include regular horse racing propositions such as straight bets, but also horizontal and vertical exotic wagers such as Daily Double, Exacta, Trifecta, and so on.