Since first going online in 2007, Betway have enjoyed a fast rise to the top and can now be regarded as one of the more familiar names in terms of established sportsbooks. They have done plenty to promote themselves via advertising and sponsorship but there is plenty of substance to back that all up.
So what exactly can you expect here and how do Betway meet their customers’ needs in terms of choice and value?
Available Sports
Firstly, the list of available sports here is a wide one with all of the popular options included together with some obscure niches and some novelty bets too. Here is that full list.
Football, Horse Racing, Tennis, Basketball, Cricket, Baseball, Golf, Boxing, UFC, MMA, Rugby League, Rugby Union, American Football, Volleyball, Cycling, Motor Sports, Gaelic Sports, Handball, Darts, Ice Hockey, Field Hockey, Pool, Snooker, Table Tennis, Winter Sports.
Added to this you can find a good set of eSports to meet with growing demand along with a selection from politics and reality TV shows. There may be bigger lists elsewhere but only the more obscure niche options are excluded.
Pricing
Best bookie with over a decade of experience, Betway are happily picked up by the main odds comparison sites where we can see that their prices are competitive in all of the core sports. They are frequently out on their own in terms of providing the biggest odds for certain football, horse racing and tennis markets but they are rarely, if ever, down the list.
Football side betting is a particularly strong area but there are no weak sectors here.
Promotions
Offers get underway with a quick and easy welcome bonus which can earn a matched deposit as a free bet. It requires a minimum credit of £10.00 to trigger it and at the top end of the scale you can claim up to £30.00.
Minimum odds for the qualifying bet are set at 3/4 for singles and 2/5 for multiples with the free bet token carrying a 7 day expiry date.
As an alternative, Betway will occasionally list an enhanced odds deal for new customers which could potentially give more value. These are quite rare however and if you don’t want to wait, there are regular price boosts for all customers to take advantage of.
Regular players are rewarded too with Betway’s free bet club which can issue a free bet token up to £10.00 every week when you stake at least £25.00 in qualifying multiples and there are regular offers geared up to the big sporting tournaments and other promos which rotate depending on the time of year and whether the football season is upon us.
Please check all terms and conditions but this is another really positive area of the Betway operation.
Banking and Customer Service
The fact that Betway have been able to include PayPal as one of their funding options is a real plus and is certain to get a lot more customers onside. Skrill, Neteller and PaySafeCard are also here so all of the main eWallet providers are covered.
You can, of course, fund your account using any of the main debit or credit cards if you prefer.
Help options are found at the very bottom of the home page and these include a live chat operator which is available on a 24 / 7 basis and will be the most popular of the options. If you prefer not to use this facility, the list of frequently asked questions at Betway is one of the easiest to follow but the contact button will also lead you an email address and phone number.
Every possible option is therefore covered and the customer service here has proved to be both fast and effective.
Betway Mobile Betting
Betway are one of the success stories of internet gaming and, having first come online in 2007, they have used the power of the world wide web to establish themselves and compete against the biggest and oldest brands on the market.
They do this by meeting all of your regular needs with excellent prices and a great choice of markets where those odds apply but innovation is just as important with this bookie. By moving with the changing times they stay competitive and that’s why they are one of the best operators around when it comes to betting in play.
Irrespective of whether you prefer to bet live or stake ante post, if you are serious about betting then you’ll need to go mobile. Part of Betway’s strength lies in their app and their dedicated mobile site so let’s see what this side of the operation has to offer.
Fast and Easy
When you download an app you need it to do two things: it needs to be quick to load and easy to navigate so that you can find your intended market quickly and place a bet in the shortest time possible. This is especially true for live betting where odds can change very quickly and you need to grab hold of the best prices while they are still live.
Betway meet both of these needs perfectly. Loading is quick and the first thing you’ll see here is the full list of sports with relevant icons. Those icons make your choice even easier to find and when you click on your chosen sport, a set of applicable markets will show up. Pick your preference and your betslip will fill the page, making it easy to check your bet and to confirm it once you are finally happy.
Offers
There are no separate promotions here for mobile users but you can take advantage of Betway’s standard welcome deal when you use your iPhone or Android. This was a generous matched deposit with up to £30.00 coming back as a free bet and there are plenty of ongoing deals here too.
Betway have a loyalty programme along with regular free bet offers for the life of any account. Anyone who wants to use mobile betting as an exclusive alternative to a laptop or static PC shouldn’t miss out on any deals and happily you can still enjoy all of the great promotions that Betway have to offer.
Independent
While it can sometimes be hard to find independent reviews, Betway are close to the 5 star mark on Trustpilot and that’s a company you can trust in this respect. Users have appreciated the fast loading on the app and its ease of use and while a common comment relates to a lack of a search bar, this isn’t a facility that many operators provide and the positive point here is that bets are very easy to find.
Overall, this is an app that more than meets all of the basic requirements that anyone needs when they look to bet on the go. Ease of use is important because we should be able to find the markets that we are interested in without wasting time. Odds, particularly those for the in play bets can change very quickly and for the same reason we need the app and the mobile site to load in a short space of time.
Those are qualities that Betway certainly have for their mobile operation so it pays to download the app and / or have the mobile site in easy reach via your iPhone or Android.
Free Bets from Betway
Betway have been trading online since 2007 and have recently made some very big breakthroughs. A strong advertising campaign and some very effective sports sponsorship have made them a much more recognisable brand in recent years and their customer base has undoubtedly grown as a result.
Beyond the familiar name, there is lots to enjoy as a Betway customer and from the very start of your account, the bookmaker will look to reward you with some free bets.
Getting Started
Betway’s opening offer for new customers is a matched deposit which comes back to you as a free bet token and it can earn up to a healthy £30.00 at its top level. The first step is to sign up for a new account and this is a very quick process, after which you will need to make your qualifying deposit.
Credit at least £10.00 at this point and note that the acceptable methods of deposit for this offer are debit / credit card or PayPal. When funds have cleared and this will usually be immediate, a first qualifying bet must be made under the following terms.
Bets must be placed at the equivalent of your deposit. Singles can be made as long as these carry odds of 3/4 or higher while multiple bets can also be made with each leg of the multi having a minimum price of 2/5.
A free bet token will then be issued that matches the amount of your stake and you then have 7 days in which to use this token before it expires.
Occasional Alternatives
Betway have also published the occasional offer that gives enhanced odds on a certain event. These are open to new customers only and any profits at the boosted figure will come back into a player’s account as free bet tokens.
Unlike other bookies, Betway are fairly quiet in this respect although these have appeared at the bigger sporting events such as the Cheltenham Festival and they may come around again in the future. If these sound like a better alternative to the generic welcome deal, then check the bookmaker’s website or keep following our news feeds for any updates.
Loyalty Inspired Free Bets
Betway are one of a number of bookmakers who have a ‘free bet club’: this is a form of loyalty programme which will issue free bet tokens on a regular basis as long as you meet certain staking requirements.
With the programme on offer from Betway, players must stake at least £25.00 on multi bets containing at least three selections. These must be placed in a 7 day period and when the threshold is hit, the operator will issue a free bet token worth £10.00. Bets must be staked on selections that carry minimum odds of 2/1 and when those tokens are issued, they will come back to the customer as two separate amounts of £5.00.
Changing Deals
Other free bet promos will vary depending on the time of year and the sporting events that are taking place. Over the course of the English summer of 2017, Betway got behind Rugby League in a big way with an offer that doubled your profits in the result market if your team were losing at half time and went on to win the match.
Under this deal, the maximum extra profit was set at a generous £50.00 and the additional returns would come back to the customer as free bet tokens.
A very similar promo was published for the Wimbledon Tennis championships of the same year with Betway paying double winnings in the result betting if your selection won having lost the first set. Once again, the extra profit came back as free bet tokens with the limit reduced this time to £25.00.
The best option is to log in to your Betway account on a regular basis and look for free bet promos or, you can check our news feeds for latest deals.
Above all, this is a very active operator for this type of offer so check all terms and conditions and get involved.
Conclusion
Betway really hit the mark for all of our basic requirements as sports bettors. There are great prices right through the list of sports and some decent price boosts to give us even more value. A generous, easy to use welcome offer is here too along with some regular deals for the life of your Betway account.
The list of sports could possibly be wider but all of the popular markets are here and, backed up by strong and fair support, this is a bookmaker that deserves its growing, positive reputation.