Best Online Betting Sites

Everything You Need to Know About Sports Betting

Online betting can be incredibly rewarding, whether you’re engaged in sports betting, or you’re betting on esports, or even wagering on games of chance within an online casino. There’s tremendous potential for winning big, but there’s also the pure enjoyment of the betting process itself, as well as the ability to enjoy the sports and games you’re wagering on.

With all that being said, you do need to follow some important tips to ensure that you make the most of your experience. We’ve organised these tips into three different sections below: tips for choosing the right online betting site, tips for staying safe while betting online, and strategy tips to help improve the odds of you winning.

Choosing the Right Online Betting Site

Online betting through sports betting websites in the UK has grown increasingly popular with gamblers in the UK. It offers the chance to bet on almost any sport you might want, from conventional options like football matches, to less familiar ways to wager, such as betting on cycling races. However, you do need to ensure that you’re using the right online betting site in the UK – there are quite a few things that go into making a gambling site worth your time and money.

UK Licensed: One of the most important considerations for anyone in the United Kingdom is to ensure that the best online betting sites you’re using are UK licensed. If they are not licensed, you should avoid them completely. Licensure is about more than just paying the Gambling Commission for the right to operate. It ensures that the gambling site complies with UK legal requirements, and that they do what’s necessary to protect their customers’ information from thieves, and to prevent criminals from using the site.

Access to UK and US Sports: While the range of sports and games to which you have access through the best online betting sites is important, you should also make sure that you have access to both UK and US sports matches. For instance, you might want to place a wager on a UK football match, and an American football game. You might want to wager on cricket and baseball, or any number of other combinations. Being able to wager on UK-specific sports, as well as games form across the Pond adds another dimension to your experience and gives you yet more options to win big.

Established: How long has the betting site been in operation? When was the sports betting company established, and what has its operating record been like? Has the firm been censured by the Gambling Commission for errors, omissions or other problems? Has the site been charged with fraud, or had their operating license suspended or revoked? It’s vital that you use a gambling site that has an established history of operation, and that as a provable record of positive operating within the bounds of UK gambling rules.

Positive Reputation: Give the gambling site’s reputation a look. What are other customers saying about their experience? Is the site known for its fairness and balance, with only a slight house edge on games? Does the site have a reputation for being biased, with the house having a much higher edge than it should really have? Make sure that you only play on betting sites that have positive reputations.

Types of Sports: As mentioned previously, you want access to both UK and US sports, but you should give thought to the types of sports offered, too. You’ll find that some betting sites allow you to gamble on “just the basics” – the most common sports for wagering. However, there are far, far more types of sports than just football, cricket, American football and baseball. Consider cycling, tennis, ice hockey, badminton, bowls, Formula 1, dog and horse racing, handball, and any number of other sports. Make sure the site you choose gives you access to a wide range of sports types.

Signup Offers/New Customer Offers: Online gambling is quite competitive, and betting sites need to do all they can to attract and retain new customers. They do this in the form of signup offers, or new customer offers. Compare the amount being offered by the best online betting sites you’re considering. In addition to the amount offered, check if there are any rules on how that money can be used, when it can be withdrawn, or if it can be withdrawn at all.

Customer Support: Finally, make sure that any new betting sites you consider offer robust customer support. You should be able to communicate directly with the company if there is a problem. Look for technical assistance when there is a problem with the website or your account, but you should also look for customer assistance capabilities to answer other questions. A reputable site should offer online chat, email support, support ticketing, and even live phone support.

Safety Tips for Online Betting

While choosing the right online betting venue is crucial, it’s not as simple as just choosing the first site that looks promising and has a good reputation combined with a decent selection of sports. You need to make sure that you’re staying safe while enjoying the betting sites you patronise.

Encryption: Any best online betting sites you consider using should utilise robust encryption. This protects your personal and financial information within the website, and helps prevent hackers from stealing that information. Look for https: in the address bar of your browser when you load the site. The “s” indicates that the site is secure. If you see http: only, then the site is not secure and you should find another place to gamble.

UK Licensed: Again, licensing is important. Make sure that any betting site you choose is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. Licensing is an indication that the company behind the gambling website is on the up and up, and that they follow industry-best practices, while adhering to legal standards. If you have questions about a site’s licensure, you can check with the Gambling Commission to verify that the license is in fact current and has not been revoked or suspended.

Segregation of Funds: Segregation of funds is a phrase that means the gambling site you use keeps your money separate from their own operating funds. This is important if the site were to go out of business – to make sure that you are able to get your money back. By UK law, all licensed gambling sites must keep their customers funds separate from their operating funds.

Dispute Management: Make sure that you have access to a dispute management system through the gambling site. Disputes can arise in any number of instances – between you and the website operator, between you and another user, and in other ways. UK law requires that all licensed gambling sites have a dispute management system in place to help customers find an equitable solution to problems that they might face. Before you use any particular online betting site, make sure that you not only know how to access the dispute management system, but how it works. This information should be found in the company’s terms of service.

Don’t Drink and Gamble: Online betting safety revolves around choosing a reputable gambling site, but you have personal responsibility here, as well. One of the most important personal safety tips is to avoid drinking and gambling. Enjoy your tipple of choice and gambling – just don’t mix them. It makes it too easy to make poor choices in wagers, to wager too much money, or to fail to quit while ahead, all of which can ruin your enjoyment and lead to serious problems.

Set Limits: One of the most important safety tips for online betting of any sort is to set limits. Give yourself a specific amount of money, and do not exceed that. Gambling with the winnings from that amount is fine, but do not allow yourself to exceed the amount you initially allotted for gambling if the funds are coming out of your personal bank account or being charged to a credit card. It’s also important not to chase losses. “One more wager” is not likely to pay for what you’ve lost. It’s best to cut your losses for the session and try again another time.

Don’t Gamble with Money You Cannot Live Without: With any type of betting, it is absolutely crucial that you only wager with money that you can afford to throw away. While there is always the chance that you’ll win, and possibly win big, there’s a much better chance that you’re going to lose. In that case, the money you started with will evaporate. If you needed that money to pay your bills, to buy groceries, to keep the electric company happy, or for other personal, real-life uses, don’t use it for gambling. If you cannot afford to throw the money away, don’t gamble with it.

Don’t Bet for Any Reason Other Than Fun: Everyone needs to blow off some steam every now and then. Perhaps you’ve had a rough week at work. Maybe you want to celebrate a milestone. Perhaps your relationship is on the rocks. Whatever the case, you need to avoid doing it in relation to gambling. Never bet for any other reason than fun. This includes when you’re angry, sad, depressed, excited and celebrating and more. Gambling is a fun pastime, but it can become a problem when used as a coping mechanism. If you are gambling in an attempt to cope with challenges in your life, it is recommended that you seek treatment from a licensed provider.

Strategy Tips for Online Betting

Now that we’ve touched on issues like finding the right online betting site, ensuring that you’re working with a reputable, licensed company, and that safety issues have been addressed, it’s time to turn our attention to strategy-related tips. While there is always a significant element of chance in online betting, there are ways that you can even the odds, or even turn them in your favour. In this section, we’ll touch on what you need to know in order to develop a strong strategy and increase the chances that you’ll win big.

Know the Rules: Most online sports betting activities are relatively straightforward, but there are rules to all types of wagers, and with some of the more complex types of wagers, those rules can be a little hard to understand. Make sure that you know exactly what you’re betting, how the wager works, and more. Knowing the rules will help ensure that you know what you’re getting into, and improve the chances that you’ll make an informed wager, as opposed to randomly betting and losing. In addition to knowing the rules that apply to each type of wager you might make, you should also take the time needed to learn the lingo. Sports betting has a language all its own, and you’ll need to be familiar with these terms in order to make informed wagers.

Know the House Edge: To be clear, all games of chance have some amount of house edge. The term means nothing more than the fact that chances are better for the house to win than for you to win. While the house edge is lower with sports betting than with actual games of chance like poker or blackjack, it is still present. Make sure you know what the house edge is for each bet you place, and that you lean towards bets with the lowest house edge possible, as this makes the odds a bit more even.

Set Achievable Goals: Never go into online betting without a clear goal of what you want to achieve. The clearer and more specific you are with your goal setting, the easier it will be to tell when you’ve reached the point that you need to quit, whether that’s because you’ve bet too much and lost, or because you’ve reached your goal and are ahead.

Quit While You’re Ahead: With any type of gambling, including online sports betting, it’s important to know when to take a step back. Setting achievable goals and setting a spending limit will help with this. However, what if you’re ahead of the game? What if you have not only avoided losing, but are actually making money? It’s a good idea to take your money out of play at some point. This is particularly true if you want to make a profit at sports betting, rather than just breaking even. Realise that if you want to win and keep what you’ve won, you need to call it quits while you’re ahead.

Use Bonuses to Your Advantage: As mentioned, online gambling is incredibly competitive, and the best online betting sites must do what they can to attract new customers. They do this in the form of incentives, which really just add up to free cash for you to use. Make sure you’re collecting and using these incentives to your advantage. In many cases, you’ll find that you need to invest very little of your own money – use loyalty bonuses, referral bonuses, deposit bonuses, welcome and signup bonuses, and more. They all add up to free cash for you.

Use Free Play Games to Hone Your Skills: Finally, you’ll find that many betting sites allow you to place “free” wagers. These work just the same as bets where real money is used, but instead of cash, you wager and win (or lose) points, instead. It’s a bit like the concept of free slots or free blackjack games, but focuses on sports, instead. Use these opportunities to learn the ropes and develop a winning strategy so that when you do start using real money, you have a better chance of winning. Hone your skills, build your knowledge, and get familiar with new sports, or more complex betting strategies.

Conclusion

Ultimately, online betting can be an incredibly enjoyable experience. However, it’s not as simple as creating an account with the first sports betting site you find online. You need to do your due diligence and make sure the site is on the up and up, first. You also need to ensure that you are able to use the site safely, and that you are in the right mental and emotional state for gambling in the first place. Finally, you need to use important strategy tips to help even the playing field and increase the odds that you’ll win more often than you lose.

Create a strategy for your betting that includes a set amount of money (and time). Choose your bets wisely, and avoid complex wager types until you understand the rules. Once you have reached your cash loss limit or spent your allotted amount of time gambling, opt out. Avoid the temptation to chase losses – you’ll usually only compound the problem and lose money you cannot afford.

In the end, the most important tip is this – have fun. If you’re not having fun, then it’s a wise choice to find something else to do.

How to Find Betting Sites with Free Bets

Sport, games, and competition have always been integral parts of human civilisation and society. Throughout history, countless examples show how much we enjoy devising games to play, engaging in them with other people or spectating as the most skilled and experienced players put their talents to the test. Similarly, for almost as long as sports have been around, sport betting has also been hugely popular.

Whether you’re a fan of football gearing up for the next Premier League season or a hardcore golf fan looking ahead and trying to predict the winner of the next major tournament, the sports betting world is filled with exciting options. There are many different betting sites and online bookies out there to choose from, all offering countless betting markets across an ever-expanding myriad of different sports from around the globe.

While past gamblers had to actually visit brick and mortar betting shops to place their wagers, modern day sports betting is easier than ever, thanks to the incredible number of websites and betting apps. And since there are so many different betting options online right now, many of them have to devise new ways to draw in additional players. One of their most popular methods is by offering free bet offers.

How Does Free Sports Betting Work

Many of the best online bookmakers provide free bet offers for their users, including sign up offers that reward new users for making their accounts and welcome them in with some free bets or free cash, and other promos and bonuses that are available for loyal, long term users too. The premise behind these free bets UK offers is always the same: the betting sites need to find ways to attract players and keep them using their sites, rather than betting elsewhere.

It’s a win-win situation for the betting companies and the gamblers themselves. The companies get you signing up and using their sites, while you get some free cash or free bets to potentially win big money on upcoming sporting events and tournaments in your favourite sports. For this reason, it’s always important for shrewd punters to keep an eye on the latest deals and stay aware of any new bonuses from betting sites with free bets. The more you know about these bonuses, the less likely you are to miss out.

It’s also important to note that each and every free bet offer is different, even if they tend to follow the same basic rules. Different sites will have their own policies, terms, and conditions in place, so it’s always wise to read through the details of each offer and understand exactly how it works before taking advantage of it. Some of the best online betting sites will make their free bets easy to use and understand, but others might have some complicated aspects you need to be aware of.

Are Free Betting Sites Legitimate?

Many people worry when they see tempting promotional offers promising free bets and free cash to use on sports betting platforms. They worry that these offers are simply too good to be true and can’t possibly be legitimate, but the truth is that in the vast majority of cases, these offers are perfectly fair and really do work. As stated earlier, the online bookies need to provide these kinds of offers to attract new users, so it makes sense for them to provide legitimate, functional offers that can help you enjoy positive betting experiences.

However, do remember that in order to find legitimate risk-free betting, you need to sign up on legitimate sites. There are plenty of low-quality sites out there which don’t have licenses or player protection systems in place, so it’s always wise to consult reviews and recommendations. You can check out our list of recommended sports betting sites to find the best places to bet on your favourite games without having to worry about any security issues or other problems.

Is Risk Free Betting A Reality?

Once again, it might sound too good to be true, but with free bets, the concept of risk-free betting can become a genuine reality for you. Of course, the very nature of betting is that there’s always a risk, as you usually have to put up some of your own money and risk potentially losing it if your chosen bet or prediction doesn’t actually come through. However, with free bets and free cash, you’re not actually using your own money, so there’s no real risk of personal loss to you.

The only thing you stand to lose with the best free betting sites is your free bet, which doesn’t really impact you in any way. This is one of the biggest advantages of free bet offers, letting you place wagers in a stress-free way. If they come through, you win some cash. If not, you lose nothing. However, not every single offer can really be considered to be ‘risk free’.

This is because there are some free bet offers that involve a bit of risk on your part. For example, some UK betting sites will ask you to make a deposit or even place one or more bets before actually accessing your free cash or unlocking your free bets. This means you have to make an initial risk in order to get access to the free bonus. Again, this is just one more reason why it always pays off to read the details, terms, and conditions of every offer and know what you’re getting into each time.

How Do I Find the Best Betting Sites That Offer Free Bets

Clearly, free bets and free cash offers from online bookies are well worth making the most of. They can drastically enhance your betting enjoyment, letting you place bets with no strings attached and at no risk to your own personal finances. And with so many different sites out there offering increasingly attractive free bet offers, there’s certainly no shortage of awesome deals to take advantage of.

But how do you go about finding the best betting sites that can give you free bets and free cash? The first step is to take your time and do your research. The last thing you want to do is sign up for an unlicensed or unsafe site. To start off, read reviews and recommendations to learn more about the top betting sites out there and consult our pages of the best betting offers and free bets to quickly and easily find lists of awesome offers you can enjoy today.

We review many different betting sites, gauging their quality based on various factors like security, customer service, ease of use, odds, range of betting markets, payment methods, withdrawal speeds, and more. We only link to trusted, recommended sites and always take the time to ensure that the betting sites we share are of the highest quality and can help you enjoy fun betting in sports like football, horse racing, rugby, and more.

What Kinds of Free Bet Offers Can I Use?

There are various kinds of free bet offers out there to try out. Some of them are just for new users, while others are available for long term users too. Some of them are as simple as a £1 free bet on a high-profile sporting match, while others can give you hundreds of pounds in free cash to bet with. Here are some examples of the different categories:

• Sign Up Offers – One of the most common forms of special offer we see from online betting sites nowadays is the sign-up offer or welcome bonus. The best free bets sign up offers can provide new users of a site with plenty of free cash to spend on their bets, but the specifics of these offers can vary quite a lot, depending on the site you sign up with. Either way, these deals are exclusively available for new users, so if you already have an account with the site in question, you won’t be able to take advantage of them.
• Deposit Match – A deposit match free cash offer is another common form of betting site bonus. As the name implies, a deposit match is when the betting company will match the value of your deposit, giving you the same amount (or sometimes even double or triple the amount) in additional bonus cash to use for betting. It’s basically free betting money, but you often don’t get access to all of it right away and will need to place bets and gradually unlock access to this cash over time.
• Free Bets – Sometimes, betting sites will just give you free bets. Again, the rules of this can vary a lot. In some cases, an online bookie might need you to make a deposit or even place a bet of a set amount in order to be rewarded with a free bet. In other cases, the free bet will just automatically appear in your account (this is usually referred to as a no deposit free bet). Sometimes, the free bet may only be applicable for a certain event. For example, to celebrate a big football match like the Champions League final, a betting site might give its users a free bet on that particular game.
• Free Cash – As detailed in the ‘deposit match’ section, a free cash offer is one in which the betting site gives you free or bonus money to use on your future bets. Often, this money is held separately from the rest of your balance and can slowly be accessed in small chunks over time. You cannot simply withdraw free cash from betting site offers, as it needs to be used in bets first before basically ‘transforming’ into regular cash that can be withdrawn to your bank account.

Make the Most of Your Free Bets with These Top Tips

Free bets in all of their forms can change the game for online gamblers, giving you more opportunities to win big and put your sporting knowledge to the test, so it’s always worth grabbing these bonuses while you can and using as many as possible to give yourself the biggest chance of betting success. The following top tips can help you really get the best value from your free bets:

• Read the Details – As stated several times, one of the most important aspects when it comes to free bets is reading all the information carefully to learn fully about each free bet offer. By knowing how the offer works, you’ll be in the best possible position to decide whether or not you want to pursue it and how to activate it, i.e. by entering a special promo code or making a deposit into your account.
• Sign Up for More Than One Site – There’s no reason to limit your online betting to just one site. Many of the best sites offer welcome bonuses, and you can sign up for all of them and take advantage of those different sign up offers. Even if you just use the free bets and then deactivate your account, it’s still worth signing up and making the most of the offer while you can.
• Compare Odds – Even with free bets, it’s vital to seek value everywhere you can. If you’ve got accounts on multiple sites and free cash to use, don’t just place bets without taking the time to compare things first. You might find that the odds on one match or event are better on a different site, so it’s worth checking out a quick comparison in order to help your free cash go the distance.
• Treat Free Cash with Care – Many online gamblers fall into the common trap of using their free bets carelessly. With risk-free betting, you can often feel like there’s no need to be cautious or careful in the bets you place, so you can happily risk it all on a multiple or something unlikely to happen. However, free bets can still potentially win you a lot of cash if used carefully, so it’s wise to treat them just like you would your own money.