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Sports & Betting Markets
Betfair currently offer odds on events for 33 different sports which gives customers a huge choice for their bets. Everything from Football, Tennis, Horse Racing and Basketball is available and even betting on Surfing, Floorball, Chess and Politics.
A list of sports available to bet on at Betfair is below.
- American Football
- Australian Rules
- Badminton
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Boxing
- Chess
- Cricket
- Current Affairs
- Cycling
- Darts
|
- Esports
- Floorball
- Football
- Gaelic Games
- Golf
- Greyhound Racing
- Handball
- Horse Racing
- Ice Hockey
- Mixed Martial Arts
- MotorSport
|
- Politics
- Rugby League
- Rugby Union
- Snooker
- Special Bets
- Surfing
- Table Tennis
- Tennis
- Triathlon
- Volleyball
- Winter Sports
|
The number of betting markets at Betfair is also impressive. This is especially true for popular events such as Premier League football matches and events in major tournaments and leagues.
For football matches, you’ll find common betting markets such as the match-winner, correct score, BTTS, Over/Under markets and HT/FT. You’ll also find a range of additional markets such as time interval bets, correct score combination bets and penalty markets.
Horse Racing
Many use Betfair Exchange for backing and laying horse racing bets but Betfair Sportsbook is also a popular choice. As well as covering a huge range of UK and International races, Betfair provide a number of horse racing betting offers. These include ‘Bet & Get’ offers as well as a number of daily price boosts. If you visit the horse racing section of the Betfair website, you’ll find the ‘OddsBoost’ list in the right hand column. Some of the boosts are very generous and worth checking to see if the odds of the horse you wish to back has been boosted.
Are Lucky 15 Bets Accepted? | |
Do They Pay First Past The Post? | |
Do They Offer Scoop6? | |
Is Best Odds Guaranteed Available? | |
Betfair Greyhounds
Betfair is one of the go-to bookies for greyhound punters with them covering races from tracks in and around the UK & Ireland. Betfair greyhound odds are excellent and many use the Betfair Exchange for their bets on the dogs. However, if you do, be aware that greyhound odds can move fast on the exchange and fluctuate by quite a margin. However, this can provide an opportunity for value if you get your bet on at the right time.
Betfair also provide greyhound live streams for all races that they cover which are available through both the website and the Betfair apps.
Betfair Commentary
Betfair provides live commentary for both horse racing and greyhounds along with the latest general sports news. Betfair Radio is also referred to as ‘Timeform Radio’ and is free to all users and accessible via a live stream.
To access any of the live radio streams, simply head to the Betfair website and you’ll find the Radio link on the Horse Racing and Greyhound pages.
All radio commentaries can be streamed directly through your browser and also on iOS and Android mobile devices.
Each Way Edge
One unique feature on Betfair is ‘Each Way Edge’. Each Way Edge allows you to alter the place terms of your each way bet. You can add additional places which will decrease the price or reduce the number of places for a bigger price. You can use Each Way Edge on horse racing singles for a number of UK and Irish races. If a bet is eligble for Each Way Edge, you’ll see the Each Way Edge drop-down on your bet slip after adding your selection and checking the ‘Each Way’ box. From here, you can add or remove the number of places which will in turn increase or decrease the odds.
Betfair Bet Builder
Bet Builders are a popular bet type with Betfair customers as they allow punters to create a bet containing multiple selections from different markets, all on the same sporting event. Customers can combine selections from markets such as Match Result, Goalscorer, Player to be carded, Shots on Target, Number of corners and more and be offered odds for all selections together.
Betfair Bet Builders are most commonly used on football but can also be used on other sports such as American Football, Baseball and Basketball.
You’ll find the Bet Builder options available when you click through to any eligible sporting event either via the Betfair Sportsbook website or app.
Another nice feature on Betfair Sportsbook is their ‘Football Jackpots’ section. Although the name is ‘Football Jackpots’, you can also bet on horse racing and other sports here. It differs from standard sportsbook bets as this is pool betting where if you win, you share the prize pool, which is made up of all entries stakes, with anyone else who has won. You simply need to make a selection on an outcome or a series of outcomes (like an Acca) and if it wins, you’ll receive a share of the pool.
As well as standard pool betting, there are also Colossus pools which have huge jackpots and consolation prizes.
- Guaranteed jackpots – available to winners regardless of the total amount of player contributions into the pools
- Consolation prizes – for those who come close to winning the Big Jackpot prizes
- Cash Out – you can even cash out your bets which allow you to sell all or part of their tickets back to Colossus and lock in a profit regardless of the outcome
In-Play Betting
There isn’t a shortage of in-play betting opportunities at Betfair with the bookmaker offering odds on over 13 different sports in-play. You’ll find football matches taking place pretty much every hour of the day which you can bet on along with in-play events in other sports such as tennis, darts, rugby, baseball, handball and even E-sports.
All of the in-play sporting events taking place which are available to bet on are accessible via the In-Play tab. The in-play section is nicely laid out with tabs for each sport and the number of in-play events currently taking place displayed. The ‘Match Odds’ are displayed by default without needing to click through to individual events and this market can be changed via the drop-down menu. This is a very nice feature as it allows you to quickly compare the odds for a specific market across a number of in-play events all at once.
It’s unlikely that you’ll be disappointed with the range of in-play markets available at Betfair. This is especially true with football matches in popular leagues, games in major tennis tournaments and anything else high-profile. There are dozens of in-play markets to choose from ranging from standard match winner betting to the team to take the most corners or who will score the next goal. In-play markets may be a little limited on less popular events but all of the most popular markets are available.
Live Streaming
Betfair provide live streams of sporting events taking place all around the world 24/7. You’ll find streams of football, tennis, snooker, volleyball, basketball, darts, cricket, ice hockey, rugby, bowls, handball and of course horse racing and greyhounds. All of the streams are free to watch with the exception of certain horse racing and greyhound events for which you may be required to place a bet on.
You may be restricted to which events you can stream based on your location due to broadcasting rights but you can find a full schedule of streamed events on their website. This schedule will reflect which events you can view based on your location.
For GB, Irish, UAE, Latin American, Mauritius and Australian horse races, a minimum total stake of £1 (or currency equivalent) must be placed on the race in order to stream it. This can be in the form of a £1 single or £.50 each-way bet. You can stream US and RSA horse racing and RPGTV greyhound racing provided that you have a funded account.
For all other bet types, please see the table below.
Bet Type |
Number of Legs |
Total Stake required |
Single |
1 |
1.00 |
Straight Forecast |
1 |
1.00 |
Reverse Forecast |
1 |
1.00 |
Double |
2 |
2.00 |
Treble |
3 |
3.00 |
Trixie |
3 |
3.00 |
Patent |
3 |
3.00 |
Yankee |
4 |
4.00 |
Lucky 15 |
4 |
4.00 |
4 fold |
4 |
4.00 |
Canadian |
5 |
5.00 |
Lucky 31 |
5 |
5.00 |
5 fold |
5 |
5.00 |
Heinz |
6 |
6.00 |
Lucky 63 |
6 |
6.00 |
6 fold |
6 |
6.00 |
Super Heinz |
7 |
7.00 |
7 fold |
7 |
7.00 |
Goliath |
8 |
8.00 |
Customer Support
Betfair customer support is available in various languages to cater for their customers around the world. Customers can contact the support team via email, telephone or live chat which is available 24/7. In our experience, Betfair’s live chat feature isn’t the best compared to other top bookmakers. The wait time is more than average and support agents generally take longer than expected to respond to questions. That said, we’ve never had a question go unanswered despite them taking a little longer than we hoped at times.
Betfair also provide a comprehensive help section which contains a large number of frequently asked questions. This may be your best option if you believe the question you have has been asked previously and may be quicker than contacting the support team via email or live chat.
Overall, Betfair’s customer support could do with some improvement but is far from being bad or a reason not to register an account.
Betfair App
The Betfair App is available for iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded from the associated app stores. The app contains everything that the mobile web version does and looks and works the same with the same options, events and markets. The main advantage of downloading the Betfair app is for quick access to your account and being able to receive push notifications for price boosts and special offers.
The Betfair app is also available for tablet devices and if you download it on an iPhone or iPad, you’re able to sue Apple Pay to fund your account.
Navigation to sports and markets is extremely simple via the app and we rate it very highly. We’d recommend anyone with a Betfair account to download the app for the additional benefits it brings.
The Website
The Betfair website provides access to all of their products such as the sportsbook, betting exchange, online casino, poker platform, virtual section, football jackpots and more. The site is well laid out and provides quick and easy navigation to the different sections along with an easy to use menu to navigate to various sports and markets.
The homepage consists of the current in-play events, latest Betfair promotions along with featured events. You’ll also find a ‘quick links’ list on the homepage which displays the most popular sporting events of the current time.
Although initial thoughts on the Betfair website are that there are better designs out there, there’s no denying the fact that it is user-friendly, simplistic and with no major flaws.
We actually prefer the layout and navigation on the Betfair app where there seems to be a lot less going on, fewer menus and overall, has a cleaner feel to it.
Users of Betfair can opt to ‘Cash Out’ their bets either before the event has started or in-play. Cash out is available on a number of sports including football, tennis and horse racing. If cash out is available, you’ll see an orange cash out symbol next to your bets on your bet slip.
Cash out allows you to end your bet early and either lock in a profit or cut your losses before an event has finished. As well as standard cash out, Betfair also offer customers the option to partially cash out their bets. Where cash out is available, users can use the slider to select how much of their returns they would like to cash out. When confirmed, the cashed out amount will instantly be added to their cash balance and the remainder will remain on the bet.
Banking
Betfair provides customers with a good range of options for depositing and withdrawing from their accounts. Withdrawals to bank accounts are usually processed within 2-3 days with direct bank transfers taking a little longer. The quickest way to withdraw from your Betfair account is to use an E-Wallet such as PayPal, Neteller or Skrill as your funds should reach your account within a matter of hours.
A list of deposit & withdrawal methods for Betfair are listed in the table below.
Method |
Min. Deposit |
Withdrawal Time |
Min. Withdrawal |
Debit/Credit Card |
£5 |
3 Working Days |
£10 |
Skrill |
£10 |
12-24 Hours |
£10 |
PayPal |
£5 |
12-24 Hours |
£5 |
Paysafecard |
£5 |
N/A |
N/A |
Neteller |
£10 |
12-24 Hours |
£10 |
Bank Transfer |
£10 |
3-5 Working Days |
£10 |
Betfair Withdrawal Time
All estimated withdrawal times can be seen above for the available banking methods at Betfair. E-Wallet withdrawals to accounts such as Skrill, Neteller and PayPal are usually processed within a couple of hours and withdrawals to bank accounts generally take a few days. However, if you are withdrawing to a Visa card and with an eligible bank, Betfair offer Visa Fast Funds which means that funds reach your account almost instantly or at most, within a few hours.
Account Settings
There are a number of settings which you can use to personalise your account as a Betfair customer. We’ve listed some of these options below.
Languages: Betfair has customers from all around the world and so it’s no surprise that the Betfair website is available in multiple languages. Users can change the language on the Betfair website to either English, Russian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Greek or Italian. To do so, simply select a language from the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the homepage and the test will be updated to the chosen language instantly.
Odds Formats: Customers can view odds on Betfair as either Fractional or Decimal. To change to either format, scroll to the bottom of the homepage and select a format from the ‘View Odds As’ drop-down box.
Responsible Gambling
Betfair takes responsible gambling very seriously and offers customers a number of options to keep control of their betting activity. You’ll find these options under ‘Player Protection Controls’ in the ‘My Account’ section. Some of these options include:
Time Out: If you would like a break from betting with Betfair then you can set a ‘Time Out’ for a specific length of time which will suspend access to your account.
Loss/Transfer Limit: You can set a limit to the amount you can lose over a set period and also how much you can transfer to the different sections of Betfair such as the Sportsbook, Casino or Games sections.
Deposit Limits: You’re able to set deposit limits over a set amount of time for the various Betfair products.
Self-Exclusion: If you’d like to exclude yourself from Betfair, you can do so for a period of at least 6 months.
Reality Check/Session Timers: Reality checks will remind you when you have been playing Betfair gaming products for a period of your choice. Session timers will automatically log you out of your account after a set period.
Reverse Withdrawal Settings: Customers at Betfair are able to disable or re-enable the ability to reverse pending withdrawals.
Summary
There’s no denying that Betfair are one of the biggest and best betting companies in the world. Their betting exchange is the most popular of its kind online but the high commission charges have resulted in some users looking for Betfair alternatives.
The huge range of sports and markets available to bet on, a user-friendly website and app, competitive odds and the Betfair Sportsbook welcome offer for new customers are more than enough reasons to register an account.
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New customers only aged 21+. Minimum deposit £10. Qualifying bet must be placed at odds of evens (2.0) or greater. Get a matched Free bet up to £30 plus 20 Free Spins on Fishin’ Frenzy The Big Catch, credited within 24 hours. Free Bet and Spins expire in 7 days. T&Cs apply. Please bet responsibly. #ad
Betfair User Reviews
The following reviews are written by real members of the Which Bookie community. So now you know what we think, you can see whether other people agreed.
If you already have an account, feel free to leave your feedback here to help other members of the community. Or if you’re about to join, why not come back and review them later after you’ve given it a test drive. Helping other users is what Which Bookie is all about, and we always welcome your feedback.
So here’s how you, the community, have rated Betfair.