Throughout the website we list a large number of different bookmakers and sportsbooks, this gives us the variety and scope to cover a wide range of topics – from offers and bonuses through to bookies that cover less common markets or sports and lists based on payment method, betting limits and feature. After all, a site which is excellent for football isn’t necessarily going to be good for e-sports.
At the same time we realise that some people simply want to know who the best betting sites are, on the whole. So, with this in mind, we’ve come up with a top 10 that should suit the majority of punters.
When compiling the list we’ve taken a holistic approach and looked at all of the features that the average punter would find important. There will be an obvious bias towards football and horse racing here, so if you’re looking for recommendations for other sports then visit the relevant sports page for more specific guidance.
Our Betting Site Top 10 List in Full
Further down the page we go into more detail about the reasons why each site has made it into our top ten, but for those of you who are just looking for a quick list of sites to check out, you’ll find it here:
Because we’re based in the United Kingdom we do have a natural bias towards the UK bookies – this is also why we list the welcome offers in British Pounds (GBP). The majority of the sites will accept customers from other jurisdictions, although this is dependent on your local laws so if you’re not from the UK please check what is and isn’t allowed in your country before proceeding.
Best Betting Sites For Sports – Updated May 2024
bet365
On balance, bet365 is our favourite betting site, and that is why we have them as our number one choice. In our opinion, they haven't always had the most visually impressive site but we find that their functionality and performance more than makes up for this. That said, we do think the look of the site has improved dramatically over the years that we have used them.
We like how the home page is uncluttered and clear, making finding our bets, or even browsing for possibilities, straightforward and slick. We like that the day's highlights are grouped by sport making upcoming events easy to find. On the side bar, we think it is useful that frequently visited pages are shown first. We’ve always found the breadth of sports and markets available on bet365 impressive and rarely beaten elsewhere.
An aspect of betting with bet365 that particularly appeals to us is that there are plenty of promotions and enhancements that are relevant to what we like to bet on. We have quite a wide betting spectrum but don't feel left out in any of our interests.
Horse Racing
We like that you can find horse racing straight away from the home page, with the upcoming races shown. On the horse racing page itself, we find it useful that the races are shown simply and split by UK & Irish races before listing the races by country. This makes it really easy for us to find the meetings that we are interested in. When selecting individual races, we have found that there are plenty of available markets and pool betting options. The form guides are easy to follow and we find it helpful that you can watch a selection of previous runs, as knowing where a horse finished doesn't always tell the whole story of a race.
Football
We find the grid layout of the main football page, or 'soccer' as it is called with bet365, really well put together as we can find a quite wide range of that day's matches and markets without fuss. When on main markets page, we find the drop-down menus really useful in keeping a simple look but with all options available to scroll through. When looking at individual matches, we are really impressed with the volume of available markets and the simplicity in which you can find them. We also like that there is live audio and streaming available for many of the matches that we bet on.
Tennis
A sport which we find is delivered to a particularly high standard on bet365 is tennis. We have found that the volume of matches and tournaments really impressive and easy to navigate. For individual matches, there's a wide range of markets available to us. When betting in-play, we think that the available stats, shown with simple graphics, give us the information we need to place our bets.
BetVictor
BetVictor used to be known as Victor Chandler, the name of their former chairman. Chandler, the ‘gentleman bookmaker’, transformed the company that was initially set up by his grandfather, William Chandler. From an operation that took bets at the side of race tracks, BetVictor is now a major player thanks to Chandler Jr being ahead of the curve when it came to online betting.
He began taking bets from high-rolling punters in the Far East and now the company has customers from all corners of the globe. Chandler was one of the first chairmen to move his company’s operations to Gibraltar and they remain focussed on innovation. The company was sold to businessman and racehorse owner Michael Tabor in 2014 but Victor himself remained in a consultancy role after the sale.
Traditionally, BetVictor have offered some brilliant sign up promotions and once you’ve created an account they have some excellent offers for their current customers too. Even without the freebies, BetVictor are one of the most generous bookies around. They have offered the best value on Premier League bets for years now and they work hard to maintain that record. With a brilliant site and a huge offering, BetVictor are a great bookie to add to your options.
Football
BetVictor have a reputation for superior odds on football and in addition to this you can find a whole range of enhanced odds options on upcoming games each day. You can even find boosted prices on certain in-play markets. Bet builders are a particular strength of this bookie, with available matches simple to find and bets straightforward to create. They also make a wide range of pre-built options available from short odds to bigger priced options, these can be useful when you don't want to endlessly alter your bet builder in order to vary the odds.
Horse Racing
When it comes to horse racing, BetVictor don't have the range of options that some other bookmakers offer but they do have some of the clearest and simplest racecards that you can find. A nice addition to these are the detailed jockey silks that they show against every runner, not only on British and Irish races but also including foreign races. Information is provided by Timeform and again this is in a clear format with a star rating, you won't need to know what dozens of abbreviations mean here.
Basketball
A sport which BetVictor are particularly strong in is basketball, particularly the NBA. Basketball is popular to bet on due to the frequency of the games and competitive nature if most matchups. Much like with football, you'll find enhanced odds and bet builders available on the majority of NBA games, again with a really decent range of pre-built options and suggestions.
Betfred
Betfred started life as a single betting shop based just outside Manchester in Salford. The company now has head offices based in Warrington from where it runs a huge operation comprising around 1,400 shops, a telephone betting operation and a very successful website.
Online, Betfred is known as the ‘bonus king’ due to the number of special promotions they offer their customers. These offers can be found regularly on horse racing, football, rugby, American football or a whole host of other sports.
The Betfred website has a massive amount of markets spread across sports, current affairs and even TV shows. All of the odds they offer are strongly priced but football fans are especially well looked after and these prices are easy to access via the well-designed site. There’s a whole host of live streamed events via the ‘Media Hub’ available by placing a qualifying bet and the Betfred mobile site is one of the best around so you can make the most of their many bonuses whenever it suits you best.
Football
Betfred have all the key markets that you would expect but an area where they really stand out is with their offers and promotions available to their existing customers. They have a wide range of free bets and bonuses available throughout the football season and during tournaments. Coupons such as the hugely popular 'Goals Galore' on both teams to score are simple and quick to put together. Betfred's Pick Your Punt bet builder is available on the majority of matches from the top leagues around the world.
Horse Racing
Much like with football, Betfred's standout feature is the availability of racing bonuses, free bets and enhancements such as extra places for each way bets. Generally, you'll find these on UK and Irish races, but some promotions relate to racing from the US or other countries. Although Betfred no longer own the Tote, their pool betting has its own area of the site and remains an important part of their racing offering.
Lotto Games
Betfred have a really great range of lottery games to play, from old favourites such as the Irish Lottery and the 49's to their very own Nifty 50 game which has five draws each day. These games have more betting options than just winning the jackpot, you can pick fewer numbers, even just one, to be drawn for smaller payouts.
Coral
Coral are one of the betting arms of the massive Entain group. On the high street Coral have around 1,200 betting shops and are a familiar site up and down the country and under their Eurobet brand they have many more shops in Italy.
Coral are based in Stratford, East London and from there they run their massively popular and incredibly well designed website. Despite the huge number of markets and products they offer the site is easy to use, whether you’re looking for your favourite sport, a live stream or one of their many promotions and their mobile site is also very strong.
The in-play section of Coral’s site is arguably where they are best. They list the current live markets and once you’ve found the one you’re interested in there is an amazing amount of live stats support, helping you to place an informed bet. Coral offer very competitive value across their site but make sure to keep an eye out for their regular free bets and enhanced odds offers. Overall, Coral are an absolutely solid choice who offer all you could want from a major sportsbook.
Horse Racing
The layout of Coral's horse racing page makes finding races, results and runners really simple. You can even search through the day's UK and Irish runners, filtering horses by form, odds, star rating and suitability to the going amongst other factors. In-play betting is also available on selected races. Coral's horse ownership Racing Club is free to join and is exclusively available to account holders. This gives you the chance to win stable visits, raceday tickets and even the chance to take home a share of any winnings earned by the club's horses.
Football
Coral offer well over 100 markets for most games, so there's plenty of choice when it comes to available betting options. Although most sites offer bet builders on football, Coral have exceptional coverage, with their 'Build Your Bet' available on the majority of matches, even in the lower leagues. They also have plenty of stats on hand for analysis of team and player form before betting.
Golf
Betting is available on a wide range of tours, including the LPGA, Ladies European Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and Senior events. On the PGA Tour and European Tour, Coral regularly offer enhanced places for each ways bets outside of the standard place terms. Another small detail is that Coral indicate the exact start time of tournaments which can be helpful with events playing all over the globe.
10bet
Having launched in 2003, 10bet have expanded rapidly and are much more than just another online bookie. The company originally focussed on international markets but they are now really pushing their operation in the UK. They are regulated and licenced by the Gambling Commissions in Great Britain and by the gambling authorities of Malta, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.
In terms of safety and security of funds, 10bet have to comply to the same standards as any bookmaker operating in the UK. They hold their customer funds in a separate trust account, to add a further layer of protection. Also, any disputes you may have can be dealt with by the relevant authorities, so you should feel totally confident betting with 10bet.
10bet now offer somewhere around 60,000 markets to their many customers. These are spread over a huge number of sports and they often have competitive pricing which grabs the attention of punters better than anything. If great odds aren’t enough, 10bet also have regular free bet offers and promotions to keep their customers happy. In general, there isn’t live streaming on the 10bet site but they do have up to the minute statistics on their in-play offerings so you’ll always have the latest available information. The exception is horse racing where certain fixtures have live streaming available.
Horse Racing
10bet have kept their horse racing betting as uncomplicated as possible. You won't find lots of special and alternative markets, or be bombarded with lots of facts and stats on each runner, but if your racing betting consists of placing simple wagers such as win singles or a Lucky 15, 10bet allows a straightforward platform to do this. They don't offer live streaming across the board but do offer this on selected meetings.
Football
There is a huge array of leagues and competitions available with 10bet but their menus are well laid out and easy to navigate through. Their main match section screen has a neat feature that allows you to pick three markets to show for each match, meaning you can combine these markets into one bet without having to switch back to other pages. Even on smaller games, there are form figures and head-to-head records with more detailed team and player information available for top league matches such as those from the Premier League and the EFL Championship.
Cricket
Cricket betting is well represented on the 10bet site, with around 80+ different markets available for most first class matches. There are head-to-head stats available for matches before they start and for in-play games you will be able to see a timeline of the key moments along with a detailed but clear run down of how many runs were scored, and wickets were taken in each over played. This is extremely useful to see when runs are being scored quickly, or when bowlers have slow matches down.
Ladbrokes
Ladbrokes started life in 1886 as the bookmaker of choice for London’s upper classes. They used to take bets from the elite but now they have a much wider customer base. When gambling in shops became legal in the 1960s Ladbrokes were one of the first companies to take advantage and they were also early adopters of online betting and egaming.
Ladbrokes actually added a betting exchange to their offering in 2013, when they competed the purchase of Betdaq. Although this part of the company was sold in 2021, it shows that they value new technologies, and are keen to offer their customers the best possible service.
Ladbrokes are synonymous with their shade of red and you will find it all over their website. They have everything you would expect from a big online bookie – popular markets on the homepage, links to their other products, a left hand sidebar listing their sports offering – as well as some nice extras. You can build a race card and the in-play offering for football matches is especially helpful when looking for a bet. Overall, Ladbrokes may not only serve the elite but they are certainly amongst the elite themselves when it comes to online betting.
Horse Racing
Ladbrokes have an extensive array of special markets, particularly on British and Irish races but also on foreign meetings. Bets such as finishing in the top 2 or top 3 or even to finish in second or third add extra options to daily races. They also have a wide range of tote bets available, for example Placepots, Jackpots and the Scoop6 as well as the single race win, place, exacta and trifecta bets.
Football
The football menu on the Ladbrokes site has multiple navigation bars but far from being confusing, these are functional and intuitive. Their main daily match coupon can be narrowed down further to games starting in the next 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 and 48 hours. Boosted prices are a common feature and can be found most days. Ladbrokes often run free to play football competitions so keep an eye out for these throughout the season.
Greyhounds
As with horse racing, Ladbrokes again offer a wide range of special markets on greyhound racing, outside of the standard win, forecast and tricast bets. You can bet on outside vs inside traps or odd versus even traps as well as picking a dog to finish in the top 2 or 3. They also have a wide range of trap challenges for single and multiple meetings each day.
Unibet
In their early years, Unibet were very much focussed with betting on the continent, although they were founded in 1997 by Sweden's Anders Ström whilst he was living in London. They have since become a familiar brand to UK customers, in part due to their title sponsorship of British sporting events such as the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and the PDC darts World Grand Prix as well as having been shirt sponsors of Aston Villa, Glasgow Rangers and Middlesbrough FC.
Unibet are now part of the Kindred Group, alongside other recognisable brands such as 32Red and Stan James. The latter of those, Stan James, was a British operator which started up in 1973 who had a High Street presence of almost 100 shops at their peak. With the company's focus switching online, the shops were sold and in 2018 Stan James was merged with Unibet.
The Unibet site has a modern feel to it, with clear and colourful menus to help you navigate. The sidebar containing each sport also highlights how many betting markets are available so you can instantly see which are well covered for that day. Streaming is available on a wide range of sports, and these can be found from the homepage. Unibet are also one of the few sites which offer a bet calculator to work out potential winnings.
Horse Racing
Unibet actually have a separate area of their site dedicated to racing and this allows you to see horse races alongside, greyhounds, harness racing and virtual racing. The sidebar shows the next races sorted by the time until the race is off. You can select and deselect horses, greyhounds and harness races from this menu if you aren't interested in all of them. The main page grid separates races that day by country and there is a 'Multiple Coupon' option if you would like to quickly select the races that you want to bet on.
Football
The football area of Unibet's site has a really simple layout, you can pick between all of that day's matches, live games or games in the next 4 or 12 hours. Scrolling down, the daily games are neatly split by country with an indication of how many games are available. These can be expanded to show matches form that country split by league or cup. When it comes to games further in the future, the 'All Football' tab contains matches in a similar format. This makes finding matches really simple and straightforward. Games from the top leagues generally have 300+ available markets.
Darts
The volume of available darts markets here is really impressive, with top PDC events generally containing well over 100 options. These range from the standard match, correct score and handicap bets to markets on exact checkouts or even successive perfect darts thrown in 9-dart finish attempts. In addition to this, simple form stats are available which include scores from recent games and head to heads.
Quinnbet
QuinnBet are a relative newcomer to the betting scene, but they have been operating since August 2017. They are based in Ballyconnell in the Republic of Ireland, close to the border with Northern Ireland. The company gained a licence with the UK Gambling Commission in 2021 and in 2023 began operating out of Gibraltar, a move made by many betting companies in the past.
You'll find everything that you would expect from a modern sportsbook here with a wide range available, from the big hitters of football and horse racing to more niche areas such as cross country and water polo. In addition to these sports, there are also a variety of virtual sports including flat, jumps and sprint horse racing, greyhounds and cycling. When it comes to in-play betting, live streaming isn't available but detailed stats and graphics keep you up-to-date with how games are playing out.
When it comes to ongoing promotions and free bets for existing customers, QuinnBet really excels, with a whole host of daily offers. These can range from long running promos on horse racing, football and tennis to daily offers on the main events.
Horse Racing
The horse racing page with QuinnBet has a very simple layout with upcoming races shown on a scrolling menu and the rest of that day's races listed below grouped by country. Races for the next two days and ante post races can be selected here and are shown in the same format. You can also access virtual horse racing from this menu. QuinnBet only provide basic win and each way bets but this will suit most punters. Info on runners is available in the form of a one line summary with a star rating for the jockey and the trainer and green ticks to indicate course or distance winners. Again this is laid out simply and will suit most people wanting to bet on racing.
Football
Football betting at QuinnBet is split at the top of the sidebar between 'Today's Football' and 'Football Coupons'. The Todays Football page is actually the main football menu but upcoming matches are shown first. You'll also be able to pick future matches, in-play bets and outright markets from here. The football coupons area is a useful way to simply put together bets for that day, with the ability to switch between the main markets and doing this is straightforward. You can also access all markets for individual games from here, with well over 100 options available for most matches.
Pools
Quinnbet have a range of their own pool betting options split into horse racing and other sports. For both areas, you pick the winners of numerous outcomes from the selected meetings or games for the chance to win a share of a jackpot. These range in value from £1000 to over £1million. Horse racing pools might involve picking six horses to finish in the places across a meeting that day, whereas football pools generally involve selecting match results or correct scores from a range of upcoming games. The key areas covered are horse racing and football but pools are also available on other sports, such as basketball, where there are multiple games on a given date.
Betway
Betway began life all the way back in 2006 and have developed into a truly global operator. The company is part of a wider group known as Super Group, which has offices in London, Guernsey, Malta and South Africa.
On home soil, Betway will be known for being a long running sponsor of West Ham United Football Club, a partnership which began in 2015. They have also been backers of the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, snooker's UK Championship and South African cricket including the SA20 T20 tournament.
Betway's home page might initially be quite confusing as most aspects of their site are featured there in some form but once you are used to the layout you'll find this a handy base to navigate from. In-play betting is a particular strength of this site, you can quickly switch between live and upcoming events, and filtering by sports and markets is swift and effortless. There is a substantial number of games across all sports which have live streaming and their supporting stats are well laid out and are visually impressive.
Horse Racing
Unlike the main home page, the horse racing page is actually much simpler, defaulting to 'Next Off' with only the next race shown with a grid of upcoming races. Of course, from here you can move on to the days racing or meetings further in the future. Timeform provide race previews and with specific details on each runner from races in the UK and Ireland. There are a number of special markets available as well as race specific boosts. Streaming is available on a number of meetings.
Football
Much like with horse racing, when you select the football page with Betway you land on the more simplistic 'Popular' menu which shows a selection of the upcoming big games. From here you can navigate to the games playing live, that day's coupons or the 'All Football' menu. The coupon menu is straightforward, with around seven markets available and matches grouped by country and competition. Selecting individual matches from any of these menus will bring you to the extensive range of betting options for that game. In general there are also dozens of bet suggestions, listed in odds order for you to scroll through.
Esports
Betting on eSports has been available for years, but Betway are somewhat of a market leader in this area. You can build a coupon on upcoming matchups or you can use the quick links to find contests from specific leagues or tournaments. Again these are well represented when it comes to live streaming.
Boylesports
BoyleSports are one of a number of bookmakers who had a thriving bricks-and-mortar business long before the introduction on online and mobile betting. The company was started in 1982 by John Boyle, who opened his first shop in a town called Markethill in Northern Ireland. Boylesports now have around 340 shops in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and over 50 shops in the UK. Their headquarters are located in Dundalk, which lies roughly halfway between Belfast and Dublin.
Supporting Irish racing has been a focus for BoyleSports in recent years and they have sponsored the Punchestown Champion Chase, the Irish Grand National and the Irish Greyhound Derby, along with a number of other Irish horseracing fixtures. In the UK they have backed the darts World Grand Prix and have been shirt sponsors of Birmingham City and Coventry City.
The BoyleSports home page features a sidebar of available sports but these are also available via the dropdown menus across the top of the page. A useful component is the results section, where you can get fast horse racing results, or you can search via specific sports for results from the past two years. In addition, there is also a neat bet calculator which can be helpful to use. BoyleSports have a number of early payout special coupons across a range of sports which will be settled early if teams or players reach a certain lead.
Horse Racing
Traditional bookmakers were built on horse racing betting and a result they pay particular attention to the sport as a mainstay and BoyleSports are no different. Racecards are clear and well laid out and there is a handy menu which lets you quickly select races, allowing you to scroll through available meetings that day or in the future. Live streaming is available on a number of meetings, as is live audio. On certain meetings there is in-running betting available. There are lots of special bets to consider, including lengthening the odds by adding in winning distances. The 'combine' feature allows you to group together two, or even three runners in larger fields, to instantly generate the combined odds on one of those selections winning.
Football
The football menu starts with the daily highlights but all markets can be accessed from here, including all that day's games, coupons, outrights, specific competitions and more. The Live Match Centre gives you score and incident updates and you can link through to the live betting on matches form here. You can even filter these updates by league or cup. On bigger games, there are stacks of match stats to draw upon and the verdict option shows you the percentage of stakes placed up to that point with them for each side to win and the draw.
Gaelic Games
With their Irish roots, it's no surprise that Gaelic Football and Hurling are really well represented here. There's a wide variety or matches, special bets, price boosts and outright betting options. Updates on GAA are also available on the football Live Match Centre so you can follow the latest scores.