Betway - Not Recommended

Betway have now been around for over a decade, and in that time the online bookmaker has matured to the point where they can genuinely compete with the old established names ten times their age.

The company have carved out a niche as a place where you can bet on pretty much anything and find odds that impress, in fact, this is one of the best places to bet if you like to utilise a large variety of sports and markets, or mix in some unusual markets along with the popular stuff.

Now widely recognised through heavy sports sponsorship (e.g. West Ham, darts, snooker, etc) Betway have some exceptional existing customer deals and a very loyal customer base.

About Betway

Betway were launched back in 2006 as an online-only bookmaker, based in Malta.  They are more international than most other UK facing bookmakers with offices all over the world, including South Africa, London, and Stockholm.

Betway focus on giving their users a sleek, stylish and polished experience, and trust me they don’t let you down. They are also big advocates of responsible gambling and are accredited by eCOGRA as well as being members of the European Sports Security Association, the Independent Betting Adjudication Service, and the Remote Gambling Association, as well as being a supporter of the Responsible Gambling Trust. Safe then to say that Betway are… well, safe.

As well as being a sportsbook Betway also provide an online casino and live casino, and they can also claim to be the bookie that paid out a world record jackpot since one Jon Heywood from the UK scooped €17,879,645 on Mega Moolah, a progressive jackpot slot game.

The bookie offer services in 17 languages with excellent customer services, clear help sections and really transparent offer terms.

Sponsorship

A key element of Betway’s strategy when expanding into various different markets is sponsorship. They clearly have a big budget for this sort of thing because at any one time they seem to be sponsoring three times what any other bookie is.

For example, at the time of writing Betway are the Official Principal Sponsors for West Ham, Ninja’s in Pyjama’s, and Paris St Germain. They are also the Official Betting Partners of Leicester City, Norwich, and Brighton and Hove Albion. There have been plenty of teams before these as well.

That’s not to mention all of the different sporting events they throw sponsorship money at. These include more big horse racing meetings than I care to mention, Premier League Darts, Froch vs Groves (boxing), UK Championship Snooker, Davis and Fed Cup in tennis, even Big Brother in the UK!

Observations in Brief

If you want a super quick run down of some of the key features and benefits when betting with Betway, then this should be just the ticket:

• Sexy Interface – Betting with Betway and then going back to another site makes you realise just how good the interface is.  One of the most visually appealing, easiest to navigate, and quickest to load you will find. This applies to both desktop and mobile.
• eSports – Betway don’t just offer a great range of eSports markets, they actually seem to understand it as a category if the promotions are anything to go by. They also sponsor Ninja’s in Pyjama’s who are a professional eSports team, so you can see that Betway ain’t no noobs.
• Promotions – The offers and promo’s here are not only plentiful, they are varied and unique. This makes them so much more fun to engage with than the usual offers you find everywhere else.
• European Outlook – This bookie serves customers all over Europe and the diversity of the betting markets reflects this. The site is also available in more than 10 languages.
• 40,000 Markets – I know I sort of just said this but it’s impressive so deserves its’ own bullet point.

 Then a quick check on the availability of some key features:

So there you go. Read on for more details.

Top Markets

Aside from eSports which is covered below, Betway pay plenty of attention to top sports like football, tennis, snooker, and cricket, and you will often find them fighting for top place on the leader board where odds are concerned too.

The odds on horse racing can climb especially high, easily beating those offered by the ‘big 5’ most of the time, and since they offer races from around the world this makes Betway a frontrunner for your horse racing custom.

They have picked up their game with the greyhounds recently too. Being a European bookie it wasn’t such a priority for them in the past, but they have listened to their UK customers and now offer as much greyhound racing as most other bookies, so good you Betway.

Of course you can still bet on more unusual sports here, and in good numbers too:

• Winter Sports
• Handball
• Water Polo
• Gaelic Sports
• Bandy
• Volleyball
• Squash

Market depth is understandably not as good with these sports as it is with the major sports, but there should always be something to bet on with them.

For an idea of market depth with the bigger sports, see below:

Basically any major league or competition is available across all top sports, as well as plenty of middle and even lower leagues in the busier markets like UK football.

eSports & Virtuals

As mentioned, this site is the absolute Don if you are an eSports bettor. Betway are certainly one of those bookmakers that embrace new technology and trends, so it makes sense that they were quick to get on board with this market when it first became a ‘thing’.

They have odds on all of the major tournaments (and claim to offer the best odds as well), they are well known for sponsorship in this area, they clearly have up to the minute knowledge on the eSports world and they even offer a betting guide specific to eSports. In fact, they claim to be an authority on the subject, and I wouldn’t argue with that.

You can bet on:

• CS:GO
• DOTA
• Hearthstone
• Heroes of the Storm
• Overwatch
• LoL
• Call of Duty

The virtual sports offering doesn’t reach quite the same heights, but that’s understandable as it’s not really in the same ball park. I have seen more innovative virtual products out there but what Betway have is a nice selection of 7 different sports with extremely realistic gameplay and set pieces, decent graphics, and great commentary when it’s there.

Games/races start every 3 minutes with some interesting pre-amble and plenty of betting markets too for virtuals.

Terms & Support

I think Betway are a fair, honest, and customer focused online bookmaker. Their payment terms are accessible at a £10 minimum for both deposits and withdrawals, and the withdrawal timeframes are some of the fastest around, with no method taking longer than 48 hours. When you consider that some bookies make you wait a week, that’s quite something.

You can bank using the following methods:

• Credit/Debit card
• Paypal
• Neteller
• Skrill
• Paysafecard
• ecoPayz
• Bank Transfer

Support is available 24/7 with is great news, and you can use either the phone, e-mail, live chat, or a dedicated Twitter account. That’s all great but they do make you work to find the details, preferring their customers to self help using the FAQ before offering up further support options.

Mobile App

Finally, I just want to talk about the mobile app, because it really is rather good – in fact, I’m tempted to say it’s in my top 3 sports betting apps.

It feels a little more on the serious side than the desktop site, but not so much that it sucks the fun out of things, not at all, it’s a wonderfully engaging app to use and bet with. It moves from task to task with ease and never seems to stumble, proving that it has power under the hood.

They have done an excellent job of containing so much data into so little screen space as well, while at the same time keeping the numerous betting options clean, clear, and easy to access from pretty much any page you are on. I think being able to search for a specific betting line while in event view really helps here, as it means scrolling is not an issue.

It’s also very good at knowing what you might need and when; for example, the stats button shows up once you are looking at a specific fixture so that it isn’t taking up space before it is needed; the A-Z of sports in the main menu is expandable so that you don’t have to scroll past everything each time you use it. This sort of thing make the app feel alive, like it is responding to the user, and it makes the experience so much more enjoyable.

There was a Honda advert in the naughties around the same time that Betway launched with the tagline, “Isn’t it nice when things just… work” – that is this app in a nutshell.