Betsafe - Closed

Befsafe are a healthily sized Swedish bookmaker with around a million customers in over 100 countries worldwide.

The betting site caters to all UK markets and all major events that a typical punter might want to see, and with a European outlook they also have many markets you won’t commonly find at UK only focused bookies.

The first aspect you will notice about Betsafe is how tidy the interface is.  The site is very refined with a sleek grey design containing clear markets, excellent live betting and live streams when available.

Market depth is very good all around on a sport by sport basis, but horse racing fans re in for a real treat, and the customer service is second to none.

Horse Racing

If you didn’t know that Betsson, who own Betsafe, also own RaceBets, then consider yourself taught. Because of this link, Betsafe are able to offer not only one of the best selections of horse racing markets available in the UK, but also the very best – in my opinion – horse racing betting interface.

Let’s look at the scope of their racing offering first. This is what was available midday on a regular Tuesday and as you can see, the availability in all of the different categories is much more diverse than normal:

It’s rare to see most of those countries on a UK facing bookie’s sportsbook, and when you look at how many of them are there because of trotting you are reminded again of Betsafe’s European pedigree.

The tool used to find and organise all of these events is simply wonderful. You can select which types of racing you are interesting, current or ante-post odds, and there is even a calendar to check specific dates as well as racing tips and specials. Plus, streaming is available for many of these races.

It really is a must try for horse racing punters.

Other Markets

Yes, the horse racing offering is top banana at Betsafe, but even if there was no horse racing at all you would be impressed with the spread of their sports list.

You have all of the usual popular sports like football, tennis, golf etc, and with a lot of depth too, the continental focus of Betsafe even brings greater depth of market to some leagues and events than you might find at one of the big 5 UK bookies. You can go several football leagues deep in countries like Romania, Russia, Poland. Then there are sports that are more of an acquired taste like bandy, bowls, volleyball, and esports – which is actually quitewidely covered here.

There’s also a healthy dose of non sports markets thrown in too such as music, politics and business, TV events, and non-descript specials.

I was pleased to see that Betsafe can go toe to toe with all but the very biggest brand names out there when it comes to the number of markets per event in almost all categories too. They have made sure that their customers have little reason to go anywhere else, which is probably why their retention rate is so high.

Interface

I love this website. It’s perfectly designed to suit more professional punters and hobbyists alike.

The whole thing operates using various different columns, so the screen will be split into a maximum of four different vertically arranged areas, and often times your betting process will take you across the screen from left to right so that it feels like an instinctive natural progression towards the betslip.

However, one seemingly insignificant aspect is that you can hide both the sports list and the betslip altogether, meaning that pages which hold a lot of markets to consider can be given priority and span the whole screen, giving you a lovely big interface of fixtures and markets. If you are like me and you work better on quieter interfaces this will be gold.

It’s not a site that pushes promotions on you (Betsafe aren’t really about promotions anyway) and the colour scheme is kept muted so that you can concentrate on what you are doing. It’s a powerful site though even if it doesn’t initially look like much, and it works to a good pace in terms of processing, while your flow is kept fluid thanks to the clever design.

There’s very little to improve upon here.

Bet Builder

Lots of bookies have bet builders, but the one at Betsafe is a cut above due to the way that it handles.

The blue lego block looking icon represents markets that can be used with the bet builder, and if you choose to open it up the whole screen becomes the bet builder interface. You have a lot of the same options as with the regular interface and the bet builders takes a lot of inspiration from this.

It just makes building your bet oh so easy. You can clearly see the eligible bet types that you can choose between and as you make your selections others that are no longer valid are shaded out. Also, because only markets that are valid for a bet builder are shown it’s much quicker to find the ones you want, see if you like the instant odds provided, and get the bet on.

You can even switch between fixtures on this interface – it’s fantastic.

About Betsafe

Betsafe launched in Sweden in 2006 with a very Scandinavian focus initially, but the betting site was purchased in 2011 by the BML group and has since been based in Malta. Since this time the bookmaker have developed into a much more rounded European bookie with a broader outlook and now offer full coverage of major UK and world markets.

The continental focus of the bookie is still there though, which means they offer their site in many languages and with several currency options. The bookie are also very strong in markets such as eSports as well as novelty bets and specials for non-sports markets.

As we have mentioned Betsafe are lauded by their customers and clearly devote a lot of resources to customer services. The charter states that they aim to answer live chats within a minute and emails within just an hour. This doesn’t necessarily mean they always manage it but it at least gives you a sense of the bookmaker’s focus on the user.

Betsafe are definitely worth a look, you may be surprised by how big their sportsbook actually is and how pleasing their interface can be to use. Although occasional, the Betsafe promotions also tend to be great value so they are worth having in your portfolio for that reason alone.

Customer Support

When a company offers genuine 24 hour support you know they are taking their customer service responsibilities seriously.

Their response times are the best you can find so you will never be waiting long for help to arrive, and you can contact them via every method going; phone, live chat, e-mail, a call back service, even snail mail if you’re old school.

The FAQ is also one of the best I have seen, fully searchable and well written. A lot of FAQ’s feel like an afterthought, but that is certainly not the case here.

Betfair have some of the happiest customers in the industry and with service like this you can understand why. The team here have even won awards for what they do.

Good to Know

I’ve given you a decent overview of Betsafe as an online bookie, but I’m sure you still have questions, so here are the answers… hopefully:

• Is there a mobile app? – Yes there is. It’s fast and effective with the same simplistic and intuitive approach as the desktop site.
• How do I deposit? – In oh so many ways: debit, credit, Paypal, Skrill, Neteller, Paysafecard, Entropay, bank transfer. £10 minimum.
• What about withdrawals? – £20 minimum, no fees, up to 24 hours wait for e-wallets and between 3-6 days for everything else.
• What are the odds like? – Decent and honest throughout. If you only ever used Betsafe you wouldn’t be hard done by, even if they aren’t always in top place. Horse racing in particular offers value, and there are acca boosts etc to get more out of football bets.
• Are virtual sports available? – Yes, you can try football, tennis, basketball, horse racing and dog racing. Each runs virtual competitions and leagues etc too.
• Can I play casino? – Of course you can, Betsafe have hundreds upon hundreds of slots, table games, and jackpots to choose from, as well as a live casino. Some of the games are exclusive to Betfair too, and there are associated promotions.
• What else can you tell me? – There’s a blog if you like that sort of thing, as well as a downloadable poker client.

So there you have it, Betsafe have everything the discerning bettor might need to enjoy themselves and get good value and fair treatment. This is a superb balanced bookie providing near enough everything for those punters who don’t want to manage a huge portfolio, preferring to use one site the majority of the time and maybe dip in and out of one or two others for specific circumstances.