Best Betting Sites UK – Our Picks

At Gambling.com, we understand that different people want different things from their betting site. You may have a strong affinity for a particular sport, like football or horse racing, or perhaps you like to place the majority of your bets in-play.

Browse the following categories to identify betting sites that match your preferences:

Best Betting Sites For Football

The best football betting sites have lots of perks and promotions specifically for football punters.

The following are three of the top online bookmakers for football. You’ll find they all have unique features that make them great betting options for the beautiful game.

1. BetMGM

This betting site is new to the UK but Premier League fans may already be familiar with BetMGM, seeing as they sponsor Newcastle United and have partnerships with Man City and Wolves.

BetMGM’s ‘Golden Acca’ offer comes with five acca profit boosts every week on winning football accumulators. A successful treble will land you a 10% profit boost, which increases by 10% each time you add a leg, up to a maximum of 50%.

There’s also the ‘Golden Goals’ prediction game, which offers the chance to win up to £2million by correctly predicting six scores.

2. talkSPORT BET

It comes as no surprise that talkSPORT BET has a premium football betting service, as this is the betting arm of a media company known for its football coverage.

We like UK betting sites that reward loyalty and the ‘Football Rewards Club’ here does just that, with cash and free bets when you place £40+ on football.

The welcome offer comes with three £10 free bets for football. There’s also the free ‘Footie 4 Play‘ prediction game, where correct score predictions earn free bets and cash prizes.

3. Betfred

Betfred is one of the best betting sites for free football bets and is also home to lots of football live streams, so you can watch matches while you bet.

New customers get £40 in free football bets when they sign up. Once registered, free Premier League bets can be unlocked by betting in-play.

The ‘Acca Flex’ offer gives punters a choice between boosted acca profits (up to 50%) or acca insurance. 

There’s also a promotion which doubles your first goalscorer odds if your player scores twice and triples them if they score a hat-trick.

Best Betting Sites For Horse Racing

All good betting sites in the UK must give horse racing special attention – especially at this time of year.

The best horse racing betting sites go the extra mile with a range of offers, specials and promotions for punters to enjoy.

Here are our top three online bookmakers for horse racing betting in April 2024:

1. Spreadex

Spreadex gives you access to two different styles of betting in one betting site. 

The welcome offer comes with free racing bets for fixed-odds markets and free spread bets, where your profit/loss is determined by the accuracy of your prediction.

All major races from the UK and Ireland can be streamed live, along with meetings from further afield. In fact, Spreadex has a wider selection of racing streams than most other betting sites we’ve tested.

One of the best promos here is ‘2nd to a Rag Insurance’ – money back as a free bet if your horse finishes second to a 33/1+ winner.

2. Kwiff

Kwiff is a unique betting site which uses the element of surprise to stand out from the crowd. For example, any bet can be randomly ‘kwiffed’ after it is placed, which boosts the odds significantly.

Our favourite promotion here is the ‘2nd Place Refund’ which gives you money back if your horse finishes second to the SP favourite. 

You’re also paid out as a winner if your horse crosses the line first and is demoted after a stewards’ enquiry.

A selection of races from the UK, Ireland, France and South Africa can be watched live on the betting site and app.

3. BoyleSports

BoyleSports is an Irish bookie which sponsors some of the biggest events in Ireland like the Irish Grand National and the Galway Races.

Here you can get non-runner no bet for the Cheltenham Festival, best odds guaranteed, price boosts and extra each-way places. 

Over the years we’ve found that BoyleSports consistently has some of the best extra place terms in the business.

This is also another betting site that gives you money back as a free bet if second to the favourite in selected races.

Best Betting Sites For Golf

Golf punters expect the best golf betting sites to prioritise certain promotions that are specifically important for golf betting, like extra each-way places.

With The PGA Championship on the horizon, we’ve picked out UK golf bookmakers that have some of the best PGA Championship offers in the business.

1. Coral

Coral has the best extra each-way place terms when it comes to golf.

12 places were paid at 1/6 of the win odds for all majors apart from The Masters last year, where 10 places were paid at 1/5 of the outright odds.

This is also one of the only golf betting sites that pays 10 E/W places for regular PGA Tour events on a weekly basis.

Your £20 free bet from the Coral welcome offer can be used to bet on golf, while you also get free bets if your player misses the cut in selected tournaments.

Look out for the ‘Odds Booster’ promotion as well for enhanced prices, particularly when the majors are on.

2. BoyleSports

BoyleSports is a top choice for live golf betting. They have the best shot tracker of any betting site, allowing you to follow your player shot-by-shot with a live graphic.

This is also one of the only betting sites with live streams of selected holes (golf streams are generally hard to come by at online bookmakers).

Our favourite offer here – possibly the best golf betting offer in the UK – is the early payout deal that sees you paid out as a winner if your selection is the solo leader after Round 3.

Your player could lead by one shot at the close of play on Saturday evening and end up losing by three or four shots under the pressure of the final round, but it won’t matter because you’ll still win the bet.

3. bet365

bet365’s new customer free bets can be used to bet on golf. For example, a £10 bet will land you three free golf bets worth £10 each after you sign up.

This is a betting site known for offering early odds and is usually one of the first bookies on a Monday morning to reveal prices for the week’s PGA Tour, LIV Golf and DP World Tour events.

The ‘Each-Way Extra’ offer gives the bettor the option to customise extra place terms. You can add extra places for more security at lower odds, or remove places to increase prices.

Best Betting Sites For Bet Builders

Bet builders continue to grow in popularity at online bookies and the best betting sites now have promotions tied to same-game accas. 

Our top three betting sites for bet builders in 2024 are:

1. Bzeebet

Bzeebet offers a bet £20 get £20 free bet welcome bonus when you sign up. Once registered, you have access to one of the best bet builders around.

You can combine up to 30 legs from the same game and there are 10 sports with the bet builder option, including football, rugby, tennis, American football and basketball.

You can also combine bet builder markets from a range of games into a multi-match bet builder.

2. BetVictor

BetVictor is a long-established, reputable bookmaker and could have made our best betting sites list in a number of categories.

We particularly like their same-game acca, which comes with enhanced bet builder odds for big football matches.

There are no restrictions on the number of legs you can combine into your bet (max odds 1000/1) and the bet builder is available for nearly every match you can think of.

3. 10bet

The 10bet welcome offer gives new customers 50% of the value of their first deposit in free bets (up to a maximum of £50). 

The great thing about this offer is that you can use your free bets to place bet builders.

Again, there’s no limit on the number of legs you can combine. The three sports with bet builders are football, American football and basketball.

Best Live Betting Sites

Most betting websites come with in-play options as standard, but the best online bookmakers put a real emphasis on live betting.

When reviewing sites, we look for a range of in-play markets, live streams and in-play offers like boosted prices.

These are our picks for the top 3 live betting sites based on the above criteria:

1. bet365

bet365 was one of the first UK betting sites to embrace live betting around the turn of the century and they continue to lead the way in this area.

The live streaming service at bet365 is second-to-none. Horse and greyhound racing, football, cricket, NBA basketball, NFL and tennis are just some sports that can be watched live at this betting site.

bet365’s cash out feature is also industry-leading and you generally get better value than you can with other online bookmakers.

You can cash out a portion of your stake and leave the rest to run, or you can set an automatic cash out for your bet once the value hits a certain amount.

2. £40 if Your First Bet Loses + £10 Casino Bonus” data-brand_id=”924″ data-brand_product_id=”342″ data-offer_id=”949″ data-site_offer_id=”1215″ data-gtm=”pagetext Unibet” >Unibet

Unibet is another online bookmaker that gives in-play betting the full treatment. Similar to bet365, the range of live streaming options is impressive.

Football bettors can watch FA Cup and Scottish Premiership live streams, as well as streams of selected international matches. 

Horse and greyhound races can also be watched live, along with darts, tennis and North American sports leagues like the NBA, NFL and NHL.

There’s even an ‘In-Play Free Bet Club’ that rewards in-play punters with free bets.

3. Betway

Betway is one of the UK’s most well-known betting companies, sponsoring major football clubs like West Ham and big races like the Champion Chase at Cheltenham.

Betway is also home to live betting features that you won’t find at many other betting sites. For example, cash out is available across nearly every football market.

The live streaming service isn’t as extensive as bet365’s, but you can watch lots of horse races, as well as some football matches and every single NBA basketball game.

‘Betway Boosts’ are also worth mentioning as they give you some of the best enhanced prices in all of online betting.

Best Betting Sites For Promotions

Betting sites should come with a range of offers and promos like free bets, price boosts and money-back specials.

These are our top three betting sites for new and existing customer promotions:

1. QuinnBet

QuinnBet’s welcome offer gives you 50% of your first day losses back up to a maximum of £35, but it’s this betting site’s existing customer promos that really catch the eye.

Racing punters can take advantage of 12 special offers, including extra places every day, money-back specials, and profit boosts on forecasts, tricasts and yankees.

We counted a total of 10 ongoing promotions for football, a lot of which are unique to QuinnBet. 

For example, ‘Crossbar Insurance’ gives you money back on all goalscorer bets if the crossbar is hit at any stage during a match.

2. Coral

Coral’s welcome offer comes with great value and gives you plenty of choice with your £20 free bet, when you sign up and bet £5 at odds of 1/2 or greater.

Coral’s ‘Racing Super Series’ pits you against other bettors in a prediction game with a £25,000 prize fund. 

The ‘Football Super Series’ rewards you with £100 cash and free bets for correctly predicting four match stats.

We also love the ‘5/1 Racing Offer’. Back a winning horse at 5/1 or bigger and you’ll get a free bet worth up to £10 on top of your winnings.

3. BetGoodwin

There’s always a great selection of promos to choose from at BetGoodwin, most of which centre around horse racing. 

Best odds guaranteed comes as standard and there are up to five money-back specials available at any time.

There’s money back as a free bet if your horse is beaten by a nose, if it’s second to a 50/1+ winner, or if it falls at the last fence when in front.

We also like knowing we’re betting with a reputable bookmaker, since this is the same company behind the well-known Goodwin Racing telephone betting service.

Best Online Bookies For Tennis

The best tennis betting sites are those that have the most promotions for the Grand Slams but also give attention to regular ATP and WTA events, as well as lesser-known competitions.

You should have plenty of tennis betting options every day and the best online bookies should have offers that are unique to this popular sport with punters.

1. Parimatch

Parimatch is one of the very best betting sites for live tennis betting.

That’s largely thanks to in-play match graphics which give you instant updates, as well as user-friendly statistics which can really help inform your bets.

The site is really easy to navigate and does the simple things well, delivering valuable bonuses that are easy to grasp, like tennis odds boosts and tennis acca profit boosts.

Downloading the Parimatch app is a smart move if you plan to place your bets easily on mobile – which is backed up by a 4.7/5 average rating from 3,700 reviews on the Apple App Store.

2. £40 if Your First Bet Loses + £10 Casino Bonus” data-brand_id=”924″ data-brand_product_id=”342″ data-offer_id=”949″ data-site_offer_id=”1215″ data-gtm=”pagetext Unibet” >Unibet

Unibet is one of the only tennis betting sites that has live streams of matches, including the best women’s clashes from the WTA.

You’ll also get tennis free bets as a reward for regular betting, while the enhanced odds at Unibet (‘Uniboosts’) are some of the best in the online betting business.

Even if the odds aren’t boosted on a market, our price comparison tests have shown that Unibet consistently has some of the best odds for tennis betting.

3. 10bet

10bet is another online bookmaker that recognises the popularity of in-play betting with tennis punters.

If you place bets on regular tennis markets throughout the week, you’ll be rewarded with free bets for in-play tennis markets.

There are also profit boosts for tennis accumulators. The boosts start at 5% for successful trebles, while a 10% boost is applied to winning four-folds.

The boost increases as you add more legs, all the way up to 100%.

Award-Winning UK Betting Sites 2024

A good way to identify the best betting sites is by looking at the most recent online betting award winners.

Here are some of the best UK betting sites that have won awards in recent years:

🏆 Online Sports Betting Operator of the Year 2023: bet365 (Global Gaming Awards)

🏆 Best Customer Service Company of the Year 2023: Casumo (International Gaming Awards)

🏆 Best Football Betting Operator 2023: William Hill (EGaming Review Awards)

🏆 Best Horse Racing Betting Operator 2023: William Hill (EGaming Review Awards)

🏆 Mobile Operator of the Year 2023: LeoVegas Sport (International Gaming Awards)

🏆 Sportsbook Operator of the Year 2022: bet365 (SBC Awards)

🏆 Esports Operator of the Year 2022: Betway (SBC Awards)

Betting Site Offer of The Week: BetMGM Bet £10 Get £40

All eyes are on the Premier League this week as the title race between Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal heats up.

Manchester City are in action tonight against Brighton as Pep’s side aim to win the first of their two games in hand over league leaders Arsenal. 

Liverpool’s defeat in the Merseyside Derby on Wednesday means that Pep Guardiola’s side can move to second with a win at the American Express Stadium. 

Kick-off is at 8 pm.

If you want in on the excitement of the title race BetMGM‘s new customer bonus is is our pick for new betting site offer of the week.

New customers who sign up and bet £10 on any sports market can claim £40 in free bet bonuses.

The bonus offer is broken down as follows:

• 1 x £10 Bet Builder (Can be Used For Premier League Bets)
• 1 x £10 Acca (Can be Used For Premier League Bets)
• 1 x £10 Football (Can be Used For Premier League Bets)
• 1 x £10 Horse Racing

With a £10 horse racing free bet also at your disposal, the bet365 Gold Cup Handicap Chase at Sandown on Saturday might be worth your attention. The race marks the end of the National Hunt season and is always one to watch.

BetMGM also has a range of daily football odds boosts and accumulator profit boosts for its existing customers – good news if you’re planning to bet on any of the week’s Premier League action.

More Betting Site Rankings

🏏 Cricket Betting Sites

🏁 F1 Betting Sites

🎯 Darts Betting Sites

🎱 Snooker Betting Sites

🥊 Boxing Betting Sites

🏀 NBA Betting Sites

🏈 NFL Betting Sites

Our UK Betting Sites Experts

Our Gambling.com review team is made up of industry veterans and keen sports bettors. Get to know the people who compare and rank the UK’s best betting sites here:

• James Molloy – Editor

  “Like Michael, I’ve been lucky enough to work for some of the biggest names in online betting during my career to date. I spent five years with Paddy Power and Betfair, giving me a great insight into internal processes at a large betting company.

  “I’m now the Commercial Account Manager for Gambling.com, where I test online bookies and contribute to reviews. I also work with the best betting sites to bring our readers exclusive offers.”

• Kevin Taylor – Fact-Checker

  “I’ve reported on sport and sports betting for over a decade at this point, previously working as a journalist with news publications and now as a Content Strategist with Gambling.com.

  “I cover sports betting from a number of different angles alongside a talented team of writers and editors. We rank the best betting sites based on their unique features, provide strategy tips, and help readers compare odds and offers for the biggest sporting events.”

How we Review Betting Sites

We review UK betting sites by registering an account with all available licensed online bookmakers.

We then place bets and try out bookies in the same way any other punter would.

Here are some of the criteria we use to test and compare bookmakers:

• Licensing & Security

  Any betting site we recommend must be licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission. This is the ultimate benchmark in gambling regulation and it means a betting site is regulated and legal.

• Welcome Offers

  Always examine welcome offers as a priority when choosing which online bookmaker to bet with. The free bet bonus value should be high and the terms and conditions shouldn’t be restrictive. Our reviewers go through the small print so you don’t have to.

• Regular Promotions

  Bonuses and free bets should be available on a regular basis after you sign up. Regular promotions come in the form of loyalty bonuses, free bets and money-back offers like acca insurance.

• Mobile Experience

  The best betting sites need to deliver a smooth mobile betting experience. Many online bookmakers have user-friendly betting apps for Android and iOS devices with quick loading times and slick designs.

• Betting Market Variety

  Betting websites must have a wide range of markets to choose from. This has long been one of the first things we look for when reviewing betting sites at Gambling.com.

• Competitive Odds

  We expect the best betting sites to provide bettors with value for money. When trying out sites, we compare odds from dozens of bookies. This process allows us to separate the best-priced bookmakers from the rest.

• Payment Options & Payout Speed

  Licensed sports betting sites must accommodate a range of payment options. We expect to see debit cards from Visa and Mastercard supported, along with popular e-wallets. Instant deposits are a must and withdrawals should reach your account within 48 hours.

• Quality of Customer Support

  The more available customer support channels, the better. Live chat is the handiest way to get a question answered and all betting sites should have this facility available. Email and toll-free phone number details should also be provided.

• Ease of Sign-Up

  You shouldn’t have to jump through too many hoops to sign up to a betting site. It should be a simple, secure process that doesn’t take too much effort.

• Industry Reputation

  UK betting sites have to come from betting companies with a solid reputation in the gambling industry. We believe that betting companies should pay the price if they stop doing the right things, so you won’t see any disreputable names featured here.

• In-Play Betting Options

  These days the best betting sites offer 24/7 live betting. In-play betting is the perfect tool for strategic punters who want to take advantage of odds while an event is live. It also helps if a bookmaker has live streams, so you can watch sport while betting.

• Customer Feedback

  Take into account what other bettors are saying about bookmakers before deciding whether or not to sign up. If a betting site receives terrible reviews on forums or app stores, it’s a big red flag,. There’s usually no smoke without fire.

• User Interface & Design

  A well-designed betting site with an intuitive user interface is crucial. It should be easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing and responsive, to ensure a good all-round user experience.

• Responsible Gambling Features

  All bookies licensed by the UKGC must have responsible gambling features – but some betting sites do a better job of this than others. We check each site to ensure they take responsible gambling seriously and provide tools to anyone who needs them.

• Blogs, Tips & Betting Guides

  Some of the best betting sites have tipsters and brand ambassadors that provide tips to punters in blogs and news sections. It can sometimes be useful to check out what ex-players or ex-jockeys are tipping.

Responsible Gambling Online

The best betting sites must take responsible gambling seriously. 

Remember, for the vast majority of us, betting is entertainment rather than a source of reliable income. 

Here are a few tips to help you bet safely and responsibly at UK betting sites:

• Stick to a Betting Budget: Ensure that you bet within your means by sticking to a budget. Have a set amount of money that you can afford to bet with on a weekly or monthly basis and don’t go over this limit.
• Don’t Chase Losses: Bet with your head and not your heart. Chasing losses is never a good idea. Never bet emotionally as you could incur greater losses.
• Use Tools to Stay in Control: The online bookmakers we recommend have tools to help keep betting fun and under control. If you need to take some time out or set some limits, we recommend making use of the tools they provide.

Why we Highlight Betting Sites With UKGC Licensing

As we’ve mentioned throughout this guide, the UK Gambling Commission seal of approval is a must for reputable betting companies. 

The UKGC is one of the most respected regulatory bodies in the world of online betting and there are a number of reasons why it has gained such a reputation:

• Personal Data Protection: The UKGC regulates betting sites so that they keep bettors’ personal data safe. Personal data can only be obtained for the prevention of crimes such as money laundering and not for any other purpose.
• Responsible Gambling Measures: In order to obtain a UK Gambling Commission licence, betting sites must make responsible gambling information available to customers and follow a strict code of practice.
• Gambling Licence Enforcement: If bookmakers are found to have broken UKGC regulations, their parent company could be fined large sums of money or have their gambling licence revoked, meaning they won’t be permitted to operate in the UK.

The Final Word From Our Experts on Betting Sites

Our April 2024 best betting sites UK guide was designed to help you find online bookmakers that suit your preferences. 

Consider what you want from a bookie and click through to our in-depth reviews if you ever need more information on a particular site. 

Most importantly, no matter which betting sites you choose to gamble with, keep your online betting fun by gambling responsibly.

Don’t forget to check this page regularly for the latest rankings, as our list of online bookmakers changes when we update it with our latest findings.

Promotions From UK Betting Sites